The Case of the Long Hiccup

Have you ever had the hiccups?  Have you ever had them so bad that they won’t stop?  What if you could stop them?  I can.  My wife hates it.  My mother looks at me with the evil eye every single time I do it.

Why?  Because, unless I am completely horizontal in my bed or on the couch, I don’t stop it with that gag reflex.  For some reason, I open the back of my throat and take in lots of air.  It really becomes the opposite of the belch.  It’s long, noisy and loud.

If I am laying down, I will get the normal hiccups, “hic, hic, hic, hiccup, hic, hic…” but as soon as I sit up I just allow for one long hiccup and its over.  Well, sometimes I belch afterwards because I took in too much air, but if I am in public I can easily control the belch.

But now that I know how to stop the hiccups, with a real long loud one, I can’t not stop it.  And what’s worse, now I feel like I am hiccuping more and more.  Sure, I get rid of them for a small peice, but later in the day I will do another one.

It seems to be timed as to when I am hungry or when I have just eaten and (whether or not I am full).  I hiccup more after drinking milk or orange juice.

But the worse thing is that it’s not sounding at all like a hiccup.  It sounds more like I am a large bird squawking.  I always feel embarrassed, but I can’t really stop doing it.  I think most people think I am drunk or recovering from a hangover.I love drinking Coke because then I can contain it (or hide it) with a belch, and it isn’t near so painful.

And what’s more, they are getting louder and more obnoxious.  And I just can’t help it.

My son hiccups all the time, “Hic, hic, hiccup…”  But mine is more like a “Hiaowwwwwwwwwk.”

Some people understand and just laugh.  I actually do laugh about it myself, but only when I am alone because my wife hates it so much.

I have tried to stop it now and again, but that just doesn’t work.  I feel like I will collapse a lung if I do.  My stomach just sucks in but there is no air.

God, my wife is going to hate me when I get older.  Heck, we are already in separate rooms.   I snore like a bear growling as he revs up his chainsaw to saw some wood.  But that’s when I’m asleep.  Everyone thinks I should be able to control this quirk.  And these long sustained hiccups are coming more often, lasting a little longer, getting louder.

I don’t have them for a while after I let that first one go, but now with them coming more often and so much more noisy, I feel like some sort of giant dinosaur bird in mating season squawking for a mate.

I have to agree, sometimes it is just plain inappropriate.  But if I don’t let it go, I have to deal with some extreme pain, now.

So, beware of the long hiccup, it’s a killer.  And can be quite embarrasing around snobs and other stuck-ups.  I sure am glad some of us have a sense of humor, though.  😀

Falling to Sleep

Most likely, you aren’t like me.  Of course, that’s a good thing.  But that’s also why I feel like this is an amazing phenomenon for me.  And yet others, I am sure, are probably just like me…

Whenever I am laying on my back, I absolutely always have to fall asleep.  Always, without a doubt, at some point, I starting falling asleep.  But that’s a literal statement, too.  I actually fall to sleep.

Let me give you an example.  Say I start falling asleep and start dreaming that I am walking on the beach at sunset.  At some point, I will misstep.  I won’t see a hole, or I will trip on a stick or rock, loose my footing, and simply start falling over backwards.

I am always falling over backwards, never frontwards, and I always wake up, right away.  But once I have fallen, I can then snooze away, sleep long and hard, snoring and all.   It’s like a little ritual for me.

Of course, if I lay on my front, this usually doesn’t happen.  I don’t need to trip and fall into a mode of complete relazation and let go.  But I will often wake myself up as I kick my leg up for balance when I start out sleeping on my back, or either of my sides.

Sometimes I am passing the ball to my son as we play catch in my initial fall-to-sleep dream and I wake myself up as my arm jerks because I am actually following through with the pass.  Sometimes I wake up as I try to bite into ice cream.  But if I haven’t actually fallen over backwards, I’m not going to be falling asleep until I have fallen over backwards.

And I will fall as long as I’m not buried into the bed face down.

Sometimes it’s on a stairs, or falling off a swing.  And always backwards.

Kinda funny, huh?  😉  OK, maybe not.  But it is strange.  😉

Happy Easter, Everyone!

I won’t get a chance to say this again before Easter, so…

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Dad was a Righteous Man

My father, John C. Peters, Attorney at Law, died on February 24th, 2009.  He was a good man, he also loved to party.  He was often described as the life of the party by family and friends.

He helped quite a few over the course of his life.

He didn’t like Me much.  He rarely helped me.  I can remember when he said “No.” to my request for $500.00 to replace the tools that were stolen because I had a job as a motorcycle mechanic that I was starting the next Monday.  I lost the position because I didn’t have any tools.

Of course, he was trying to counteract the lifestyle of the spoiled rich kid.  I may not agree with how he did it, but he was a self-made man, he expected me to be the same way, I suppose.

He was a righteous man and he could recognize that quality in others.  It made him a born leader.

And he didn’t see that in me.  I had disappointed him too much as a child.  I liked to joke around and he always took me seriously.  So I didn’t live up to his great expectations.

When we moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, for my last year and half of high school, I was all excited to be moving to a new place and making new friends, checking out new girls, racing my motorcycle on new tracks.

But the motorcycle racing attracted the wrong crowd.  Spoiled boys, gearheads and hoodlums.  That was quite different from Omaha, when we lived next door to Warren Buffet and his family.  The guys that kept hanging around me in West Hartford lacked any direction or a sense of responsibility.  And I could not discourage them to leave me alone.  I guess if they had one good quality, it was that they sure were persistent.

I actually liked a couple of them, but some were just up to no good.

One guy I was just starting to like, Kieth, who rode his motorcycle everywhere, was killed right after we decided to be friends and look  out for each other.  10 days afterwards I heard he was killed a couple of days after we talked.

I heard it like he hit the back of his head or neck on a trailer hitch.  The guy I dislike the most shook him to revive him.  Later he found a piece of his bone and made a roach clip out of it.  Sick.

I never told Dad.

I hate death.

Dad died before we straightened out some things.  But he had a new wife, a new family, new responsibilities, and he loved the West Hartford area.  He protected his family.  And his new family treated him well.  He deserved that.

He always hoped that I would do something with my art.  I guess that’s the one thing he could be proud of me for.

And I am told he loved me.

But he never met his 8 year-old blackbelt grandson (my son, Maximilian).

He kept me out of college, though I wanted to go. Heck, I wanted to go to the Rhode Island School of Design.  But I had setup motorcycle school first.  What did I know?  Motorcycles were my life back then.  So he made me chose between the American Motorcycle Institute (motorcycle mechanics classes) and the Rhode Island School of Design.  The thing is that he made me chose once the motorcycle school was already setup and expecting me.

He wouldn’t allow me to get into a college after that.  I tried to enroll in a couple of colleges, but I had to wait until I was 24 years old to get in because he refused to sign a document declaring that I was independent, even though he kicked me out of the house at 18 years old.  I never did get that.  I finally started college shortly after I turned 25.

Some of the crumb bums (trying to be civil, here, I call these particular scum by worse privately) that called themselves my friends in my West Hartford days actually stole my racing engine.  My father did work hard at getting it back.  I still have it, a Bultaco Pursang A.  But by the time I got it back the season, maybe 2? was over.

There went my racing career.

I suppose I should have appreciated his efforts more.  I really did appreciate it, but I don’t think he felt like I did.

But I was not actually a great kid.  When the rest of the family went to the Dominican Republic, I stayed behind and threw a party.  A few close friends?  That’s not what showed-up.

One time I was sweet on the Seventeen Magazine cover model and started talking to her, getting very into her.  My hoodlum “friends” surrounded us.  I made a deal with them, they would leave her alone.  She would leave and they would follow me.

I told Dad these guys were no good, that I didn’t want to be their friend, but I doubt if he believed me.  Besides, they had fellow lawyers as fathers.

Too many things were left unresolved with Dad’s death.  This was a shame, but I guess we don’t always get the closure we expect.

We had a memorial at the Malloy Funeral Home in West Hartford on Saturday, March 21st.  Most of the family reconnected.  It’s unfortunate it took that for the reconnect to happen, but it is good that something good came of his passing.  There were many family & friends, new & old, in attendance thinking and saying great things in the celebration of his life.

I took some great photos at the reception.  I plan on sending them by DVD to his family & friends as soon as I can.

It was great to see everyone.  I was able to reconnect with my brother and his family, and with my sister.  It was so good to see them, as well as see my father’s new family and speak with them.

Once again, he did a great thing, by getting us all back together.

I wish I could have spent more time talking to everyone, exchanging business cards and catching up.  But there is so little time and my brother’s family was hosting my cousins from out-of-town.  And Ed & Mary Beth are expecting their first born, so I was happy to follow along with whatever was required as like my wife’s pregnancy, I understand theirs is also a tough one.

My father was loved and will always be missed by many.  I am very sorry to see him go.  Of course, I wish he wouldn’t have passed so soon.  But the memorial was a great celebration of his life.  And he did enjoy a long and full life.

He often reminded me that I was the eldest of a generation.  I really never knew what that meant.  I guess I was supposed to be a good role model and I failed him there.

But I hoped that he will understand me in the long run.  In a way I think he did.  He didn’t like to keep in contact with me.  He said “No news is good news.”

I always loved the man, I always will love him.  I guess I just wish we could have understood each other more.

One of his favorite songs reminded him of our relationship, as he explained it to me.  I think it’s called “Cats in the Cradle” by Cat Stevens (I’ll correct the song title in that sentence later if I find it named something else).

-His eldest son… Douglas Peters

Why are Lugnut Caps so Hard to Find?

It seems like all the automakers lose the details.  I’d like to buy a few.  Can’t find them anywhere when I’m looking.

If you have a supply of those litttle black GM lugnut caps, please get ahold of me.  I also bought the lugnutcap.com & lugnutcaps.com domains if you would you would like an affiliate for used, oem or aftermarket sales.

I’d also be interested in hearing from custom lugnut cover manufacturers and designers.  😉

-Doug

The Perfect Laptop Case

I can’t even buy a decent case for my laptop, they are all way too small.

If I would design one, it would have a padded sleeve that protects the notebook with a white foam mousepad wearing my logo on one side that would fold around it and be replicated on the other.  It would fold out to be a mousepad for people who wanted to use it on the right or leftside and detach using velcro.

I’ll try and get some drawings or eventually photos together.  Afterall, I have to make my own anyway.  Always another project left undone.

Of course, it doesn’t even work right.  I have to send it back or drop it off, or something.  It’s a Sony, which is too bad, as I wanted to make my first Blu-ray disc and now I won’t even have it a while.

Damn, that’s such a bummer, I have to send it back.  I had a Sony TV.  I have a Sony camera.  I might buy a Sony HDTV tomorow, it might be a Toshiba.

I have to send back the battery they sent me before I raise too big of a stink, though.  Both only charge to 80%.

The configuration of the keyboard of my Sony, which I call HDLaptop, is absolutely heaven for me.  But I can’t find a decent Bluetooth keyboard and mouse set at all.  They don’t even seem to sell the new PC Express cards for it.

Anyway, I need to design a better laptop case for it.  I have it all backed-up now and can send it in.  But I have to send in that dang battery first.  I want to get the high capacity battery, but.  It only charges to 80%?

I have a vaio sleeve and accessory case for it, but that is all.

-Doug

New Product Idea for Coke

Original Recipe Coke.

Sugar. Sold for the price of a sports drink. Get with it Coke. You asleep at the wheel? This product is long overdue. Coke just isn’t the same since Coke Classic came out (intended to correct the New Coke fiasco), which uses corn syrup instead of sugar. But it just is NOT the same, anymore.

Don’t you have any product designers?  This is a huge a frightening miss on your part, as it is so obvious to the rest of us (the Coke drinkers).