I know you are looking at the title and going, "Oh c'mon, you have to be kidding. After all he's gone through now they won't leave him alone? Well, it's true. What you are about to read absolutely happened, and even though she wasn't there at the time, I had Smidgy later on to verify it.
Tuesday, the second day after and the Hot Fudge Sundae is getting a bit mushy.
When I'd make a sundae at home when I was little, I would then go and ruin it after a few spoonfulls.
I'd take my spoon and whip it all up until it was more like a melted shake, then eat it that way. I don't know why.
Much of Tuesday morning was a repeat of yesterday.
Except for all the things that were different, of course.
Once again, early, very early on I woke with a headache, no, it is not going away, but my lump on the back of my head has a lot. That should be a good sign.
But especially, now that it's gone down so much, I'd feel really REALLY stupid going somewhere for treatment and complaining that, " I bumped my head!"
Especially if they had already talked to Monica. I'd be lucky to get an aspirin out of them.
However:
now I have something new to add to the equation that nobody mentioned, at least as far as I can remember when they talked about symptoms and what to look out for:
My left ear, (which is more or less the side I fell on), is ringing, and I DO mean ringing. Like Quasi Moto doing his internship at Notre Dame!
No, this was not Lily Tomlin;
"One ringy dingy, two ringy dingy"
I 'm not kidding, this was not just "tinitus", this was DEAFENING!
This sudden turn of events scared the hell out of me also.
And for the next 4 hours I lay there and listened to it.
Kind of like Keith Moon doing a 4 hour drum solo when all he has are cymbals!
You wouldn't believe how many times I checked my ear to make sure it wasn't feedback from my hearing aid,,,,,,,,
which is over in the case on the table.
The hearing aid, not my ear. Thought you had me didn't you?
Six aspirin and two Ibuprofen later the sun is finally coming up.
And if I did fall asleep again, I kept rolling over onto the soft spot now in my head, man, did that hurt.
So, outside head hurts, inside head hurts, inside ears screamin' ringin, and stomach killing me from too many aspirin and 'profens.
You know what I kept thinking of?
That December trip in '10, when during the mad rush to the Epcot bus stop after illuminations , "Henry" fell in front of me, remember that? And I felt so bad for that poor guy.
I remember his wife saying that he had fallen and hit his head earlier, and this time he went down in the middle of RUNNING! for the bus.
Well, this trip I got cast in the roll of Henry, and I wasn't even trying out for the part!
They (Todd) decided against early entry at Blizzard and went straight to Typhoon Lagoon in the Santa Fe.
I thought hard about this before I turned over the keys, I still wasn't positive I wasn't going to go to the clinic at least, but after thinking again about it I knew that it more than likely wasn't going to happen, so , here, take the car.
I also was not informed from any cast member whether from EMTs to the concierge desk to the lifeguards that they have a free shuttle for the clinic, I think they just do that for the Monymony clan cuz they always have liked her better.
Maybe it was the bad names I probably called the EMT.
(am I the only one who keeps thinking of Treebeard whenever I read or type that?)
We now have a repeat of yesterday, with one slight difference:
At ten o'clock, sitting under an umbrella next to the Hippy Dippy Pool I took my last 3 Vicodin.
Nebo was morose.
Time just dragged by.
Again, I tried to read and I did somewhat, but it made no sense to me, I just had no interest in it at all, and it wasn't just my book, it was everything.
This time I had to get my own coffee at the food court, and I also got a Sentinel when I was there.
But after checking the baseball standings even the Jumble and comics had no interest for me.
As I lay there and my last painkillers wore off, I hit the ibuprofen bottle again. Then I considered getting something to eat since my stomach is killing me from all these pills, but that didn' interest me either.
And I just kept looking at my watch.
For some reason I force myself to lie in the lounger in the sun for a bit, and while I was doing this;
"Hey, how are you doing today?"
I looked up and it was Adam, the guy I talked to yesterday who grew up in St. Charles, he's the head lifeguard guy.
(Oh boy oh boy, Company!)
I told him about the ringing in my ear, and he said, "Yeah, that happens too." and again offered to call Reedy Creed for me again, but again I shook him off, and after a few minutes more he turned to go on his way.
Only I didn't want him to yet.
I wanted him to stay and play with me.
"C'mon, just one quick game of Monopoly, you can even have Boardwalk and Park Place."
"So, plan on returning to ST. Chuck soon?"
I did all I could to stall his departure, and it worked for a while but eventually I saw I had to let him go.
This pool is catch and release only.
I did notice though, as time went by that the ringing in my ear was diminishing. Ok, just another part of the healing process I guess, I'm getting there.
And I looked back up at the main building;
yeah, maybe I should get something to eat, I looked at my watch again, 12:35, NO, I'M JUST NOT HUNGRY!
Ok, allright, no need to shout!
Then I knew what to do!
Yeah, you're good, you know exactly where I'm going, you guys are getting to know me too well.
Back in the room I said screw the vodka thing, and I made myself a Manhattan, then I gave Smidgy a call on the Smidgy phone, not really expecting to get an answer.
And you know what happened?
I didn't get an answer, right to voice mail again.
I went to the bathroom, and when I came back out, there's a knock on the door.
Ok, I know I've got the sign in the slot again to be LEFT ALONE, so it can't be them again, can it?
Oh sure it can, and the same woman again.
She could see I was home, and now it's become a game with her.
I told her we don't need any cleaning done, our room is still just fine and if I let you in, I'm afraid all the snakes will get out.
She did that stare at me pause for a minute, then broke up laughing ( it wasn't that funny), and said she'll make me up a care bag again anyway, which she did.
Then I gave her 3 bucks.
She then asked If I'd like anything else and I told her a bottle of vicodin would be nice, if not then I'll settle for a cheese and suasage pizza.
I still haven't learned.
You see the worst thing about these stupid, idiotic lines is that she then stands there and stares at you for a minute or two before any response is forthcoming.
Thankfully, just then, Dobby's cell phone rang, and I was able to excuse myself.
Yes, it was Diane and they were doing great at Typhoon Lagoon. They are about to go and get some lunch, yada yada yoda, how are you doing, told her fine, don't worry about me, can't wait the hear about it later, love you, see you in a little while, then I hung up and cried.
Ok, so maybe I didn't, I just threw that in for some of the female unit members of the readers to show what a deep and sincere, sensitive male I am, and even if I did, I'm not going to tell you that.
Especially with Bob and Ross and Thumper and Ponzi all ready and willing to take away my man card.
Ok, maybe not Ponzi.
(hmm, that was just vague enough where he doesn't exactly know what I mean by that, right?)
But I was lonely, a bit, and wanted to talk to somebody.
I asked the maid if she wanted to go down to the bar for a drink.
She turned me down!
I even offered to sign the "Do Not Disturb" sign for her kids, but in their world, "Nebo" means nothing to them.
Ok, fine.
That was when I got the brilliant idea to call Monica!
I figured I ought to let her know we might not, probably won't, be able to meet up with them as planned on Saturday Morning.
Then the true Illumination enlightened my failing brain, "Hey, maybe she just might have brought a little extra something with her, or, as we used to say in gramma school, "enough to share."
I started to dial, but suddenly felt stupid and hung up.
I knew I'd have to go into this all, and how then do I beg for meds, without seeming like a skid row bum?
I tried again, and hung up again.
Yep, my hang ups are causing the hang ups.
But the third time was a charm, I persevered and kept the phone to my ear,,,,,,,, and i got voice mail.
I then made the HUGE mistake of trying to tell her what happened in my own way,,,,,, which you all know by now can sometimes take a little bit before we get to the
end/bottom/punch/final, line in the story.
Like I said, I was lonely, and hey, talking to voice mail is better than nothing!
Still in the room, I lost the signal!
At the worst possible time!
Now, I'm not sure exactly how or what happened next, I'll take Mony's word for her views on it but I then stepped outside and tried again.
I found the signal comes through much better outside the guest rooms.
This time I got more out, but this time after all this goofing around, the battery died, so I still kind of left her high and dry. I found the charger and hooked the phone up to it. I'm pretty sure, a couple of hours later she did call back and I happened to be in the room again and this time finally talked to her live.
Or a reasonable facsimile of my version of live.
I repeat, this whole phone exchange comes in reallyh blurry to me, but this is close.
I put my manhattan in a refillable mug and went on down to the pool for a change.
Right.
I considered going over to the Bowling Pin pool cuz I'm pretty sure there are no Yellow Jackets there, but it seemed dumb when I've got a nice spot just steps away from the staircase leading up to our room.
One thing we have noticed being a bother this trip down by the pools is not Love bugs, but actually bees, or the REAL Yellow Jackets. For what it's worth, Love Bugs bug you in April/May, and late August/September/early October.
And bees are a problem at whichever table/ lawn chair or balcony I am sitting at.
They were over at AKL and now at Pop too. Not in the morn, but as
the day went on, they became enboldened. They seemed the worst from 1 pm to 7 pm.
Well, I'm not going to tease you this time, and once again, I promise you I am not making this up. But now you know where the title is coming from.
I gave the lounger chair one more shot to try and get me comfortable in, somewhere around one thirty or so, just as the YJ's were setting up, and as I was trying to focus on my book in the sunlight, one of the little boogers somehow managed to find one of the little tiny "slits" under the lounger where my back was unprotected by the rubber slats, and bored in on me with a vengeance for some reason.
After he was done drilling he then filed it with BP, staking his claim in my back.
Dang! It hurt! It also ticked me off.
I wasn't bothering them, swatting at them or stealing their honey, but this guy got me good right above the
top of the bathing suit in the lower back.
It stung, and it took about 15 minutes or so for the stinging to finally mostly go away.
I suppose this is supposed to be some kind of poetic justice from all the blathering I've done against and about the Yellow Jackets, but when they say "What goes around, comes around" for me seems lately more like it just keeps coming around and not "going" around, if you know what I mean.
All right, I can take a hint.
I took my stuff off the lounger, but I kept the table.
There were still other tables available at this point.
Put all my "SHs" back on, grabbed the camera and my wallet and went fora slow walk.
Ok, SHs?
Shorts, Shirt and Shoes. But I'm Shure you figured that out. If not,,,,,,,,,,,,
Shame.
By the way, concerning bees, my sister was deadly allergic to their stings, and surprised that I wasn't, but I at that time, had only been stung once in my life as far as I knew,,,, when I was ten years old.
I rememb er it clear as a bell; playing with these two girls in their yard, hearing "don't move, there's a bee by you" and going into "statue" mode. The thing landed right on the tip of my thumb in statue mode and even though I never even flinched, it just bored right in.
But the best was about 5 years ago, sitting out on our patio trying to get some sun for upcoming tan protection with a Disney trip coming up.
I had grabbed a cold lefover cheesebuger from the night before and without even putting it in a bun, sat out there reading my book in one hand, and muching on this Wonderful cheeseburger in the other.
I never saw the bee land on my burger right before I took a bite out of it.
He got me in/on the roof of my mouth, and wowie, did it hurt. We had to go out for dinner later on that day and I still couldn't talk, but that was the last time I was bitten.
Geesh, ok you know what keeps happening?
if the chapter seems a bit disoriented it's because I go back and reread all I've done and then ad more to it.
That's why now they keep getting so long, and don't flow smooth.
Ha, right, as if they ever flowed smooth.
And I walked on over to AOA to spend some time at the America On-line bar across the little lake.
By the time I got over there, it was starting to get a little bit dark out from Central Florida's most natural indigenous self harvesting crop, the afternoon thunderstorm.
And the pool gate was closed all the way, I tried my Pop keycard to no avail, so I hung around and waited to play follow my leader.
Ended up doing a reverse Follow My Leader, this person came OUT of the pool, towards me, and I grabbed it right before it swung shut and locked since she was in no hurry to get out of it's way.
No, I did NOT ask her to hold it for me, that would have been deceitful since I am not welcome inside and blatantly against company policy and I most certainly didn't want to involve any other innocent in an act of gut wrenching subterfuge from helping nebo out.
( yes, I know I"m using the third person approach a lot which I hate when others do it cuz it usually just spanks of self centered egotism, but sometimes it just seems to work better.)
I got my foot in the way just before it finished clicking shut!
I kept waiting for her to come funning back yelling "Citizen's Arrest! Citizen's Arrest!" but she had obviously seen and had enough of me from the brief encounter and left in a hurry.
So, I''m in, and now they will let me go and give more money back to the Disney Money Fund.
But really, how strange it is that the only bar on this huge property is in a gated off community! Man, that's gotta tick off the bartenders, no?
At the bar I ordered a Mai Tai, and told him to make it strong. "I'm serious, and only have more than likely a day or two left to live from the head injury I took last night so I'm not holding back", I told him, in what may possibley total honesty.
The Bartender laughed, along with Brad sitting next to me, who is from,,,,,,,,???????
Guesses?
That's right, just like most other people i meet in Disney, New Jersey.
For the next 45 minutes Brad became my new best bud for life, and yeah, the bartender did go a step or two past the norm in making the Mai Tai. Pretty good, but for 9 bucks, it better be!
At one point I turned around and Brad scared the crap out of me by yelling, "Hey Martin, holy cow, he's not kidding" cuz he saw the back of my head. Then Martin made me turn around
and now he's a bit ticked off thinking maybe he shouldn't have served me at all.
I told him not to worry, if I die I won't yell at him, and that seemed to make him feel a little better.
"Ok, ok, I WON'T charge the tip to the room" and then he was all smiles again.
Both of them wanted to hear the story though, and of course I obliged, which was kind of like a practice round for the trip report. Then it started to drizzle and it was time to head on back, of course after making sure I promised Brad I'[d call him sometime, we hugged and I was off at a slow lope.
It pretty much waited till I got back, and I grabbed all the stuff off the table and went up to the room.
They got back when the rain started coming down for real, but their plan was to go to Epcot tonight, and making sure I CAME with them: No, not going to let me walk,
Todd said he will push me all night, and
"Dad, all you have to do is just sit there and not fall out of the wheelchair."
"Oh, see? Always some kind of stipulation or agreement I have to sign off on first!" But I agreed.
I did not tell them I was just having a My, Nice Tie, and nobody needed to know that. I knew Fuzzy Cups and Sunny D's were out of the question, but sorry, with the vikes all gone, I slipped a "little bottle" in my pocket to join me on this sojourn.
And with that, calling it quits tonight. No, no cliffhangers,
isn't that a relief?
not even a coathanger.
As you can all well see, I'm flying by the seat of my pants here with really nowhere to fly to, nobody to talk to and living a life that's now as exciting as Paris Hilton, Snooki, KateShouldNevermate, and Octomom all fighting over which one should be Honey Boo Boo's godmother.
But at least your storytelling didn't suffer, the same wit is still coming through. 
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