Horrors Of Hypotension

We've all heard about the dangers of high blood pressure, or hypertension.  But one thing that may not be as well-known is low blood pressure, or hypo-tension.  Back in 2006, I experienced it first-hand.  Early in the day, I drank some expired milk (yeah, I know, that was stupid).  Later on in the evening, I picked up some take-out from a new food court.  By the time I was ready for bed, I wasn't feeling too good.  I was watching people arguing in a chat room when I started getting nauseated, and usually chat doesn't make me feel THAT sick.  Anyway, after a bout of the dry heaves, I started feeling like I needed to sit on the toilet.  At first, it was just a normal bowel movement, albeit a larger quantity than what I was used to.
But 15 minutes later, I needed to go again.  And again.  And again.  My stool went from the standard consistency to something resembling dark water.  My blood pressure dropped rapidly.  My mouth started feeling like sandpaper.  After the sun came up, I was still awake, laying in bed between bathroom visits.  I was staring at the ceiling and talking to people who weren't there.  I knew something was wrong, not just because I was having a conversation with invisible friends, but because I couldn't stop talking, even though I wanted to.
  I had a small machine for checking blood pressure, a spare that my mom gave me (she has several of them because she has hypertension).  I checked my BP, and it was 73 over 48.  I found out much later that level of pressure is not a good thing.  I actually should have gone to the ER.  However, I drank some electrolyte-replacement liquid from the drugstore, and decided to wait it out.  After a while, I was able to sip water without it flooding out of me, and I gradually returned to normal.

Nerf Man LIVES!

Did any of you have a Nerf Man (or Nerfman as he is sometimes called) action figure when you were young? Or young-er I should say? Well I did. He was green and yellow, very lightweight, and could glide on the wind faster than a speeding... well you know what I mean. Over the years, I have moved half a dozen times, downsized my collection of collectibles a number of times, but somehow always managed to spare good old Nerf Man from being axed.
Sometime a few years ago, I moved again, and put Nerf away somewhere, and forgot about him. Last week, I was taking a short nap, and I dreamed I was fighting evil secret agents along a stretch of Pico Boulevard in west Los Angeles. As I leapt to the top of a one story shop, I looked across the street and saw on the rooftop in front of me NERF MAN! He was looking a bit worse for wear, and about seven feet taller than his actual size, but he stood heroically in the hot sun, ready to battle the evil-doers who were at hand.
After I woke up from the dream, I started digging through my stuff, and within a matter of minutes I found my Nerf Man. The moral of this story? Don't give away all of your super-hero toys, some day one might appear in a dream and help you fight evil wherever it may be!

A Very High Place Down Under

Okay, this has to be one of the strangest dreams The Wizard has ever had. I was shopping in a 24-hour supermarket that I have been to in the real world on numerous occasions, but in the dream there was one important difference. One day I needed an item that wasn't on the shelf, so I asked the manager if he had any in the back room. He said no, but that there might be one in the basement. So we get into the elevator, and he presses a button that takes us down from the second floor (which happens to be the main floor of the store in the dream), past floor one, and down to floor B. We get out of the elevator, walk down a short corridor, and then he opens a door. On the other side of the door is nothing but darkness. He flips a switch and the lights come on. I see him walk into a vast storage room, which is strangely under-utilized, with plenty of empty floor space. The thing that amazed me more than anything else was the height of the walls. I looked up, and the walls stretched upwards to infinity, even though we were in the BASEMENT! This totally freaked me out, and while I stared in horror, the manager yelled "Don't look!" I turned around and walked back into the short corridor. After a brief wait, the manager walked over to me and handed me the item I was waiting for. And no, unfortunately, I do not remember what the item was. Then I woke up.

Dreams Revisited

I have always had a fascination with analyzing other people's dreams, but have never been very good at gaining insight into my own. So, I am going to try something new with this blog. I am going to write about some dreams I have had, and invite readers to post comments about them. I am looking forward to seeing your interpretations!

The Killer Mosquito Bites Again

Last week I got bit by a mosquito... in Los Angeles, no less. Go figure. Anyway, it must have been some sort of super mosquito, because within a few days I had a red patch on my leg the size of Texas. I went to the doc and he prescribed two heavy duty meds to treat it. The treatment worked and The Wizard is all better now, except for having a new phobia about flying insects!

Ghosts

Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever had a run-in with a poltergeist? Those pesky apparitions keeping you up at night? Let me know!

Dreams

One thing I want to do to get the ball rolling here is dream interpretation. If you had a dream (or nightmare) recently and you're wondering what it means, ask me and I'll give you an answer if I can. Just use the comment option to ask a question!