A Saturday Morning Headache In Texas

Yes, that is me this fine Saturday morning. My one longtime reader may recall me mentioning yesterday that I'd come down with a headache, 2 days in a row, and how this used to happen to me all the time, but has not for a long time. With me crediting Texas with the cure.

When I used to have headaches, the worst were the ones that continued for days, as in go to bed with a headache, wake up with a headache. When your head aches that bad it is pretty much all you can think about. And then when it finally goes away it is such a relief and you feel so good.

My only multi-day bout I can remember in Texas happened in July of 2001. I drove solo up to Washington for my mom and dad's 50th. I was barely 100 miles in when a headache started up. By the time I got to Pueblo, Colorado, for that day's pitstop, I had a blinding, eyes weeping, throbbing headache. The next morning I was still throbbing. On into Wyoming my head ached. I was hoping the All You Can Eat KFC Buffet in Rawlins, Wyoming would cure me. But, no buffet, it was summer, tourist season and all the fast food joints in Rawlins had long lines. I ended up finding food in a grocery store and continued on, stopping at Little America for coffee. And then, as I descended into Utah, to the Great Salt Lake Basin, the drop in altitude seemed to melt the headache away. By the time I got to that night's pitstop in Twin Falls, Idaho, I felt great. I remained headache-free for the rest of this trip.

This morning when I woke up and found my head was still aching I thought floating in the pool might cure it. It did help, but no miracle cure. I will say this in my headache's defense, this current pain in my head is not nearly as bad as the epic bad headaches of the past. I'm just hoping this isn't some sort of new trend and that I'm not sliding down some slippery slope that ends with me being a chronic aching head sufferer again. Because that will make me very cranky. Me being cranky is not a good thing.

Microsoft XP Update Headache

I used to get headaches all the time. But, somehow moving to Texas cured that. Yesterday I could not have told you the last time I had a headache. And then by late in the afternoon, I had my first headache in a long long time. And now, 24 hours later, another headache.

I used to so regularly get headaches I just assumed one would arrive whenever I was doing something fun. Like both times I went to Vancouver's Expo 86. Splitting, blinding, throbbing headaches. And then the drive back to the U.S. You don't know fun til you drive from Vancouver, south to the border, past midnight, brain in going to have a stroke mode, to find the border crossing you chose to use, closed at midnight, requiring a multi-mile detour to get to another crossing.

And now on to a more metaphorical headache. Microsoft and its relentless Windows XP Updates. They are automatically downloaded. You get that little notice that Critical Updates are Ready to Install. I look at the 5 or 6 Critical Updates and each says something has been discovered that may allow some rogue force to take over my computer.

The only rogue force that has taken over my computer has been Microsoft.

The last time I chose to ignore the update notices, I'd select 'Cancel." Figuring I'd install the Critical Updates when it was convenient. A couple days go by, Microsoft continued to nag me. Then, in the middle of the night, my computer woke up. Microsoft had taken control of my computer and was installing the updates!!!

To me this would seem to indicate that Microsoft is the problem from whom I need protection. I had several programs open. All gone when the computer was restarted.

Who are these people who are finding ways to exploit security breeches and supposedly take over random computers? Why would anyone want to do that? If there are people doing such things, why not go after them and leave my computer alone.

I should not have even started this blogging. My headache is now much worse.