Through the larger vena cava

I'm surprised nobody asked how I expected to bleed this week, but maybe it was obvious -- another blood donation. The drive started yesterday, but I avoid donating before the week's lectures. Donating seems to mess up my mathematics skill, which turns lectures into deathspirals.

The donation was much like last time. The twist was a local anaesthetic -- the first time I'm aware of ever getting any anaesthetic (even counting my cavity filling). It felt ... well, not like much. My fingers fell asleep, but I can't say that wasn't because of the blood pressure cuff used to make my deep, narrow, elusive veins stand out. The donation was over much faster than average. The point of injecting an anaesthetic into the elbow to avoid the pain of a blood-donation needle into the elbow I leave for wiser minds to consider.

My elbow gauze is cyan, with big smiley faces all over it. They had ``Be Nice To Me'' stickers for first-time donors. The top row of stickers ran off each page's edge. Those stickers end in a secant with ``Be'' cut off. I hope they got a discount on the printing.

They gave me a pack with 14 ferrous fumarate tabs, but noted my iron was high enough I didn't need them and could just eat more greens. (I should.) The weak irony is the only time I was ever turned away from donating was because my iron was borderline low.

It's two years and seven hours since I moved out of Troy. I should update the address on my ham radio license.

Trivia: Auguste Comte's reform ``Calendrier Positiviste'' dedicated March to the abstract concept of paternity, and the concrete person of Aristotle. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, E.G. Richards.

Currently Reading: Titan, John Varley.