As some of those in my local circle of friends are already aware, I am fasting today in preparation for an invasive medical procedure tomorrow morning. The last thing I ate was dinner and a piece of angel food cake, last night at around 9pm. My current best estimate is that I won’t get to eat again until tomorrow at around noon.

Not happy.

Adding to the fun is the prospect of a second, different invasive procedure on Friday. At least that one doesn’t require a full day of fasting as preparation.

The kicker, however, came this morning when I opened the laundry bag — which I had picked up yesterday from the laundromat after dropping it off on Friday — to discover that none of our clothes had been washed. They had charged us $28, had the bag for more than 24 hours, but never actually washed our laundry. But they marked it washed, and smiled as they handed it back to me yesterday afternoon.

This bums me out, because I had some comfortable clothes that I was going to wear today and tomorrow, to make this ordeal a bit more bearable, and now I can’t.

I’ve asked my wife to haul the bag out, because in my current condition, hefting that bag back to the laundromat will wipe me out, and I’m in an ornery-enough mood as it is. The people at the laundromat are usually quite nice and do a good job, so it’d be best if I didn’t snarl at them, and today I certainly would. So I need to let Kara take the bag back to them.

As my misery escalates throughout the day, I might post updates. Assuming I have the strength to tap the keys….

UPDATE #1: It’s around 3:25 p.m., and there is some truth in the phrase “laughter is the best medicine.” Kara and I just watched the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, and it definitely helped me to take my mind off this. Man, this is gonna be a long day….

UPDATE #2: It’s now 7:36 p.m., and I have finished ingesting my first of two doses of Fleet Phospho-soda, which is required before my procedure. Basically, it’s a concentrated salt syrup. I tried mixing it in Mango Gatorade to cut the taste, but that wasn’t nearly strong enough. I had to add one of its lemonade-flavor packets to the Gatorade to make it drinkable. Man, that stuff tastes awful.

My afternoon viewing included part of Mission: Impossible III and Live Free or Die Hard. In the queue for tonight: The Fountain, Lovejoy, and who knows what else.