One book down...

Books read:  1

Movie:  Yet to be seen.

Bathroom remodeling:  0


Have a good friend in the hospital close to my home town. She is currently battling COPD with pneumonia.  Horrible jolt of reality when visiting her. We laugh about the good times we have had.

I leave and wonder about smoking, about illness, about cancer, over eating, about diabetes, about life.   I skip stopping to get slices of my favorite pizza on the way home.

All those rings

I smile when I look at this picture. I was paying for my daughter and I to get into the fair last month and the lady at the ticket stand had all these rings. Well, since I planned on taking pictures, I had my camera and of course - I asked  - and she obliged.

When you think about it, I guess they want people to notice and comment.

A couple of years ago, if you recall - I went through a Hardee's for coffee and the lady there also obliged me with an opportunity to take her picture.

Someone asked me if they were the same person. I said "no" because the one taken a few  years back said hers were all diamonds (most from pawn shops).

I wear no jewelry. Once in a while (when I dress up for an evening out) I will wear a necklace. I think the only ring I ever wore was my high school ring.

I wore an "engagement" ring for one month. I couldn't stand it. I stayed with the guy another five years - just never liked to wear a ring.

But for me - it is the sanitary issue. How sanitary is this? As for the one working at the fast food restaurant - I really don't think I want her giving me any edible food. I'm glad I was just getting coffee. Of course, if a ring fell into the order.....

It kind of grosses me out. Probably because I wash my hands a lot. I'm not obsessive. It is just a habit I have developed. I can't help but think that they skip many hand washing opportunities because of all those rings.

One tequila

This is a bottle of tequila. 110 proof the label said. My niece brought it to the family get together at Thanksgiving, I think. She did not open it and took it back home. Wait. Maybe it was March birthdays. Yeah, that was it. March birthdays.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, four. I don't sing that song anymore.

Had a relapse over the week end. Still coughing. But was sick to my stomach over the week end. Whatever this is, it has a hold of me good.

Work is crazy busy for me.

Finally, I may be starting to feel like doing things around the house again. Gah.

Way behind on yard work. I don't like it, but I am going to have to refuse family invites to do things. They get kind of grumpy when I do that. I get the guilt trip from some who say "No sense in going if you are not going."  That is such a sweet and nice compliment and I feel very honored to get it. But it also makes me feel pressured and I don't want to let anybody down.

I saw some pics of my sisters who were out this past week end. Let me just say this. I am so glad I quit the bar and drinking scene before the digital photo age and facebook. LOL! Good gawd!

Meds

By the power of prednis0ne and Azithr0mycin, I am standing (sitting) strong. Sure, there is the coughing. Still the sputtering (it has to get out somehow) but the energy is outrageous. What is in this stuff? Reminds me when I dallied in speed in my 20's. Yes, I did. Loved them. Stopped them. I never took more than 1 at a time. Eh  - not what this post is about.

Anyway..I probably overdid it yesterday. I worked from home all day. Manager will change my sick day to a "work from home" day. I have a lot on my plate right now and am so very thankful I can do so much of it from home.

But, I kept jumping up and cleaning this and cleaning that. My mind was racing. I plowed through and actually worked about 12 hours on the computer yesterday for work. With several breaks in between to sweep the floor, washed all the pots and pans (the kids will do the dishwasher etc... but I don't put my pots and pans in the dishwasher so they were all dirty).

I was shaking. It was either the prednis0ne or the Azi - or both. I was able to eat (but not like before on the prednis0ne.). And I recall reading that somebody said they can't sleep when taking prednis0ne, so great. Now, I can't sleep. LOL!

I just read a page of side effects. LOL! Most of them I already had, but this one cracked me up. "shortness of height".  Wait, what?

Day two of the incident where I reported the p0rn. Not one word has been said. In fact, there is an enormous amount of work that I am doing regarding the filter, but my manager has not said one word that he even received my e-mail about the report. What would it hurt to say to me "I received your e-mail and report, we will look it over and decide what to do."  Who-ever "we" are. That would be the least I would expect. He could say "Let me know if you see anything else suspicious."  Or, he could say "This is not what we intended when we purchased this product, please mind your own business." (probably too scared to say THAT to me). But what? To ignore it completely? WTF?!

There is a big meeting on Friday and I am certain the filter will be the main topic because we are making a huge switch over on Sunday. I plan to be working 24/7 next week. And the prednis0ne will be gone by then. But that is okay - at least I might have the chance to sleep.

Since I can't sleep, I made my coffee and am drinking it. I pulled a dog hair out of my coffee and no lie, 1 minute later my phone dinged. I checked the message and it was a comment from "Dog Hair in My Coffee". LOL! And, hey - by the way 'welcome back!'  I thought she had done gone "off the social media grid".

Insomnia

This is pretty much how I feel this morning. I have been awake since 2:30 a.m. I got up at 3:00 and started on the computer. Mostly work stuff. I had Thursday and Friday off. Thursday there were a few filter issues and I am responding to them today. Get out of my way.

I added some links to our Tech web page for the new filter and I am raring to go. Except for this cough. I have discovered that holding my stomach while coughing helps me a bit. At least the headaches seem to be gone for now.

My daughter has run the gamut on this one before. She said "You have this now? Okay, this stage is next." And she is spot on. Now comes the drainage. As if the dry hacking cough didn't do enough to rip out my throat and break my ribs, now the coughing and sputtering.

At least I can go into the office today with very few people working. Most have the day off. I will probably take my Clorox wipes with me and wipe down the phone, door knobs, the mouse, the keyboard, the microwave handle - all things I touch today.

I slept most of the day away yesterday. It was beautiful outside. I did manage to get a chair and let the sun beat down on me for about 15 minutes and get some fresh air into my lungs. It was quite heavenly. I had let the inside house temperature soar to 74º Fahrenheit. I immediately opened windows and doors and turned the fans on to cool it down and get the stale air out.

I am very short of breath with this cough. It is the kind where you start a slow panic when you can't get your breath. I would hate to suffocate. When I get short of breath I have to sit down and have a fan blowing directly into my face or I begin to get light headed and my limbs begin to turn to jell-o.

I don't know if you know what I mean by that feeling, but it is very unnerving. It makes me start to panic and I have to give myself a mental shake and remind myself to breath. Just breath. I can only imagine this is what it must feel like to be asthmatic.

There. I have regained some of my useless babble for the blog. Nonsensical stuff that gives me the chance to purge. Now that it is time to feed the critters and get into the shower, NOW is the time I would like to go back to sleep.

Ouch. One of my cats just nailed me a good one. She is impatient. She knows it is her feeding time and she stretched up and clawed my leg a good one. It hurt and I brushed her off. She got pissed and ran over under the table hissing at me. Hissing! I turned my chair around and glared at her. She glared back. Oh, she is a stinker that one.

Now, she has jumped up on my computer tower under my desk and I reach down to pet her and we are fine again. She licks my hand as if saying "Sorry."  I re-assure her and say "I know, I will feed you soon." I pet her some more and she is soft and furry and ...OUCH!! The damn thing bit me.

Color me miserable

I know I've used this photo before. I am in agony. Each cough brings SO.MUCH.PAIN. My sides ache so bad and my head hurts when I take a coughing fit. And it is one of those gut-wrenching, rib-clutching, horse coughs. I am surprised I have not ripped out my vocal chords.

When I feel a cough coming on I groan and I want to cry. Attempting to stifle the cough only makes it that much worse and twice as painful as the body reacts violently to the attempt.

My breathing whistles and rattles. My daughter wants me to go to the doctor, now. She went.  That is when the doctor sent her over thinking she may have pneumonia.  She went and they told her it was not pneumonia and that  they could do nothing for her. She had to ride it out.

I can still walk around and do things. Although I quickly run out of breath and have to sit down. I find myself not being able to catch my breath. I get restless sitting in my TV chair all day. It drives me nuts.

There will be no dinner today. I am far too sick to place myself in any body's house in this condition and I have not been grocery shopping in ages. We have been surviving on hot dogs, mac & cheese and take out pizza. The two "kids" I live with could care less about ham and potatoes and deviled eggs and any other Easter dinner treat you can think of.

Me? Oats and scrambled eggs. And Popsicles. And Gatorade. I don't like Gatorade. I went back to plain water.

I have sinus pain and pressure on top of the cough and my lower back hurts along with my back where the lungs reside. I don't want the "P" word and I don't mean pneumonia. A guy at work had pleurisy last week. I remember this ailment all too well. I have had it so many times I know the symptoms and I don't feel them yet.

Well, it is off to find the acetaminophen for what good it does. Do you purchase name-brand or generic over the counter medication? I seem to have a mental issue where I feel the generic does not work as well. It irks me because of the monetary issue involved with buying name brand products.

Cranky

I've got the coughing, head achy, sides sore from coughing blues. Restless. Headache not responding to acetaminophen which is what I take now. I have been ibuprofen-free for a couple of weeks. Acetaminophen has the same results as Pez candy.

My doctor thinks ibuprofen may be the reason for my heartburn. Not. I still have a lot of heartburn. I am on a daily medication of  PPI (proton pump inhibitor),  too. The pink stuff was my best friend last night.

Anyway - the cough. My sister had it and my daughter still has it. The doctor sent my daughter to the hospital for chest x-rays etc... she thought she might have pneumonia. She didn't (doesn't). No medication for viral infection.  Just acetaminophen or ibuprofen. They both ran a temperature. I didn't. I never do. I cannot recall ever having a temperature higher than 98 or 99. This could be what the acetaminophen is doing for me.

How convenient that this malady should strike exactly on the four days I have off from work for a long week-end. I don't have to take any sick days off. That is contingent on the fact that this illness is gone by Monday.

Let's see. What did I watch? A movie? I can't recall. My day was a blur yesterday. Oh - I watched a bunch of documentaries. So easy to sleep to. I wake up, glance at the TV - learn me something then drift back into a fitful sleep. It was "Return of the Plague - TB", "The Elegant Universe - String Theory",  and "Photographing Africa".  String Theory is especially a good show to put you to sleep. Trust me on this one.

The "smoking" road not taken

I found this picture on the Internet and I thought it funny. Of course, smoking is not funny. Neither is high sodium content soup.

I don't think about smoking very much. I was one of the fortunate ones and did not begin in my teens or my twenties. I have no desire to start. I did smoke a cig or two at a bar but I don't think I ever inhaled. I know that sounds funny given the comment from Clinton, but I imagine if I ever inhaled I would have coughed my lungs up.

I think a lot about smoking now that my sister is with us. I think back in the day she and her husband smoked Belair or something like that. Today it is the cheapest she can find - Sonoma Light 100s or something.

My Mom and Dad rolled their own. They purchased Bugler tobacco and my Mom had a cigarette rolling machine. My Dad rolled by hand. When she would go out to a store or restaurant she would smoke Pall Mall.

My brother smoked Camel, I think. He has since stopped. He had a nodule removed from his throat and he switched to cherry cigars and it took a little while but he was able to stop altogether. His companion (who is 17 years his senior) still smokes a lot.

My daughter told her boyfriend he was going to smoke an E-cig and she purchased one for him for Christmas. She told him if she caught him smoking cigarettes it was a relationship breaker. She and I both despise tobacco smoke. It gives us headaches. My sister smokes outside.


This year I have been lucky. Knock on wood. I did not get that awful flu bug that a lot of family got and I did not get strep throat and I did not get that nasty cough. I am in the bout of a misery of headaches because of certain triggers (that I cannot control) but other than that - I am feeling great.

Well, not great. As great as can be expected for my self-inflicted lifestyle.

My brother and his wife have been dealt a serious life threatening situation and I am sharply reminded that life is a fragile blessed thing that I sometimes take for granted.  They found a tumor in my SIL's stomach and removed it. It is cancerous and she is developing blood clots and it is all so awful and scary. They think there is more in there and at first they wanted to go back in as soon as she heals from this surgery, now with the clots they decide to wait six months maybe longer.

They have a long road ahead of them and the incident has all of us sitting up and taking notice of how precious our health and life really are.

Is there a doctor in the family?

As most of you know sister 1956 has been staying with me on and off since January. She does travel back to our home town so she can help watch her granddaughter and then she stays with my brother if she needs to.

She is a heavy smoker and of course being in the middle of a life crisis her immune system is run down. She has had one of the worst coughing bouts for over two weeks. It seriously sounds like she is going to cough up a lung. It is brutal.

My Sister-in-law (married to brother 1953) is in the hospital currently for some medical issues that I may talk about in another post. His son became a doctor last summer. He was visiting also - he works at two different hospitals and this one happened to be one of them. We all settled into the small hospital room and we chatted about things. Listened to each other tell stories - you know - regular family visits.

Sister 1956 left for a while, not sure if she went to the bathroom or just needed to walk around (it was much too far to walk to have a smoke). I was telling my brother about my sister and her cough. I was trying to get her into stat care to get medicine, but she didn't have money. She recently signed up for Obamacare but her doctor visit ended up being $182 and she is to pay $92 out of pocket. She was a bit dismayed about that. We may look for another doctor.

We were not paying much attention to my nephew as he was on his cell phone texting or reading etc...When my sister came back in we chatted some more.

My nephew sat up, asked my sister a couple of questions about her cough and proceeded to phone her in a prescription. His half sister is a Pharmacist in my town. (His sister is a mortician. Not a practicing one but she graduated from the school).

Lickety split. Just like that. My sister had her medicine. A z-pak, cough medicine and a steroid.  She has no regular doctor. She recently started a new one in my town so she could continue her high blood pressure medicine. I did remind my nephew about her high blood pressure. Before this she was getting prescriptions at a free clinic and it was a hit and miss episode as she is not well known for keeping up with taking care of herself. Letting her prescription run out etc...

She has the family curse. Take care of everybody else and some strangers before even thinking about ourselves. Hopefully now she will get well and nip this horrible cough in the bud.

Did I mention that my daughter has a severe case of strep throat and laryngitis? Yeah. She said the doctor is probably going to say they need to come out on Thursday. Wha..?

Mama needs to sit down.

On the line

My daughter's current beau works in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant. His brother also works there. His brother is younger - nineteen while my daughter's beau is 21.

The brother was in the hospital four days last week for his back problem. Neither one have medical insurance of any kind. Their father (still do not know which one is their biological - they have had several step dads) is out of the  picture. Neither son gets along with current step dad and their Mom kicked them out as she prefers her current husband over any child she bore. Three siblings share an apartment in town.

The brother is small in stature. His diagnosis was spinal cord trauma. His brother said it is from lifting large vats of chicken, grease etc... One is supposed to ask for help when lifting them but some people are stubborn and get an attitude of  "I don't need no stinkin' help!"  Or mostly, there is no available body to help. Sadly.

So, he left the hospital with a prescription of Vicodin. How American. He is back to work. There was talk of him filing for workers compensation, not certain if he is or did. Maybe his employers talked him out of it. He is supposed to be doing light duty, but we all know how that goes, right? When you are young and you have no parental backup, you have to take what you can get.



My daughter's beau is working 12 hour days. This upscale restaurant cannot keep help. Listening to the way he tells it, the managers and supervisors are all screaming at each other and people just leave. The turnover is tremendous.

My daughter's beau is applying for two other jobs this coming week. We are hoping he gets it. Twelve hours Friday, Saturday and Sundays really stink.

I always crowed about how "good" the food was at the restaurant. But at what price? At least I don't hear any horror stories from my daughter's beau about slimy food or bad food. That all seems to be on the up and up or he just does not speak about it.

If it wasn't for their darn bleu cheeseburgers (picture above is stolen from the Internets again - not in any way affiliated with the restaurant) - which are to DIE for, I would ban that place. Aw, have mercy.

Just a side note (if anybody cares) my daughter's father was never in the picture, either. I preferred it that way. (I only owe her an explanation). I never have accepted one dime from public assist or any man. I made certain I had a good job with good insurance and was able to care for a child all on my own before I decided to have one. Call it a trust issue, call it what you may.

Regardless, I give my daughter full support when she is having work issues. She is still covered  under my insurance (thank heavens for that law) and is very close to going full time at her job with her own benefits. I would advise her against working in an establishment that was so careless for their personnel that they would suffer in such a manner. She has my total support.

I feel for those young adults (and any person for that matter) who do not have health insurance. The stress of deciding whether or not to go to the doctor or the hospital is a huge risk.

I hear him getting ready, now. It is 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Another twelve to fourteen hour day coming up. And, he goes. He grumbles, but he goes. I have never seen him drink caffeine of any kind. I would imagine it won't be long until he leans on that crutch as most of us do. I ask him if they feed him. It is a restaurant, of course they do. I advised him to stay hydrated. He said "yeah." Sigh.

Hazard in my home

I still have one of these in my bathroom medicine cabinet. Yep. A health hazard. I cannot even throw it in the trash. I have to dispose of it properly. Maybe I'll just keep it. And here I am thinking if anything was going to be a health hazard it would be the mold in the basement. Or at least, the kitty litter box.

We used to play with mercury in a bowl when I was young. My brother would break the thermometer and we would roll the mercury around in a big white bowl and watch it bead up and separate and reabsorb itself back together. We poked our fingers into it to make it separate. My best guess in late 60's or very early 70's.

Kept us fascinated for an hour or two before just washing it down the sink drain.

And the mercury in my teeth? I have a lot of fillings. I was more fortunate than my siblings (being the youngest). I received the best dental care and was introduced to dental hygiene at an earlier age than they were. I am the only sibling without false or at last partial teeth in my mouth.

Reading about mercury poisoning, I can pretty much blame every problem I have on mercury poisoning. Yep. I love the one about children - a symptom of mercury poisoning is that they do not respond to their name. LOL! Then, every kid I ever knew and know has it!

Anyway, the thermometer reference means I am sick again today. Ear ache and sore throat and tired. I hate waking up tired. I have no motivation at work. Not since the latest incident. Sucked the joy right out of my work. I called off Monday, and wanted to go home yesterday. Another co-worker beat me to it and I said "Oh, heck with it. Just tough it out the rest of the day." 

Advil, coffee and a shower. Hey, I wonder if you can get a false leg with a boot that can kick you in the rear? You know, just attach it to your bathroom door like you would a mirror. Whenever you need a boost, just push a button and turn around - bam! One kick in the rear. Well, it may just make somebody a million. Well, what? There was that pet rock thing! And that god-awful singing fish on the wall!

Breathing

Not my photo - swiped it from the Internets

So there I was Sunday. The day after the party. I was uncomfortable. I was finding it hard to catch my breath. Really? I only drank half a beer and one tiny kamikaze. Which was very delicious, I might add!

I fixed dinner. I dabbled on the computer. I watched a Christmas special. I washed some clothes. Other than that I just didn't feel all that good. No headache, though. Just a tightness in my chest and short of breath.

I went to bed at the usual time. I woke up earlier than usual this morning. Hmmm. Tightness in chest is gone. I feel pretty good. I get up - take the dogs out. I had two hours before getting ready for work. I get on the computer, catch up on some stuff. After about an hour I feel that tightness in my chest again. And, that smell! Ugh. That air freshener I found in the Christmas decorations sure lasts a long time!

I had sprayed some holiday scent on Wednesday when I put the tree up. It is one of those tiny cans from Bath & Body scented in winter holiday or something like that. Yuck! That can got tossed, turned my fan on and am trying to air the room out. It is warm outside but not near warm enough to open a door or window. It is also wet and damp.

Smells have always been an issue for me, but now that I get fewer headaches I thought I could stand a spritz of holiday freshness. Can it.

Which brings me to the lovely picture I have posted above. Not very festive is it?

Brother 1953 loved bugs and snakes and frogs. He collected many different creatures of that nature. He wanted to keep them all so he kept them in jars of formaldehyde in our basement. Our basement shelves contained canned tomatoes, green beans, carrots and pickles on one side and on the other - spiders, snakes, frogs, and salamanders in jars of formaldehyde. When my friends were allowed to come over they wanted to go to the basement to see the bugs and snakes. Needless to say their parents always wanted me to come to their house instead of the other way around. Could be they heard of the bugs and snakes in our basement (along with the dad with the drinking problem).

Anyway, one time nephew 1972 must have been angry or just being a kid - broke all the jars in  our basement. Probably early 80's. Our house smelled of formaldehyde for a long time. I was away at the time. Somebody else picked up the critters, but the liquid was all over the floor and shelves. I can imagine how that smell must have affected the few of us still living in the house. Along with our coal fireplace. My mom loved that fireplace in our dining room. 

Air fresheners and household cleansers can be very obnoxious to people with sensitive sniffers.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/208333-health-risks-of-scented-air-fresheners/

Phthalates

http://healthwyze.org/index.php/component/content/article/184-how-air-fresheners-are-killing-you.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formaldehyde

Moon Burn

I gave one of my moonflower's a nasty sunburn. Or, would that be moon burn? Just playin' around with those free programs again. These days I spend most of my time fixing food and cleaning up the kitchen. It is getting old.

Most of us are sick. Even the dogs. They had kennel cough. I did not get them shots for it this year (we board them when we go to the reunion for three days) - they got their shots yesterday and their distemper. And flea medicine. The neighbor told my daughter their dog and cats all have fleas. We don't see any yet, but we should put the medicine on them anyway. Check. Taken care of.

I have small ear aches in both ears. Nothing too harsh. I almost always have a fan running on me (these days) and at times it causes me to get an ear ache. At home it hits my right side, at work my left. That explains why I have it in both ears. Sigh.

Trudging on through August. Work is busy - school staff are back in the buildings. Some have already brought students back, some are coming back next week.

Liquid Fire

This label boasts Scrumptious Combustion! What do you put hot sauce on? I like it on my eggs though I do not eat it all the time. Mostly I like ketchup on my eggs.

I would add hot sauce to my pork. When I get chili at Wendy's I always get two packages of their hot sauce and add to it.

Hot sauce is something I never gave much thought to until I began making and taking the buffalo chicken dip that is rather popular around here right now. Frank's hot sauce has their version of the recipe on most of their labels. Shredded chicken, hot sauce, ranch or bleu cheese dressing, cream cheese. My recipe calls for shredded cheddar. I do not care for bleu cheese so I always use ranch.

I can't drink coffee this morning because I get a blood sample taken in two hours. I do drink lots of water. That makes it so much easier for them to take blood. I have unco-operative veins. Water consumption helps plump them up. LOTS of water. This is the six month visit where they analyze my blood for cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL and sometimes sugar. Fun stuff.

Hello...Nice to meet you...here - have some germs.

I watched Contagion.  Fishburne's character brought up a very ironic fact. In the old days - the gesture of shaking hands was to show the person we were meeting that we held no weapons that would harm them.

As all of us now know, we have the unseen killer. The minuscule germs. And, I still shake people's hands. Can we bring in the elbow rub or the fist bump?

The movie was good in a way that it brought attention to the way a disease such as SARS can get out into the world and spread rapidly. I was astounded at Winslet's character's remark about the average person touches their face 3 to 4 thousand (yes, thousand) times a day!

Ready for bed

Nobody wants to see my finger without some kind of cover on it (except for a few sick family members who I believe like the idea of me in pain), so I am posting one where he is wrapped around a splint, ready for bed.

I will sleep with the splint for a month until I see the Dr. again. They said everything looks great. I looked at my black and purple finger and I said "If  you say so!"  They said everybody says that.

I was somewhat disappointed in "Cowboys and Aliens".  It was later that I realized it relates to the phrase "Cowboys and Indians".  There are Indians in this movie, also. The character played by Wilde was laughable at best.

"Apollo 18" was scary enough to make me jump in places. Really only two characters in the entire movie, plus a third has a little screen time.

Just a matter of time...

...before the numbing wears off. Had the cyst removed from my finger this morning. I doubt that I will be typing much after the numbness wears off. My shoulder on the other arm hurts like a bitch. Raking leaves? I don't know. It kept me awake almost all Thursday night and last night. I could not take anything after midnight last night so it was very hard to dress and drive, etc.. (No, I did not try to dress while I drove - I mean separately.)

The needle that they used to numb my finger hurt like a bitch, too. Usually shots do not bother me.It would not be so bad if they kept the needle still, but no - they have to move it around while it is in there. Gawd!

I also hated being awake through the tugging and moving while they worked. Yecchh. Medical procedure is not one of my strong suits. You may notice how the iodine turned my entire hand orange. They painted me all the way up to my elbow.

I am full of coffee, have had some food and have downed 3 Advil. Both arms will be incapacitated. I guess I better rethink my dish contributions for Thanksgiving. Unless the shoulder stops hurting. I have a script for Vicodin but not sure when I will venture back out to get that filled. (if at all). My daughter works in a pharmacy - but they are very strict about relatives touching drugs for family. Rightly so. Besides she does not work at MY pharmacy.

Am going to go sit in my tv chair now and tune everything and everybody out. My finger is starting to feel like a tuning fork.

Much better morning

When I woke up I noticed that I had slept about 8 hours. Amazing! I did have a doggie present waiting for me. Oh well. I did notice that I forgot to turn the furnace back on - it was 63 degrees Fahrenheit in the house. Brrrr! I also noticed a headache (time change and being sick).  I clean up the dog stuff first. I turn the coffee pot on second and the furnace on third. I take two Advil What?! No sore throat!? What!? YAY!

Can it be? Can things be turning around? My filters are working and I do not have a sore throat?! Okay. That little pink monkey picture up there? That will be me today! What the heck is that? A banana peel on my head?

Sick

Almost everybody has it. Last week all I heard was hack, hack, hack. It just sounds awful. These can go on for days and what are they supposed to do? Report off sick for four days, six days? Not many folks can afford that kind of luxury.

Me? Not a dry hacking cough. I got the sore throat, headache and achy body. I would take Advil for the achy body but I can't swallow. Well, I can get two pills down but they don't touch the headache.

My gums in the problem area are a mess. I brushed with peroxide and now have a huge, swollen bump over the problem tooth. I want to take a sharp toothpick and just poke it because it itches so badly. But, I won't.

Work is so very stressful right now. The filter is a total wreck right now. Facebook and youtube. I cannot seem to win with these two sites. They are driving me insane. I have the company calling me again today. I feel as if I am that little dutch boy trying to hold back the angry waters with his finger. Except he was successful.

Smarter choices

Trying to eat better. This is my breakfast plate from a week or so ago. Cheese, toast and fruit. Notice that the cheese and bread are long gone.