So, tomorrow, Evan and I step before the panel of instructors, and hopefully when we leave, we'll be wearing belts of Black. Wow, check out that gratuitous abuse of the common comma! Comma, thou art my bitch; tis thy task to do mine bidding without question or complaint! Uh...yeah, testing. I passed the pre-exam with a very solid A two Saturdays ago, and was feeling pretty damned good about the test that was then two weeks away.
Then I woke up Sunday morning. My throat was killing me. It continued to do so for several days, with Monday bringing the rest of the symptoms of the virus that would make my life hell for the next week. Last weekend, the pain and pressure, soon followed by the bleeding, that indicated the secondary infection of my sinuses showed up! Joy!
Monday I managed to get a script for Azithromycin, and immediately began the War on Terror. The rebels were no match for the Imperial Fleet, and by Wednesday, I thought I was in pretty good shape, so I took class.
Class went badly. Turns out that the Rebellion still had a small foothold left in what we believed to have been sinus passages opened back up to free and open traffic. Breathing at rest was easy, but it turns out that breathing while attempting to exert myself heavily over a long period was not. Somewhere around two thirds of the way through, we were required to halt for a moment to take on coolant and allow the CO2 <-> O2 exchangers of the fleet to backflush before the whole system shut itself down to prevent overheating and self destruction of vital internal systems. Or, to put it simply, I damn near passed out.
Now, I'm as much better today, relative to Wednesday, as I was Wednesday relative to Monday. The Rebellion, while in it's death throes, still lingers. The last vestiges of the Old Republic have been swept away, but there are still a couple of outlying systems that appear to be less than cooperative and may be harboring these elements of chaos. They shall be found and taken care of, but will it happen in time?
Then I woke up Sunday morning. My throat was killing me. It continued to do so for several days, with Monday bringing the rest of the symptoms of the virus that would make my life hell for the next week. Last weekend, the pain and pressure, soon followed by the bleeding, that indicated the secondary infection of my sinuses showed up! Joy!
Monday I managed to get a script for Azithromycin, and immediately began the War on Terror. The rebels were no match for the Imperial Fleet, and by Wednesday, I thought I was in pretty good shape, so I took class.
Class went badly. Turns out that the Rebellion still had a small foothold left in what we believed to have been sinus passages opened back up to free and open traffic. Breathing at rest was easy, but it turns out that breathing while attempting to exert myself heavily over a long period was not. Somewhere around two thirds of the way through, we were required to halt for a moment to take on coolant and allow the CO2 <-> O2 exchangers of the fleet to backflush before the whole system shut itself down to prevent overheating and self destruction of vital internal systems. Or, to put it simply, I damn near passed out.
Now, I'm as much better today, relative to Wednesday, as I was Wednesday relative to Monday. The Rebellion, while in it's death throes, still lingers. The last vestiges of the Old Republic have been swept away, but there are still a couple of outlying systems that appear to be less than cooperative and may be harboring these elements of chaos. They shall be found and taken care of, but will it happen in time?