Wow, a month has gone by since I last wrote. Really. Did you miss me?

It's been busy at work. Current project is a new real estate site for the paper. Not hard work, but kind of not exciting either. But we have to pay the bills some how, right? I hate that 'Bill' gets all my money.

With the long hours, I've been dragging my ass on side jobs and projects. The one big project, the website for a great comic company is coming soon to an end. I hope to leap some big hurdles this week-end and 'git'r done' as Larry likes to say.

November is NaNoWriMo month. I'm going to write my draft for TERMINAL that month. In the past I've webbed my attempts with little success. I haven't decided if I'm going to web it again this year. If I do, it will probably be on a weekly basis. I hope to get most of it done during the challenge so I can set it aside and work on some design and concepts for my AFTER JACK webcomic project.

AFTER JACK is going to be more or less a traditional strip, but it will have set story arcs, some of which won't be part of the ongoing comic itself. Little diversions. The main strip will be about average guy, Jack Norman, who ends up in not so average adventures. But during those diversions, I hope to visit some characters I've created in the past: The Netizen and the Net City crew, Klik Boom: Exterminators, Dewey Thompson - Dick for Hire, Battlin' Buzzbee and family.

Since I'm all ambition and no talent, I'll probably have to get a real artist to draw on occasion. It'll be months before it get's rolling. I'm hoping I can successfully navigate this next week and get the website done so I can release some creative juices.

2009 is going to be a good year for me. Personally. I know it. Just glad I don't have tons of money in the stock market or in hock to a mortgage company on a loan I couldn't possibly pay. I'm secure.

And on that note, let me tell you how last week was for me. I went out to Colorado to visit in-laws with the missus and kid. We had fears about recent down turn in health of an elderly relative out there and wanted to make sure Kassy (the kid) was able to visit again.

We drove. 1300+ miles. 2 days. Not fun.

It was a restful week. I was tired and didn't feel like doing much, and for the most part I got to relax. 2 days to recoup from the drive, and the 3rd I was going to work on that website. A day that I wasn't at work, a day to myself. 3 am that morning my wife wakes me up and has me get something from the car. So I do. I come in from the Colorado night and all of a sudden I feel breathless. I sit down and I feel light headed. Then my heart starts pounding and my blood races. I can feel it rushing through my veins in my legs, my arms, my chest. A strange awareness. I feel anxious and uptight. I try to go to bed. Lay there for an hour as the pounding and racing becomes pressure and anxiety. I feel throbbing in my left pectoral and arm. I go to bed anyway. For a few hours anyway.

When I wake up, I feel fine initially, then I roll over. I feel like loosing my dinner, if there is any left. I need to go to the bathroom. Pounding, racing and throbbing pressure return. My god, I think I'm having a heart attack.

So we go to the ER. They take blood. Do an EKG or two. A CT scan too. Give me Dilaudid. The pounding, racing and throbbing vanish. I feel no pain, but I do feel queasy sick. Ugh! I'm going to toss it. I don't. I guess I studied hard, I passed the tests. It wasn't a heart attack.

However, they want to put me in the hospital for observation and a stress test. First they try an echocardiogram/stress test. The film on it was fuzzy so they scrubbed it before I got to the treadmill. So they keep me overnight so I can have a nuclear dye scan/stress test. They ran my heart rate up to 180. I did fine. Surprised myself. I was pretty thirsty afterwards though.

Six hours later my "doctor" came and said I was fine. No sign of cardiac or pulmonary distress, no apparent risk factors. They gave me a short list of things to go over with my family doctor. Things that require evasive probes and scopes. I haven't called my doctor yet.

I drove back the next day (Saturday) and took my time and took a couple extra days off this week.

So my week of last was crap. But at least I'm not going to die of heart or lung failure.

Sorry that was long and boring. I just wanted to document this for posterity and if I drop dead, we'll know what it wasn't.

BTW, I'm 77 days from my 40th birthday. Anyone know the over under of me actually making it?