Lack of Mischief: Managed
I accomplished next to nothing all weekend.
I wrote at great length in the past about the issues I had when I first attempted to switch from donating whole blood to donating platelets at the Red Cross. I haven't mentioned it again since there wasn't much to say: With one exception, all of my subsequent platelet donations have gone off without a snag. I am, however, thinking of changing my policy of selecting only DVDs I don't own and haven't seen to watch while donating, since that severely limits the options. Last weekend I watched Year One.
However, there are still problems with donating this way. You are trapped in a chair and hooked up to a machine for about two hours (which is why you get a portable DVD player and a DVD of your choice to watch). That's a long time to squeeze that stupid rubber ball while your blood is being extracted for processing - about fifteen minutes before I was done last weekend, the fingers on my left hand didn't want to move anymore. (Decades of typing have made them a little sensitive to spending too much time on repetitive motions.) Worst of all, however, is the way that the donation knocks me on my ass in a way that normal whole blood donation never did. I spent most of Saturday afternoon passed out, which led to me being up most of the night, which led to me being groggy most of Sunday… There were a number of places I wanted to go and people I wanted to see over the weekend, and I didn't do anything.
And they want me to do this every other weekend…