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.

Owie

I have an owie. I think my ear pain started Tuesday night. I can't recall. The ear swelled completely shut making it hard to hear. It was very sensitive to the touch and the pain was radiating to my teeth and to my throat.

I went to the doctor yesterday and she almost sent me to the ER. She did not want the infection to travel to my brain. I said no because I thought they would lance the ear or something. She said "No" it was just to give me antibiotics with an IV - quicker.

She let me go with a strong anti-biotic, prednisone and ear drops. I was in so much pain. At the pharmacy I had to wait for one hour for them to fill the prescription. The pharmacist was concerned since I was allergic to penicillin; he remarked that this anti-biotic was a distant, distant cousin of that medication.

I explained to him that my "allergic reaction" to penicillin way back in 1979 was because I was ignorant of the fact that you don't take old medication. It was over six months old and sitting in our medicine cabinet. I broke out in hives and my face swelled up like I had the mumps. Since then I have had to tell every doctor that I am allergic to penicillin. Sigh.

He suggested that I have Benadryl handy just in case. I purchased a box. What a salesman!

I went home with my heating pad, meds and Advil. I was finally feeling much better by the evening.

Two hours after my pharmacy visit, I received a call from the pharmacist. He wanted to make certain that I was okay. He phrased it "I wanted to make sure you were still with us."  That made me laugh. I told him I was fine and he said he was just checking up on me. I thanked him. I told my daughter's boyfriend I was going to marry my pharmacist. LOL!

I am still in pain and swelled up. My daughter is putting the drops in for me. I found it funny that one of my meds said to take twice a day and the other said take every 12 hours. Uh....isn't that the same thing? Anyway, if the Advil works it's magic I will go into work. I have no plans this week-end and I can wrap up in my heating pad and blankets all day Saturday/Sunday.

Rain Pain

I used to love a good soaking rain. These days it is all about pain. Before the rain began last evening I was almost ready to throw up with the sick headache. It was not bad enough to take a migraine med, but I felt absolutely lousy. I was okay in the house with the A/C.  I needed quite a few things, so I did a "quick" run to the drug store. Heh,  heh. I needed a LOT of things.

I had actually been taking the migraine med about every other day (I know about rebound headaches and am not doubting this may be part of the problem).

I got into the store and I got sick. I made the mistake of picking up my daughter's prescription near the end of my trip and they had to prepare it. "This will take about twenty minutes." UGH!

Why didn't I stop at the pharmacy counter first? WHY?

I had everything in my cart except for the milk, so I sat down and waited. I really started to feel lousy. I could feel the sweat start all over my head. I had to wipe it away several times on my forehead. What is wrong with their A/C?  I can only imagine what the other customers thought. "God, she IS sick. I hope her medicine she is picking up works." 

When I went outside to put my purchases in the car, I realized that the drug store DID have their A/C running. You could have cut the air with a knife. It was so humid and thick. My head pounded.

The A/C in my car gets  a work-out.

I arrived at home and I unloaded the car. I tried to relax.

About an hour later (no medication involved) - poof! It was gone. I was typing away on the computer etc.. Before bed I took the dogs out and it was pouring. I stepped off the porch in an effort to get the timid boxer out and into the rain. He thinks he is a sugar cube. I let the rain just pelt me. I knew I shouldn't get this wet this close to bedtime but I didn't care. He did follow but he didn't dally around. He quickly peed and zoomed back onto the porch.

I just stood in the rain and wondered about headache pain and the weather.

Mmmmm....pineapple

I think this little one ate at least 15 pieces of pineapple and strawberries. He kept going back for more. Then one time I was over there and he held up a blueberry and told me to try one - "They are good!"

I went to a big family get together on Sunday. The migraine hit while I was holding a sweet little tiny baby girl and I refused to give her up (she was sleeping) to take any medicine. Lucky for me I have a sister who will wait on me hand and foot. She got me my medicine and some water.

It was too late. I was miserable and even had to take another pill the next day. It was Tuesday before I felt like myself again.

I no longer go to bed when I have a migraine. Laying flat slays me. I have to use my TV chair and nap. My head has to be in an upright position any more. I have no less than four U-shaped neck pillows and one is almost always within arms reach.

Ugh. I didn't want this to be yet another headache post.

So back to it. Kids are just the best!

Shoot the Sterno!

Sigh. Huge migraine today. I attribute it to the time change.

My daughter was my hero. Not only did she bring me my migraine medicine but she came into my office, closed the door, turned out the overhead light and massaged my scalp.

She stayed with me for over two hours to make sure I was okay.

It was a day that I could not leave the office. I was "chained" to my desk. I had scheduled working with tech support on the phone and a conference call later in an effort to solve some on-going problems.

She talked with me, joked with me and had me laughing. The pain finally went away and I got to head to the dentist for my semi-annual cleaning. Yay!

I sent her a big thank-you on facebook.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Sterno. My building has many events and many times food is catered in. To keep the food warm, the caterer uses those nasty burners that smell something awful. For a migraine sufferer, this is torture! Today was one such event with the sternos running full blast. No ventilation in our building. Grrr!

Let me re-phrase that

My little aches and pains are nothing right now. It is pouring a cold, steely rain outside and I feel just fine. A little ache here and there is nothing to mention. My Mom said her grandmother (the lady that raised her) was bedridden for the last 7 to 8 years of her life with painful arthritis. She kept a bottle of Four Roses under her bed. That was the only medicine they knew of back then and in her part of the country, I suppose.

So, I can get out of bed just fine. I do not want to sound like a baby. It may be starting but we have great advances in medicine and I realize that certain exercises can keep that pain at bay.

This poor lady did not have anything but a decent and friendly neighbor lady who took care of her and her bottle of whiskey. I think I will count my blessings!

Along the road

Taking a snapshot of the treeline on the other side of the road from where I was taking pictures of the lake. Whew. That was a long sentence.

Arthritis runs in my family. My doctor told me to take magnesium daily. It ain't workin', doc! My left elbow kills. It is my "picking up my coffee cup" elbow. I have to use two hands now to sip my coffee if I don't want much pain.

But, not every day. Today there is a big weather front moving in. Hmmm. Well, I can't complain about headaches anymore - so  you get some arthritis. I'll take the arthritis any day!

The visitor

My moon flower has a little visitor. At night, yet.

I am going to focus on my beautiful moon flowers, of which I happen to have an abundance of this year. I am only going to mention briefly the horrible headache I had yesterday. I slept most of the day away. I tried to manage with acetaminophen. That was not helping much. At sundown (as usual) I was feeling much better. I woke with a bit of one again this morning. Back to ibuprofen. Sigh.

I did manage a movie before the pain hit me. The Experiment with A Brody and F Whitaker. My niece happened to catch part of the movie and mentioned that she watched a video in psych class that was similar to this movie we watched.

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.

Still playing

 I used Photo! Editor (free download)  to modify this picture. The original is below with the gray background. The modified one has the gold tones to it. The original was modified a bit with an automatic color adjuster so it is not straight out of the camera, either. Both were given a rounded edge frame from the (also free) program Photoscape.

Headache update. What can I say? Not a single migraine since I began the Neurontin (Gabapentin). I don't like the monopoly of pharmaceutical manufacturers but I do like not having any migraines. I'll just say it as simple as that. It is what it is.

You can read more here and here.

My home has been very active the past month. I have my daughter back living with me and her beau (from Florida). I have my niece and her husband staying (she is 9 weeks pregnant). It is fun to look up what the baby looks like and what is forming. We go here.  The way my daughter talks, this may be the closest I get to participating in the "grandmother" role. That is fine by me. I have lots of nieces and  nephews, I get a share of baby time. Don't get me wrong. That is not near the same as having your own grand-bambino/bambina, but I respect my daughters' wishes to not have children if that is what she chooses. If I wanted to guarantee that I have grand babies, I should have increased my odds by having more children.

Let's throw in a movie update while I am here. The Hunger Games. Lots of confusion in this story. I will skip reading the book unless I get laid up in bed for months at a time and need reading material. I know that the movie is geared towards the young adult. **Possible spoiler alerts - stop here***.  

To me, if you are trying to survive, you do not hang around or walk out in the open area. You keep your ass hidden in the trees and you keep moving. When a "friend" dies, you do not just hold that person (while the other killers are possibly close by) and sing to them and then bury them. Your enemies are all around you tracking you.

Many instances of this practice in the story. I am not clear why it got the publicity and acclaim it did. It was a good watch. A lot better than some of the shows I have seen. We like how they chose lesser known actors (that could have been a monetary decision) but this made it look a bit more real. For the girl to have short and dirty fingernails (not bitten) made it so much more believable than some of the better known actresses who may have insisted on having perfect manicures.

I did not care for them gussying the girls up in prom dresses during the ceremonies. Really? Have we not progressed beyond this sexist image? Apparently not. Will I watch the sequels? Perhaps. Maybe to see if they have more of a story line for the W Harrelson character.  And we always love Stanley in anything.

And they walked away

This is not my car. My car is green. This is sister 1944's car. She was driving and her husband was in the passenger seat. They do not know what the lady who hit them was doing. She was left of center and she did not even correct herself when she almost hit them, she just plowed into them and was headed for the car behind them.

It was at the crest of a hill so my sister had little time to react, but was able to swerve to avoid a head-on collision. The collision was horrendous. It spun my sister's car around twice, it hit an embankment. The bank propelled the car back out and into the road and spun it around again. The car landed with it's back end lodged in another embankment facing north when they were originally headed south. An entire wheel with tire flew off the car.

Bless the car engineers. All airbags deployed as they were supposed to. That solid steel bar that is placed in the door stopped the offending metal barge of the other vehicle from causing more damage to my sister.

Her husband has a hurt elbow. She has a burn on the inside of her left arm and a bruised elbow. She and he both will have horrendous aches and pains today - no doubt. Whiplash is bound to be one of them.

The other lady? Not a scratch and she refused treatment.

They may never know what she was doing. Was she sleeping? Texting? Fiddling with her GPS?

Now they must deal with the memory of that sound. The feel of a car spinning out of control. The fear of not knowing if you are going to die. The sickening after thoughts. Looking at your property and knowing it is not salvageable. Dealing with insurance claims. Getting a rental car and depending on somebody to get you around until you get the rental. And then, lastly - searching for another vehicle. Ugh!

We did find humor. We always do. On the ride home I told my sister when I called their insurance company and I was telling the representative all that I knew and that they had hit a bank, he said "like a ditch - bank?"  Not realizing I could be referring to a building bank. As in ATM machines went flying and money was floating everywhere!"  We got a good chuckle out of that.

Not to mention that they had dealt with a kitchen under two inches of water when they got up that morning and had to sump pump it all out. This was one of those days where they definitely should have stayed in bed.

Celebration

However you celebrate it  (Independence Day) - have a good one.

As for me - quiet today.

A crew is coming in on Saturday (the 7th) to grill. I told them I was not 'doing' the fourth this year. Sigh. They said they will bring everything. Go for it.

I am on some new medication for migraines. And am scheduled for an MRI. I called earlier in the week when I got yet another headache. They are not full blown migraines but my quality of life really sucks. I am trying to find a solution to this "staying home and staying quiet all summer" theme that I have committed myself to. Until I find out what the hell is causing this or what is going on, I am laying low. If it is menopause then I may just have to deal with it until it all passes, but I am not taking it laying down. I will fight but only when I can muster up the energy to do so. I look like shit.

The ones coming in this week-end do not get headaches. I love them and I hope I do not get grouchy. Screw fire works. I hate the noise.

Okay, enough for the negativity. My new med is for seizures but also is believed to help with migraines. Anticonvulsant. Two days in and so far so good. Time will tell. I am certain the MRI will tell nothing, but at least I'll have gotten it out of the way. They seriously asked me if I had any pins or bolts in my head. Really? What am I? Frankenstein? I said the only metal I had were teeth fillings and my mouth is full of that. That is another story. Welfare children do not get to pick much from the dentist arena. Every dentist I have been to since I turned 20 has cursed the dentist that pulled one of my molars at 12 years old.

Okay - back to quiet. Seriously - have a good one. Grill outside if you must but get back into the shade or the Air or a big blue pool. God Bless America. And anything/anybody else who wants to bless us. Every one.

I think I'll go online and try to find an American song by Andy Griffith. I like to hear him sing.

Oh, and wonder of wonders. My computer sputtered on me this morning. I swear! Every fourth of July or close to it (you can go back in my archives and look for yourself) this damn computer crashes. WTF? It is back up and running but it gave me a good scare. I immediately backed up a lot of stuff. I am running out of external hard drive space. Prices are coming down, I think I'll get a 2 TB one.  Newegg has a WD for $129.

My favorite part of the festival

As you would know...my favorite time at the festival was when I got kisses from this adorable canine. And she would not stop. She was smaller than my cats. I wanted to take her home with me. Sigh.

I finally slept in this morning. I did not wake up with any pain but sometimes it comes after I move around a bit. I want to do so many things. I managed to get more flowers planted  yesterday and some shrubs cut back. I want to pull more weeds and thistles today but am also trying to balance it with rest.

This is not a bad pain. It is just annoying. Bending over is the worst. Clanging dishes brings in a close second. Dogs barking (when they hear something outside) comes in third. I know better than to clean with any harsh chemicals (smells). I will try to clean up but that means bending over.

I did not have to take any Treximet yesterday. I am taking prednisone for five days. It tastes awful! I am still swallowing my Advil. At this point my headache could be rebounds from this medication. Need to ween off of it.

One good note. I have washed everything in the house. Rugs, sheets, clothes, towels and pillows. I am caught up on that. My dishes are all caught up. If I can manage to stay home today and tomorrow I should feel much better by Monday. Right? Right!

I'm back in the saddle

This festival of hippies? You can have it. I was not impressed.  Quite the opposite, in fact.

The wedding was wonderful.

I am just posting a few sentences because I had a massive four day migraine hit and am just now able to function thanks to First Care and tramadol HCL.  No thanks to my doctor's office who would not see me until 10:30 tomorrow morning. Boo!

I have been a patient for over ten years. Maybe four or five times have I called in those ten years asking to be seen right away due to some pain or ailment. I think they could have done better.

My migraine was not responding to any Imitrex or Advil that I would throw at it. I had a thunderclap episode that I have had before but not as severe. It was followed by severe vomiting and a massive migraine. It scared the bejesus out of my daughter. I was beside myself with pain. It was 1:30 a.m.

I am stubborn about going to the ER.

I will post more about the event when I am feeling better. The highlights for me were the people who brought their dogs.

Shoes

When you do a lot of walking, shoes are important. I suppose if you do a lot of standing and running, too. Nurses have special shoes or they wear a good pair of tennis shoes. My foot doctor told me to wear New Balance (the higher the number the better). They get too hot and they do not look good if I have to dress up and give a presentation or go to a meeting. The highest I find is 610 at my local shoe store. Where I purchase my SAS taupe huggies. I can get away with wearing these to meetings and they are cool. Ugly shoes but they let me walk without pain. Or, very little pain. Not like before with the plantar fasciitis. I do get some burning from the friction, I will start using baby powder to help remedy that.

I think I just found out why I cannot find a higher number of New Balance. The 800 series runs over $100. Well, that is about the same that I pay for my SAS. If it stops the pain, it is worth every penny. And, so far - the SAS sandals stop that horrible heel pain. I seem to be able to walk almost forever. Now, I need to find something for my aching back when I walk too much. I did find out that if I pushed myself (like I had to in Key West) the back pain finally dissipated. YAY!

The above photo was taken while I was sitting in Key West at Mallory Square waiting for the sun set. You remember, where the cruise ship had to wait over an hour for the girl to arrive? Most folks tell me that a ship won't wait very long. When the doors are closed that is it, they said. This one waited, however.

I can see by the little emblem on the side of the shoe, that it must be the real deal. I have purchased knock-off crocs but not the real thing. I may have to give the real ones a try to see if they help my feet during long standing episodes or when I do a lot of walking. Do you have a certain type of shoe that you swear by? Have you had episodes of plantar fasciitis or heel spurs? If so, have you had a shot in the heel? I heard that hurts a lot. Maybe foot surgery?

Oooh, the icing

The icing that gave me heartburn. I don't care for the cake. In fact, I leave most of the cake and just eat the icing. Just like a little kid. Keeping in the fashion of the rainbow theme, my local bakery came up with the air brushed rainbow colors. I loved it. I did not notice the rainbow bunting around the sides until later when the box was opened up. Even when I snapped this photo, I had not noticed it, yet.

I had put things off too long while preparing for the event and with other members of the family arriving fifteen minutes before the event (they were bringing half the food and the decorations) our shower started 30 minutes late. 

My family is known for over-doing it. Well, most of us are known for that. Our general mind set is "the more the better". I am the youngest (closing in quickly on 52) and I don't suppose we are going to change any time soon. 

There was a lot of food. We had 15 women at the shower. There were four out of the five sisters in my family in attendance. I was a bit frazzled at first but calmed down enough to enjoy the event. We also tend to run notoriously late for events. We have exceptional organization skills, but we tend to over extend ourselves and that leaves room for a meltdown during the last phases of arranging an event because we simply run out of time because we try to do too much. This one was no exception. Two sisters travelled with extended family members and that led to late arrivals and needing to leave earlier than they wanted to. They usually do tend to stay and help clean up but sometimes the party you are with needs to be back home or somewhere else so they have to book it out of there.

Myself, I needed folks to leave so that I could relax for about ten minutes and then clean up. Relax again and clean up. There is a certain amount of chaos when people are helping you clean up. The shower was held at a building I am very familiar with and I knew what needed to be done and where things needed to go. Do not get me wrong. They did a tremendous amount of work helping me to clean up. The hardest part (for me) is lifting and taking everything out to the cars. I was fortunate in the fact that we could park just feet away from a door to the room where the event was held.

I do try to remember the pain (lower back and feet and head) so that I can better prepare for the next event and if I try really hard I am certain I will remember some that I have hosted that came off without a hitch and ran smoothly with a lot less stress. One more caveat that my family tends to have problems with. Asking for help. Is caveat the correct word, here? Eh, possibly.

To sum it all up, I realize and acknowledge the fact that I have all the above issues, but it is in my nature and after watching my sisters all of my life have come to find out - it is a family tradition. I doubt that I can change my ways even if I wanted to. So, Advil it is today as I set out to my niece's house to help her set up her computer. Besides...I get to spend more time with my older sister, her husband, my grand nephew and this beautiful niece that I do not get to see nearly often enough. It's all good.

Sigh, I guess we need it.

I will finally wish for snow. It is SO ugly outside. This photo is from last year. January is plodding along. It has been a wet and messy one. I don't know if I want snow (because of the shoveling), but the dogs do like to run and play in it and that always lifts my spirits. 

I especially like the snows that cancel school. For some reason that makes me feel all warm and cozy inside. To stay home on a "school day". I always feel like cooking a nice thick soup or a big meal and making the house all warm and cozy and smelling good. Sigh. I'm not sure we will use ANY snow days this year. The powers that be will probably go back to "we only need 3 calamity days" again.

The rain yesterday caused a lot of aches in my arms and wrists yesterday. Mostly on the right side. For some reason I did not want to take any Advil (I take so much), so I spent all day rubbing my wrist and upper arm. Then the winds came. I was half afraid to take the smaller dogs outside. They are quite funny, though. Cheech took off after a plastic bag that was blowing down the alley. He must have thought it was some strange and dangerous critter. I laughed and told him to "Get it, Cheech! Get it!" He gets all excited and jumps towards it but is never brave enough to actually go right up to it. The boxer? He's clueless.

Yikes!

I think this photo was taken at the zoo gift shop in Pittsburgh back in '07. Not certain. Oh, that is my daughter in that snake's mouth. 

Speaking of teeth. We were, weren't we? I had a molar pulled Thursday. I have not had a tooth extraction since the late 70's when I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. In the chair. That's right sissies. No nitrous oxide for us back in those days. The dentist used a C-clamp and pliers. My mouth remained swollen as if I had a wad of chewing tobacco in there for a week.

I was a bit nervous with not knowing what to expect. Psshh! It was nothing! Two things bothered me. The first was the sound as they pulled it out. Talk about fingernails on a chalkboard. Grrr! And about three hours later was the intense itching as the Novocaine wore off. That did not last long and I barely needed Advil. I took it more as a precaution than as a pain reliever. I had no pain to speak of.

I am a tad bit worried about the sinus cavity that the tooth root was close to. The dentist told me not to blow my nose for two days. Okay. The dental instructions said not to swish for two days. Can I brush?! How can you brush without swishing a bit of water around up there?

Eh, I made it through. Other than that "weird" empty feeling - things are fine. It is healing quickly and I am hoping that this resolves a lot of (what I hope were related to this tooth) problems over the past years. That upper right region of my sinus/gums/ear has had it's share of misery.

The finger is healing. The tooth (or, rather gum) is healing. My body must be in some kind of "what the hell is happening to us" mode. It must be working overtime healing my wounds.  That is a lot of stuff going on in the body. I think I need to rest all week-end and take it easy and let my body heal. Movies are waiting. Also hovering  ominously close is :   Angry Birds - yes...dammit! I have become slightly addicted. I keep picking the Nook up and playing "ONE.MORE.LEVEL."!!!  OMG! There is a web site titled "one more level". Oh, God. Don't go there.

Bleary-eyed

Sitting here bleary-eyed this morning. I have the day off from work. I worked until Friday last week and did not have much time to store away any energy. After my niece came in to help Thursday night, her Mother was like a mini tornado ripping around helping me over the week-end. My nephew assembled my (new to me) 7 foot prelit tree. I bought it from a friend of the family. Two strands of lights are out but he said that can be fixed easily. I need to get a bulb and go through each light one at a time to see what one is causing the entire strand to go dark. He made this 360 Panorama with his iPhone. They are my extended family and I am ever so thankful for them.

Remember how I said we "do lists" every year? There are always surprises and this year was NO exception. I am one happy camper. The absolute sweetest gift was the laughter. My niece's fiance had all his teeth pulled a week or so ago and the poor guy has been in total misery. He kept holding his face in his hands and moaning "Stop! Quit making me laugh!"

Oh my dogs, did we laugh.

What is missing from this photo? Dogs! I had them barricaded in the kitchen and you never heard such mournful crying. Poor babies.

What is residing in your living room furniture?

This is my nephew's cat and chair. Not mine. I loved this photo.

The ear ache started yesterday. Advil helps the best. The rain is pouring. I know "You don't have to shovel rain", but I am not sure I would shovel the snow either. I would just walk and drive right over it. Big whoop. It's snow. It's natural. Leave it alone.

I also am getting a sore throat. I woke up at 1:30 a.m. after going to bed at 10:30. WTF?! I am on my second cup of coffee and just about ready to go back to bed. It is 3:40 a.m.

Should I take the antibiotics the dentist prescribed for me? Is an infection of the tooth that is splitting causing the ear ache? Should I wait two days to see if the ear ache goes away on its own? Hah! Then it is Christmas day and I could possibly spend the day in misery.

Decisions, decisions.

On a side note. I work in an office where some of the employees are school psychologists. One guy told me that the way to test to see if you have ADHD is if you do not respond to caffeine. My second cup of coffee and I think I can sleep better than without it. Huh. Who knew?