Road Trip For A Stroke

It's not as sexy as it sounds. A friend of mine had a stroke. Or an aneurysm. Though I thought they were the same thing. Me and a friend drove to Tucson to see our friend we've known since college. He's, well, basically a cave man. A free spirit. And for someone as brusque and loud and blunt as he is, a lot of people care about him. He has engendered a kind of loyalty and fierce protectiveness that is kind of amazing. Gives me hope for my blunt self.

Maybe he has protectors like this because he doesn't seem to be aware of his own situation. Or if he is he doesn't stop them from happening.  Example: For 7 days before he was found unconscious he had a bad headache that wouldn't go away. Now, most peole would go to a doctor after a day or 2 to find out why their head hurt. He did not. He went to New Mexico for some reason. This event could have happened on the road. It pisses me off a bit that his situation could have been different had he acted to self preserve.

We got to the hospital in the morning after spending the night with a friend. I freely admit, I hate hospitals. They are rarely good places to be. There generally is a mixtured smell of antiseptic and urine that makes my hackles rise. In this hospital though that unpleasant smell was not there. We got buzzed into the ICU section and followed the corridor around. I was lagging behind because I hate hospitals and I didn't remember the room number. My friend got to the room first. I came around the nurse's station and slowed way down. In the window of a room I saw someone old, lying on a hospital bed, kind of contorted, mouth open eyes shut. Was that?.... At first I thought I was mistaken. It looked like him, but he looked like shit. The tableau was like a hammer to me.

Mortality. Sickness. Weakness.

I entered the room past the curtain. My friend was already sitting next to him and was talking softly to him. Now the friend I came with has spent way too much time in hospitals in the past 2 years. A good friend was in a horrific car accident that should have killed her, and his father in law passed away. Both were many visits to the hospital. I hung back away from the bed. There is something about hospital beds that I find odd. I don't know if it's in the manufacture of them, but they make the occupant look weak and feeble. It was something I noticed when my dad was in the hospital and I noticed it again this time.

My friend was asleep. And I was assured he always sounds like that when he sleeps. God help any girlfriend he might have. I stayed in the room and heard what the nurse had to say about his condition. We had brought pastries for the nurses. To say thanks and maybe they would look out for his well being a bit more. After a bit I left the room. Others were waiting to see him. In the waiting room I talked to the others that were there to see him. Everyone was on edge. The uncertainty was palpable.

Will he recover something of the spark which made him a force of nature? I don't know. Only time will tell.

Pismo Beach

Pismo Beach California is about 3 hours north of LA. I went there for work. I have to say, It's pretty beautiful. What I saw of it. I was up there for work, so I would leave in the morning when it was dark and get back to the hotel when it was dark. I had one late afternoon to get the shot above.

The hotel we were at was on a cliff overlooking the beach. There are quads to rent and it's one of the 2 (I think) beaches in CA where you can drive a vehicle on the beach. There's a famous place we stopped called the Madonna Inn. They have themed rooms and amazing cakes. One of the guys I was working with said the toffee crunch cake was the best thing he ever had in his mouth. I have never felt that way about cake. Or most food for that matter. He wanted to buy a whole cake and bring it home but his wife nixed the idea. Then on the last day one of the locals we were working with bought the toffee cake and gave it to him. Technically he didn't buy the cake. We had some of it for lunch with the pizza that was delivered.

Up in Nipomo, on the one exit from the freeway for Nipomo, is a steak place called Jocko's. It's world famous. Not for decor which is straight out of the 60 diner era, but for steaks. There is usually a wait to get in so make a reservation. Now I'm not a foodie in any sense of the word, but this was a damn good steak. It was kind of like a baseball in size, maybe a little bigger. I got it medium rare and it was maybe one of the best steaks I ever ate. Not great on presentation, but great. Cooked over oak coals outside the place. And it comes with a salad, and ice cream at the end.

The work was fun. Long days but it was nice to get out of LA for a bit.

Babies Are Awesome

I like kids. I've liked kids for a long time. If women made sense I'd be a dad. But women don't make sense to me. I've had women tell me that women are nuts. They could get kicked out of the union for such a statement.

But that's not what this post is about. My friend had a baby on January 28th. I went over to meet the tike and hear about the delivery. After it was all done a delivery nurse said to my friend that "anything that could go wrong in a delivery did." Which is shocking and I won't recount the process here.  But this might be an only child. 

But now she has an adorable little girl. They have nicknamed her "Squeak" because she doesn't really cry, she squeaks. The baby is hungry and squeaking. Kinda funny.

I have never held a 5 day old baby before. I have tossed around 6 months olds and made 3 year olds fly, but 5 days? That's like handling a fragile china in my head. I did okay with her. She didn't cry. (Yay!)

So I had someone take a picture of me with the baby. I posted it on a social media site. I got a  lot of comments about how babies look good on me. And one girl I tried dating a year ago made a comment. The picture was cute. Within a few minutes of her post I was texted by her 3 times in one minute. "We should hang out."

This was kind of surprising. She wasn't interested last year, but a picture of me with a baby and there's renewed interest. A friend of mine said I should borrow the baby and go hunting for girls. It's like catnip to cats.

Are men such dicks about babies that women are drawn to a guy who isn't a jerk about  kids? How could anyone not like a baby?

They are cute so we don't eat them.