Randman's World

I just returned from Palm Springs area on an investigation (actually stayed in Palm Desert, but same thing.) We had a dishonest employee set up his own propane company, and steal our assets to run it.

We (the general manager and myself) spent the week out there, driving around trying to find our propane tanks installed at customers houses, identifying and photographing them. To say Palm Springs gets a bit warm in the summer is an understatement.



We found the stash of our tanks. Several were repainted, and ready to go. Several still had our logos on them.

Apparently, one evening, we ventured into an area that we shouldn't have. Several "undocumented workers" approached our car. I waved at them, not stopping, and drove off.


At first, we thought we had been shot at, because that's what it sounded like. But, after we got out of there, and checked to make sure we weren't being followed, we checked the back seat and found a heavy pocket knife in the back seat.

Long story short, I got another rental car (after some explanation), interviewed our employee, got the confession, and got out of there. Flew the red eye back to KC, and spent the weekend with my son, who I swear grew while I was gone. I got home at about 1:30 a.m. My headlights in the driveway apparently woke Charlie up. When I peeked my head into his room, I heard the sweetest little voice say "Dada!"

As an update on the vertigo episode, I did some research, and found out that it's my Menier's Disease causing the problems. As a matter of fact, it's textbook Menier's. So, looks like I'll deal with this the rest of my life. Oh well. I found this quote (on the linked website) particularly accurate in describing the Menier's "Attack"

Most normal individuals probably cannot appreciate the devastating impact of this condition. Most of us are familiar with mild forms of vertigo or dizziness (from fair rides, excessive alcohol consumption, etc.). If you haven't recently experienced vertigo, try the following experiment (in a large open space, on a soft surface such as grass). Take hold of a heavy object at arms length (my son recommends a school backpack full of books) and spin around, leaning slightly backwards to balance the bag. Spin around 10-20 times at a rate of about 2 revolutions /second. Alternatively, if you don't want to injure yourself by falling over, sit in an "executive" swivel chair and have someone spin you around as fast as they can without the chair becoming unstable, for 20-30 seconds. In both these cases, you will experience rotatory vertigo for a few seconds when you stop rotating. You will have the sensation you are still spinning, your eyes will exhibit nystagmus (a beating from side to side) and if you continue, you may experience nausea.

Based on this experience, you now partially understand the problem. There are additional factors which the patient must deal with. One is that their vertigo may last from hours to days, compared with the few seconds you experienced. With the brief episode you experienced, the vertigo declined quickly with time. For a patient, the vertigo may be sustained, or even increase in intensity over a few hours. Another difficulty the patient may have is that the vertigo can be made worse by "external" stimuli, such as head movements or loud sounds. Even TVs and radios may have to be avoided.

It should also be considered that in this exercise, you had control over your situation and you knew you could stop when you wanted. You also knew that you would be fine tomorrow. The Meniere's patient has to deal with a lack of control of their situation, except for the limited control provided by taking anti-vertiginous drugs. Even when the symptoms have passed, they must face the stress and uncertainty of when the next episode will occur, and whether it will be more or less severe than previous ones. It is generally true that most people underestimate how disruptive episodic rotatory vertigo can be to an individual's life.