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Sunday, August 18, 2013

How I cured my headache, a funeral, and an idea, and a book I enjoyed...

Fortunately my wife and daughter were gone this weekend. I hope neither reads this blog...
So I had a severe pain in my the right front center of my brain for two days.
I suspected it had something to do with stress but my skin also hurt which usually means I need to just go to bed and I'll be over it in a day or so.
Part of it was that I needed to attend a funeral yesterday. The fellow who died was kind of a larger-than-life character. At one point I thought he was going to defeat cancer through sheer force of will-power.
Funerals make me tense.
It started when my Mom died. Normal people cry or get drunk or spend a lot of time reading their Bible and praying.
I didn't cry and really didn't feel specific grief like I expected. She had lived a good life and was spared the pain that comes from the final stages of pancreatic cancer.
Instead of crying I promptly forgot all the important information she had told me in the last five years. I thought that was a bit odd, but then I am a bit odd...
Mom's funeral was not too bad. I gave a little speech and made everyone laugh.
I was feeling a bit guilty about my lack of grief but then a neighbor died.
I simply could not go to the funeral. I just couldn't bring myself to go.
The next funeral I went but once inside the church I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack. I distracted myself by talking about sturgeon fishing with someone I hadn't seen in 20 years. I don't really care about sturgeon fishing. They have lived for 100 years leave them alone. In general, the sturgeon general, I mean.
So... Apparently I am a freak...
I survived the funeral the yesterday. We just went to the graveside and the dinner afterwards. It was a good dinner.
I came home and went back to work. I thought about going back to bed but I did need to make pig feed. MuddyValley had called and left a message offering moral support for my illness but a by product of my headaches are the desire to be left alone.
So here is how I cured my headache.
I was unloading a truck load of camelina into large bags using an old Bazooka grain auger that had been converted to hydraulic drive.
I decided to climb up the side of the auger to tie up the hoses.
I slipped.
It was not a long fall.
But on the way down I smacked my sensitive regions on the unused engine mount. While clutching my unmentionables in pain with one hand and trying to hold onto the auger with the other I tipped over backwards and practically split my head open on the loader tractor that I was using to power the auger.
I lay on the ground for a few moments said a few rather sacrilegious phrases followed by a quick prayer of repentance for taking the Lord's name in vain. Although I really am not sure it was in vain, I really did want to damn the whole conglomeration to the pits of hell for all eternity, although I would like to get scrap metal price out of it all first...
After a few moments of staggering around I declared myself well and suddenly realized that the pain inside my head was now on the OUTSIDE of my head. Much better sort of suffering in my humble opinion.
Later, I retired to the house and ate supper in the dark. When I did turn the lights on I discovered I had been bleeding all over several pieces of furniture.
I could only imagine the consternation that would have occurred if the family unit would have discovered me wandering around bleeding from a scalp wound.
But, my headache is gone! So, all is well that ends well...

In a totally unrelated subjecct that I have been wondering about for two days...
Could one use a peltier device to run 12v fans on a woodstove. Not one of the fans that sit on top of a woodstove but rather construct a heat shield around the stove with the Peltier devices powering those little computer fans which would circulate air around the stove?
Here is a link to how to build a fan but this is not exactly what I would do. The muffin/computer fans will take up to 24volts and I've found a TEG module on ebay that outputs 0-16 volts.
Here is another link.
If I were not electrically challenged I suspect you could build a power supply that turn the fan when a useable voltage was reached or perhaps that is not needed. Would hooking the fan direct burn it out a low voltage? Or do you just need a big capacitor?
I do not know...
I think I will go out and start the Studebaker cruiser. It is not aging well setting under the Ash tree. It needs to be driven.
Have a nice day...
There will be no corn pictures today...

And in another unrelated issue that I just thought about...
I get a fairly steady flow of visitors from Great Britain and Canada. So have any of you read the book "The Hired Lad" by Ian Campbell Thomson? I really enjoyed the book. A boy working on a farm in Post WWII England. And there was another book, something about years on a tractor seat about a kid driving a Fordson and watching dogfights overhead and then seeing little puffs of dust in the field and realizing that bullets in an air war do actually hit the ground. I read the book some years ago and can't remember the title. Perhaps I will do a search for Ian Campbell Thomson. What a clever idea! Why didn't I think of that before?
Oh, right...
Brain damage...

10 comments:

  1. (i'll try this again)
    well thats one way to fix your head. i think there is an old joke about that. so. do you require medical attention? or rather, would someone sensible think you require medical attention?

    sorry about the funeral. a hard blow for sure. keep the faith, friend.

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    1. I was hoping for amnesia but it didn't happen. Unless I really am a butterfly dreaming I am human?

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  2. The farm. The most dangerous place there is. Sometimes it fights back. Did the cruiser start? I got the old JD110 garden tractor running due to and with thanks for your advise on bypassing all the safety switches.

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    1. thanks for helping you bypass all the safety switches, great... That's what it is going to say on someone's tombstone

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  3. Almost a case of the cure being worse than the ailment. Although I am recovering from a headache I don't plan to try your method. Never heard of the books but they sound like something I would read if I didn't waste all my reading time on the computer. Take a drive in the Stude. Shoot some video for youtube.

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    1. Ralph, you get a lot of hits on your youtube videos. I like them. Perhaps I shall.

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  4. I am laughing, though incredibly happy you are O.K.! :) I love the humor in your posts...

    This post makes me think of my dad, and how I have helped him in the past. Most times, he would cut/rake/bale hay all by himself. Sometimes, I would help him, by going out on my own while he was at work. Then there were the times it was the two of us.

    It is scary to think of the accidents that can happen -- do happen.

    Farming is a dangerous, though necessary, profession.

    Thank you for all you are doing! Stay safe! :)

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    1. Butterfly, thanks for joining my blog. There is nothing like the farming life! I shall check out your blog as well.

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  5. I absolutely agree! I think more people should gravitate towards this lifestyle. My husband and I hope to homestead someday...hopefully sooner than later :)

    And...Thank you!

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  6. A headache, or cephalalgia, is a continuous pain in the head or neck. Headaches are not felt in the brain, which does not have any pain. Read More Here

    ReplyDelete

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