Later that same morning

This post refers back to the previous one, so read that first if you haven't already.

It's now noon. By the time I'd paced for I guess a total of 3 1/2 hours (that's about 200 laps- I should have worn a pedometer), the pain had receded somewhat and I could watch some very early morning TV. This included something on MSNBC titled "Much Too Early." The host was asking people to email and tweet in what they were doing up so early. I'm guessing they were looking for something more fun that "I'm in intense pain and can't sleep," so I declined to participate.

The show wasn't bad, though. It actually had some content, unlike the offerings in the pre-Today/GMA world, which are incredibly content-free. The show I was watching, which I guess was just the early morning edition of Action News, was one of those news programs that continually looking forward, as in "Coming up, a man is rescued by his dog" or some such. It's reminiscent of Xeno's paradox, where you continually get halfway to where you're going and never actually get there. You do get to see traffic and weather multiple times though.

Then came MSNBC's morning program "Morning Joe.' This was pretty good, in a political talking head kind of way. They were having a reasonably substantial discussion of the main news of the moment, the monumental failure of the Romney campaign to capitalize on any of their possible opening against Obama. They really are quite spectacular in both the scale and variety of their disasters. Of course, the initial disaster was Romney being nominated when everyone already knew that he was incapable of coming off as anything but a rich, entitled jerk who had nothing but contempt for those outside of his social set.

Eventually, however, they announced that their next guest was Newt Gingrich, and it was far to early to even think of the Newtster, much less watch him. So off the TV went at 6:30. At that point, I finished putting together the package for my class and e-mailing it to my colleague who would copy and distribute it.

Then came 7AM and it was, as I've come to think, open for business time. Making lunch for my daughter, feeding and walking the dog, and getting ready for the scary but useful rice cooker to finish with my oatmeal, which happened promptly at 7:30. As much as I fear this machine with its fuzzy logic, I love having something I can just tell when I want breakfast to be ready and having it consistently do so.

At this point, I get to refuel my pain meds, a mere 6 pills, 3 of 2 different types. That leads, about 40 minutes later, to about 2 hours of relative comfort, which I revel in. That period has now come to an end until tomorrow morning and I am sitting with an ice pack on the worst parts of the rash.

Now I will make my daily journey to the supermarket, which I do for entertainment as much as anything. I wonder if anyone there has noticed that I come in wearing the same shirt (though different pants, of course) every day. I have only one shirt that is even halfway comfortable to wear, so it is my companion at all times.

I'll check back in later.