Here’s an interesting tidbit of history, and one which seems rather astonishing. The inventor of the lobotomy, a man named Egas Moniz, was actually awarded the Nobel Prize for his work. Talk about being desperate for a recipient. Of course, I imagine that this topic is one that the medical and scientific community would just as soon be forgotten, but unfortunately, lotobomies refuse to die a quiet death. NPR, just did an interview with a man who was lobotomized when he was only 12 years old.

It all goes to show how wrong medical “expertise” often is. Lotobomy was touted by some as the cure for all mental ills, just as it was formerly believed that tonsils were just some useless piece of tissue whose only purpose was to get infected. Some doctors still think that a woman’s uterus and ovaries are useless if she’s not actively breeding, but that’s another story.

What other gems of wisdom have we heard over the years? Well, in 1969, the Surgeon General announced that we basically had “won” the war on infectious diseases and could now “close the book.” Margarine was touted as a healthy food, hormone replacement therapy was believed to curtail heart disease in post-menopausal women, and routinely using antibiotics for everything and anything was considered the status quo.

By the way, Dr. Moniz was shot by one of his disgruntled ex-patients, and remained paralyzed for the rest of his life. Sweet revenge…

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I was off of the Internet almost the entire day and evening yesterday. What’s more, I was at home and the computer was turned off. For someone who’s email automatically checks every 15 minutes, and who starts getting shakey if I am away from the Internet for longer than 30 seconds at a time, this was a monumental task to accomplish.

However, it was done not to beat my addiction, but simply an attempt to restore full power to the battery in my laptop. It is supposed to give me about four hours worth of juice, but this last time around, it was gone after about an hour.

So I drained the battery completely, and then let it charge undisturbed, per instructions from IT support. Hopefully, it worked. I’m plugged in right now, but I’ll be testing it sometime soon–before my next flight.

What does one do without the Internet? Well, I had mundane tasks to accomplish, like unpacking, going through reams of snail mail, paying bills, and cleaning up. My wheezing was better so I took a walk when the sun came out, but was careful to walk “flat” rather than scale any hills. I covered my mouth with a scarf, which does tremendously help reduce bronchospasms. The air didn’t seem worse than usual, despite the advisory of “particles.” However, I did feel better when I was in Florida, and still feel a little bit winded here and lacking in energy. Seattle doesn’t seem very conducive to my health, as I do notice how much better I feel in other locations. It could just be my house, I don’t know. It’s an old building, and probably a lot of mold/mildew everywhere.

Anyway, it’s so good to be back online. It really is an addiction…