Brains, Barf, Bikes, and Books

Long time, no post. Here are some of the things occupying my time lately:

Brain – I’ve suffered migraines for a long time, and I’ve had some doozies lately. The last one laid me up for two days and was starting on day three before it subsided. It’s very hard to describe this type of headache to someone who has never experienced one. The discomfort can become so great that no drug or treatment can help. It even becomes impossible to remain still as your body struggles to find some position that offers relief.

I’ve been reading a book called Heal Your Headache by David Buchholz, MD. Buchholz suggests that many of the migraine treatments prescribed by doctors are counter-productive (surprise, surprise). He recommends avoiding problem medications and following a trigger-free diet. The diet is fairly restrictive, but I’m willing to try just about anything to find some relief.

Barf – All prospective parents should be taught about the “Three P’s:” pee, poop, and puke. If you have kids, all three will get on you sooner or later. My littlest, Jack, is 11-months-old and just had the flu. This makes life fairly exciting for a parent. Sick children can propel various bodily fluids at great velocity over significant distances. Don’t ever think that you are out of the range of fire. This particular episode only resulted in getting barfed on, but there was lots of laundry to do.

Bikes – The business. Between Heron and Tullio’s I’m keeping busy, but I’m also going through one of those periodic reviews where I look at what works and what doesn’t. Do more of the same or change course a bit? The business is good enough to sustain itself but not good enough to really earn some dough. That’s a dangerous place to be. If you were losing money, you’d be inclined to change what you were doing right away. Surviving can make you complacent.

Books – In 2004, I discovered NANOWRIMO, National Novel Writing Month. Foolishly encouraged by the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days, I signed up and now have a manuscript. This dubious achievement raised my self-esteem to dangerous levels and, eventually, thoughts of actually publishing this thing began to enter my head. Fortunately, the process of revising the manuscript has brought me back to reality. It’s a lot harder than writing the first draft.

Still, I want to continue working on it, but what with babies barfing on me, selling frames, and placing icepacks on my head while wondering if my brain actually can explode I rarely have any time to do so. Of course, this brings on fantasies of shutting down Heron and Tullio’s to focus on writing. This is when my wife reminds me that nobody has paid me to write anything yet, and until they do, I might want to keep my day job.

Darn reality.