28 August 2011

About to burst into song

Here's the original pose that all the rest of the pix to follow are based on. This is what I looked like just a little over three years ago, on the 4th of July 2008, a true Independence Day: I'd just got home from my LAST day of working at the Apple Store in King of Prussia PA, some 62 miles and a world of hurt away from my safe & sane little apartment in Bethlehem. Don't know what I was thinking when I started working in that crazy place the previous February, but you can pretty much tell what I was thinking once I'd disencumbered and parked it in front of my doughty Mac to take this pic.

Notice I hadn't yet lacerated my forehead — but I would...

27 August 2011

Face-healing

Here's what I look like today, more or less.

It's the last weekend before Labor Day, the end of the summer, the eve of the Advent here on the US east coast, of Hurricane Irene, a lovely name which comes from the Greek word "eiréne," which means "time of peace." We'll see how that works out.

You may observe the scar on my forehead. Looking closely, you'll notice that it's shaped like the Greek letter omega, in a sans-serif font, and you might think that the scribe got the quill point stuck on the upstroke above my right eye, but then he got control of things at the top of the curve & the downstroke feathers out into nothing near the left temple.

It's new. I'm still putting medicinal stuff on it, three times a day, to keep it from looking any angrier than it does. It's not, as I like to tell people who inquire, a dueling scar. Nor does it make me look like an aging Harry Potter, as I wish it did -- more like Gorbachev, if I'm being honest with myself.

A little over 3 months ago, heading into the last weekend before Memorial Day, the beginning of summer, I fell off my bike on a short spin before dinner, and laid my head open, not to mention herniating a disk in my neck, skinning my elbow and wrist, and somehow contusing my right big toe. I was in the hospital for 5 days. I wrote about that part a few posts back, making it sound kinda fun -- well, except for the pain part, for which I had some righteous medication. I made new friends. My old friends and family were magnificent. I got lots of sleep.

As the penultimate post indicates, after that things weren't so fun. I think I have to talk about that part too. Also I have pictures. Something to look forward to.