I have the flu.  Full out, balls-to-the-wall, cough-and-gag with chest pain, muscle-tearing pleural flu.

The nausea on Saturday night?  Flu peeking around the corner.

The congestion and complete emotional breakdown yesterday?  Flu walking into my room and waiting for me to fall asleep.

Woke up with a mouth so swollen I couldn’t form words.  Have spent the day with pieces of tissue stuffed up my nose.  The pain is horrendous, but I’m hoping that the Tamiflu (all fucking $90 of it) will help with that.

While at the doctor today, I negotiated another change in meds, because what happened over the past few weeks should NOT have been happening at all.  I think my doctor is impressed at the effort I’m making.  I mean…why wouldn’t I make a strong effort?  I’m sick, and I don’t want to be.  The more I communicate with him, the more I look up on my own and am able to defend to him, the better off we all are, and he knows that if there’s something off about what I’ve recommended, I will listen to whatever he has to say, because, after all, HE’S the doctor.  We have a good doctor/patient relationship.  I’m very grateful for that.

I will, however, continue to be scarce.  I need to rest.  I have coloring books, plenty of fluids, crackers, medicine, and a roll of extra-squishy toilet paper to stuff up into my nose.  Which I will commence to doing shortly.

We’re snowed in for at least the next two days, so that’s fun.  At least I’m not missing anything that I wouldn’t be missing, anyway.

Also, hot tea.  Hot tea is good.  With honey.  Nom.  Going to get some NOW.

I would appreciate good thoughts over the next few days.

We’re having to put one of our outdoor cats down – he’s been missing his nose for months, one of his eyes has the third-eyelid covering it, so he’s essentially blind on that side, and the other eye is dilated as far as it will go…it’s stuck at “open.”  So he’s blind, he can’t smell or breath well, and he’s been losing weight.  An outdoor cat is a rough creature, but he’s rough even for an alley cat.

Because of allergies, there’s no way to bring him into the house, and he’s lived his whole life outside…and he can’t continue to safely be outside any more.  That, with his age taken into consideration (we think he’s 19), is why we’ve made the decision to take him in tomorrow to get his last injection.  Bennett dug a hole in the ground this evening, we found an appropriately-sized box, and all is ready for Paul Newman (the cat) to come home to finally rest tomorrow.

He’ll be resting next to Pooty, my cat that died of a sudden heart attack last year.

Aside from that, there are a lot of other, more personal situations that I’m dealing with on an extremely deep level, and this has caused my sleep-deprivation to turn into a sort of war.  I’m losing.

I’ve been told by someone with similar problems that I just need to find a way to relax and meditate, maybe get a massage.  I know that I’ll try to replace sleep with food, which is another path I do not need to go down.

Bennett is a wonderful husband, and is doing all he can to understand what’s going on, but I don’t even understand a good bit of it, so we’re both a little baffled and out of it.

I’ve had the notion to write a blazing article of WIN about the gun range drama here in town – and just as quickly as it came, the motivation just disappeared.

The motivation to blog about anything else right now is slowly waning.

I don’t know what this means.  Perhaps that I have SADD and should just STFU and get over it, and if that’s the case, I’ll see you when I feel better.

If that’s not the case, and there’s an actual problem that I’m going to be dealing with on a longer scale, or a larger scale, I may not post for a while.  Maybe a disjointed link-fest here and there.

The magic is gone.  The reason I blog – here, anyway – Is to talk about current events.  Well, nothing is happening in my life that I’m open to discussing, and everyone else has already covered the things I would have liked to expound on.  Not that there’s not a rule against ganking someone’s blog idea as long as you link them.  That just takes more patience than I have right now.

I am not well, but until I am, I ask that any inquiries be directed to me via email:

squeaky.wheel.seeks.grease at the google mail with the dot com.

If you know my phone number, you’re free to call or text, but keep in mind, I live in the boonies, and can really only get calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 10am.

I’m always logged onto Pigin, under the above email address, as well as several others.  If you choose to pop a message my way, I’ll do my best to respond.

This isn’t goodbye – this is good evening.  See you later.

*Miss America Wave*

Have a great one.  Talk to you soon.

-Bonnie

Dear Troops (and various other parties whining about the possible repeal),

READ THIS, then grow a pair and get the fuck over it.

Love,

-Squeaky

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(I’m still working on the gun range entry – it’s been a rough couple of days, and life comes before blogging.)

My finger is fine when I type for short bursts (which is why I’ve been so prolific on Twitter and Facebook this week), but I’m not sure how it will handle trying to type the monstrous blog entry required to catch you all up on what’s been going on with the range battle.

I’ll work on it in spurts today, and will hopefully have it out there for you this evening, for your reading pleasure over your morning coffee tomorrow.  Or to help you go to sleep tonight if you have insomnia.  Whichever.

I had planned to write about the gun range decision in more detail (along with speculation, a supposed case of fraud on the part of the guy representing the would-be builder, etc.), but I got home late last night, and today has been really…um…well, it’s kind of sucked.

I’m having trouble typing because of some sort of infection in my finger (cellulitis?  something having to do with me pulling a hangnail out last week, I’m sure), and so the review will have to wait until such time when I don’t have to actually *think* about typing.  This measly blog entry has taken much longer than it should have.

So, sorry – but I promise that when I do update, it will be more than, “Um, so…they said no, and I think that’s awesome.”

There was a motion to deny the building of the gun range based on the decibel level, which has to be less than 75db at the property line.

There are better reasons to deny the property owner’s request, but the commission didn’t want to list the most common-sense reason first, because this is going to come up again.

More later – have to go run some errands now.

Relatively-speaking, a “neighborhood” in this part of the state can include quite a large bit of land.

The closest houses might have a 1/2-mile between them in some areas, and in others, you can toss a rock through your neighbor’s window without a whole lot of effort.

Not that I recommend it.

Anyway, in an area of my “neighborhood,” there lives a man who has spent the better part of his life here pissing people off.  He has a lot of money, and he throws it around whenever he wants to try to win people to his side of some (usually stupid) debate.

When he began moving earth on his property, and was asked about it, he boasted that he was going to build an open-air gun range, and begin charging people for carry permit classes.

There is nothing about that situation, on its own, that bothers me.

Gun range?  Hell, yes.

Capitalism?  Yep, go for it.

Carry permit classes?  Woo!

Here’s the part that I take issue with:  it’s an open-air gun range in a relatively close-knit group of houses.

The houses were there first.  It’s not like they moved there and then decided to complain about the gun range that’d been operating for a while.

This guy also isn’t known for being careful.  He does things because he can, and will usually bluff his way into being able to continue them…and he will do all of this out of spite.

When it was learned that he was building an open-air gun range, he was told, by the local government, to stop.

He blustered and bluffed and said he’d go to the Supreme Court to protect his right to do with his property what he wished.

And you know, on a very BASIC level, he’s right.  That’s his “yard,” and if it was a matter of him building a closed range, where none of the projectiles from his property would be able to easily get onto anyone else’s property, I don’t think anyone would give a shit.

However, the berm is in the direction of quite a few houses containing families with small children.  This man not only wants to instruct pistol courses for CCW purposes, but also wants to teach long-range rifle classes, and the houses beyond the berm are close enough that, if someone misses, they’re going to hit a house, children or no children.

Property damage isn’t exactly something to sneeze at – and for those of us without easily-tugged heartstrings, it makes sense as an argument.

There’s a “nuisance” clause that says that, in layman’s terms, if there’s a situation that causes stress to an individual, they can sue to have that situation ended/removed.

Tennessee signed a law in 2004 that says that gun ranges are exempt from the nuisance clause.  The only way a gun range can be closed is if someone is physically injured by it.

HOWEVER, the gun range is only exempt from the clause after it’s been in operation for one year.

So we’re hoping that we’re going to be able to argue that case tonight at the town hall meeting, and give this situation a rest.

In an area of the country where hunting, trap shooting, and target practice are all a way of life from early childhood, you know it’s got to be a mess when they’ll all band together against someone wanting to build a damned gun range.

It doesn’t help matters that he’s a jackass.

Anyway, I’ll update when I get home.  I’m taking a pad of paper with me to take notes.

It’s too easy for me to disagree with so many people.

Am I thinking too much?

Not enough?

Is it critical thinking, or am I just thinking critically?

I have an answer for my opinions.  I am kind of forceful when I’m stating them.  I do not wish for no competition – engagement when you disagree with me is kind of awesome – but I want the competition to hear what I’m saying and respond to THAT, rather than just re-word their original statement.

I’ve gone through nearly 5 years of college (counting APSU way back in the day) where I am surrounded by people who do not know how to argue.

They either yell right out of the starting gate, or they become a shrinking violet.  The ones who sound rational may not necessarily have any ideas to back up their claims, but discourse with them is at least pleasant for a little while.  These sorts of arguers usually turn into shouters later, when you don’t acquiesce to their demands of “recognizing” their genius.

I’m the only person in a class capable of arguing the point that in order to discuss an abstract object as a group, the entire group must agree on a definition of that abstract object or idea – in this case, Enlightenment.

Are we in an age of enlightnment?

It’s all a matter of perspective.

I’ve been told that looking at it that way is wrong.

But that’s the only way I can look at it, because it’s ABSTRACT.  The professor refuses to give us concrete examples sociologically.  Like, the population of Memphis.  Or the political climate of the USA.  Or the continuing conflict in Iran.

You have to have a “point of impact” in order to explore an instance of “enlightenment.”

I spend an hour talking back and listening to my professor, and the more he talked, the more I thought, “I hope to God I’m not a teacher like that, and that I never have a student like me.”  Also:  He looks like Professor Lockhart from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Kind of acts like him, too.

Anyway, it’s too easy for me to get into these kinds of conversations with others.  Would this be called a talent or a shortcoming if I were to “win” quite a few rounds?

Is not agreeing – successfully- a talent that has to be learned, or is it a skill that’s inborn?

Should I stop blogging under the influence of Ambien?

ALL THIS AND MORE…on tomorrow’s episode of “The Young and the Squeaky.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m cutting down on posting sensitive information about family members, or the people they’re involved with, on here, I would have a damned good rant.

If you’re reading this (and you know who you are), you kind of don’t want to piss me off.  That’s not a threat, just some friendly advice.

Here’s some content.

___

Seriously, there’s a lot going on over here in my little corner of the world.  It includes the death of family friends, the continued skin freak-out from the water in Gatlinburg (y’all, it’s bad), some inter-family drama, and the continued battle against sleeplessness.

If I had a funny story for you out of all of that, I would write it out…now.

I think the only funny thing that’s happened in the past couple of days is that I apparently woke up, looked at JB, and said, “Awkwardsauce” before getting up to go to the bathroom last night.

Oh, and Meet the Spartans is hilariously ridiculous – a really, really bad movie – and it was well-worth the $4 we paid for it at Wal-Mart last night.

I am now making that all-too-important decision:  Do I shower before class, or just wear a hat?

Dun dun DUNNNN.