For those new to the program, staying home = no blogging because I don't have a computer YES I DON'T HAVE A COMPUTER. I don't really need a computer at home since I work at a place that allows personal computer time on breaks. It probably helps keep us semi-sane. Anyway, no computer at home, so I disappear from the internet for a while if I have to hang around there. I recommend it, actually. It's a good way to remind yourself just how completely unnecessary a lot of our computerage is these days. No computer, and you remember that you used to have hobbies that didn't involve farmville or whatever.
I did get a bit stir crazy at one point, though, but that was more from wanting to not be stuck at home than from electronics withdrawal. In my case it meant taking random photos of things in the apartment, 99% of which have been deleted. This one? Little bit of a story behind it, so what the hell.
This is my mom's Tilley hat. Tilley's a Canadian company that makes... well, hats. And travel wear and things like that. They've got a somewhat overblown air of adventure, but the fact is that they do make good hats. Not generally in teal, though.
Way back in the dark ages (or the early 90s. Whichever) when I started out as an interpreter, I thought about getting a Tilley. My dad had one, and I was outdoors a lot so a good hat seemed pretty necessary. At work at the time we had fake safari hats we could wear if we wanted, but no one wanted. Bad enough the khaki Ranger Rick shirts; add a pseudosafari to that and you're in full costume. A Tilley was a very much preferable option, but they're fairly expensive. Well, not as far as quality hats go, but for someone who had recently convocated and was working a couple of part time jobs? Yeah, money was an issue.
I'd gone to Klondike Days in Edmonton with my parents (now officially K-Days, I guess, after a misguided stint as Capital Ex) that summer, and as we wandered through the commercial exhibits I noticed that Tilley had a booth. It was the early 90s, as I said, and they'd apparently tried to appeal to a different demographic besides retired seniors cruising the Mediterranean by taking some of their old standards (this is a T3, I think?) and dying them more interesting colours than khaki, brown, and navy. I can't remember how many there were, but I do remember getting excited that there was a purple one.
Purple? Yep, I admit to a love of purple. I don't wear as much of it as I used to because I seem to look better in red or blue, but I'm still drawn to purple. A purple Tilley looked like the answer to everything at the time. I lingered a little too long at the booth before admitting to myself that the colour didn't change the price and reluctantly moved on.
In the meantime my parents must have been having a conference or something, because before we left the commercial section I was told that they'd decided to buy me a Tilley for work. Yay parents, especially since they can't have been planning to plunk down for an expensive hat. I got the purple one, and my mother decided to get a teal one for herself. Free braided shoelace headband with purchase, in case you wondered.
So why aren't you seeing a purple hat up there? Because mine got used. And used and used and used to the point where it's a beat-up greasy (in spite of anything I've done to try to clean it) mess that now lives in the back of my car in case I find myself in sudden need of a hat. Mom's hat is a lot more presentable, so even though it's slightly too big for me (guess who has the smallest head in the family? And is that something to be proud of? Not sure there) it's the one I use these days.
But not at work. We have uniform ball caps now instead of the safaris. Not a fan, myself. I mean, I'm not against ball caps per se, but if you're out in the sun for any length of time they're massively unprotective to a large part of you. There's a reason for the term redneck, after all.
And so, the reason that I was stuck at home for a while? This is the part that many if not most of you may want to skip, because I've got a picture. I don't usually use jump breaks, but I will today for any of my two fans who would like to say goodbye now. And I'm not judging.
For the rest of you...
This is what I've been dealing with.
Those of you who've followed this silly blog for a while will recall that years ago I had a massive abscess on the back of my shoulder. Massive as in it took literally months to finally heal. That one was from a bite. I'm not sure how this one started, but since I have a tendency to get infected hair follicles I imagine it had something to do with that.
It's not nearly as big as the shoulder one (that one's hole was literally -- in the proper use of the word -- dime-sized) and it's a heckuva lot shallower, so I doubt that I'll have as much trouble with it. In fact, it's already looking better since I took this shot back on the... 11th, it says. For anyone who's not had to deal with something like this, I had to stay home because when the damned thing was actively draining I wouldn't have been able to bandage it sufficiently to last through a day of work without looking like a biohazard. Or being a biohazard, really.
As I said, it's healing up. It's in an unfortunate position, though: it's to the right and slightly below my navel, so it really isn't too fond of jeans. I've been coming home and getting out of my pants almost before the door closes. At the moment I'm in sweat pants. Terribly attractive, but much less rubbing.
Thus endeth the TMI. It's almost 1 pm and I really should look into getting some lunch. And maybe even eating some lunch.
I hope I haven't put anyone off theirs.
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