I’ve always had a passing fondness for Proverbs, reading bits and pieces over the last decade. My father would often quote one passage or another to me when I was growing up, and seeing all of his scriptures laid out with context is borderline nostalgic. My youth was perpetually guided by a mixture of the word, and the soft-spoken insight of my parents. Having this time with them has only grown my fondness for their company. I love them, with every fiber of my being.
On the topic of family, we only just recently returned from a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The trip served as an opportunity for both some R&R, and a chance to celebrate my niece’s birthday. The road trip there and back served as a literal bookend for the event. I often read aloud to my family, and we took advantage of that time to read through a sizable chunk of Proverbs together. Pleasant reading material to share with the whole family.
The visit itself was fairly eventful, I darn near killed myself. With a hot tub. In less than fifteen minutes.
Heat exhaustion, or something like it has plagued me for the last ten-or-so years — but my guard can usually be relaxed when swimming. Cool water combats the issue, and keeps me relatively safe. I didn’t even give the little hot-tub beside the main pool area a second thought before hopping in to relax with my parents. Everything’s fine, we move to get out, and I see the light.
The light that is a bane to my existence.
You see, when I’m in trouble, my eyesight begins to flicker with large black and white spots. The spots last about twenty minutes, and are then replaced with a searing lance of pain behind my eyes, and an intense pressure. Paired with this phenomena is a sudden loss of motor control, breathlessness, and an inability to speak more than one or two words a minute. My fingertips go numb, and a pure, distilled nausea settles over my entire being.
This condition lasts roughly 12 hours.
Not exactly the most grand way to spend time at a lodge, but hey, at least I was resting. Technically. By lunch the next day, I was feeling mostly back to myself, with only a lingering headache. I didn’t let it stop me from making the most of the time. My niece and I spent at least four hours in an arcade, and far more roaming the lodge and taking part in various activities. My body is still sore from all the trekking about.
We rounded out the trip with a viewing of the new Disney movie, Moana, and then hopped back into the vehicle to head home. Proverbs kept us company through rush hour traffic, (yay?) and we eventually made it home in time to head to bed.
I’ve still got some reading to finish, and some final pieces of my project to finish . . . But for now, I’m just happy to be home.
I’m thinking I’ll cuddle up with my compiler for the remainder of my time off, and get back into the flow of writing code.