I went back to work today

And while I'm pretty tired, it went okay. I made it through a mountain of paperwork I was behind on. After I got home, my roommate sent me to Gumbo Ya Ya for dinner as he wasn't up to cooking - I'm afraid he has the crud now. We watched two episodes of The Dragon Prince, which I really like, and then we checked and there's only one more left. I hope they make another season. There is some question due to accusations against the showrunner of misogyny in terms of his treatment of his female employees. So we'll see. Not that I support misogyny, but the series is so well done and it's through the efforts of all the people in the studio, male and female. I'd hate to see it go unfinished. I haven't heard much since that made the news in November.

Now I'm at least temporarily in bed relaxing and getting warm. I am very tired. I do need to get to and do the dishes in a little while. But for now I think I'll just rest. 

I feel better

So I'm planning to go back to work tomorrow. It's after 1 am though, so I guess I'd better go on to bed. I'm still coughing occasionally, have a headache still, and I tire really easily, but otherwise I'm doing okay. 

I feel awful

This is not how I wanted to ring in the new year--not at all. My chest cold has moved into my head, which is a little odd, as it usually goes the other way. I got up and took my medicine after a bad night of being up and down, so I'll probably just head back to bed after I drink something. On top of everything else, I was in bed last night when the kitten, who usually goes for succulents, decided to nibble on my bamboo. So he got summarily removed from the room and the door is closed right now. He loves the succulents, the juicy, thicker, probably sweeter leaves. He pulled a Hawthornia up like a bonbon out of its little pot, and I found it yesterday by accident and put it back down in the soil to see if it will root again, even though it's been a little nibbled on the outer leaves. I don't hold much hope for it, but still. The only plant in the house that is questionable as far as being toxic to cats is his favourite, the aloe, which doesn't appear to hurt him but can cause mild vomiting in cats. All the others are safe, and the toxic plants went to our pharmacy. He's denuded most of my red velvet Echevarria. I'm hoping it comes back. But it is frustrating. He was no doubt weaned a little early because he's a very orally fixated cat, and he loves to put fingers and just about everything else in his mouth. But for the most part, fortunately, he's leaving other plants alone, including the orchids. I have two of those blooming right now and then three others have put up flower spikes, so soon I'll have almost half (I have twelve, between what was at work and what was at home), one Oncidium and eleven Phalaenopsis species. The Hawthornia plants are each in two tiny pots in the same pot with a Phalaenopsis, and I'd been having trouble watering it in a corner, so I moved it out and that's when the kitten pounced upon. But he didn't hurt the orchid.

Here's what's blooming at the moment:



By the way, here are some links you might find interesting related to this post. The first is an article on types of orchids used as houseplants:

20 Types of Orchids to Use as Houseplants

The others I keep as a bookmark on my Chrome browser (both on the computer and the phone, in case I'm plant shopping and need to know if a plant is safe. It is the ASPCA's guide to Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Cats. There is another one for Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Dogs I also have. But they also have one for horses. It's very good, explaining the effect of each and including those that are good and bad for pets. For example, I loved my shamrocks, which are not true shamrocks and are actually Oxalis, and I had them in the library for years, and then at home at the apartment. But they can cause kidney damage in cats. So they can't be here, as there are two cats, an older one that doesn't really bother plants and the kitten, who is about 9 months old and is into everything. So off to the pharmacy they went. They're looking a little sad there, but they've had a good run. I need to tell them the window's too bright for them.

Alright, I'm going back to bed for a while. Here's hoping that medicine kicks in.

Well I did miss

Writing yesterday, so I've already missed one day, but in my defence, I felt awful. I'll try to keep blogging regularly. 

Tired of being sick

Tonight is dragging by so slowly. Can't sleep due to the coughing and sore throat. First I'm too cold then I'm throwing the covers off. I know it's just a bad cold but still... I'm thinking of just getting up but the CPAP actually helps with the congestion. And I'm foggy... I can't even read properly. But I don't think it's the flu because it came on so gradually - I've always had the flu hit me like a ton of bricks. This started slowly and built up, and I'd hoped it was sinus drainage from the weather change. But it's not a sinus infection that I could take antibiotics for, it's a virus and I'm definitely contagious, as I have brought plague into the house. My roommate, who is planning on joining a chorus in a couple of weeks, is not happy with me, and neither of us can be with another friend who is in a facility battling advanced cancer right now. I'm pretty sure that we're were going to be calling off the weekly Call of Cthulhu game, too. But for now the clock is ticking along slowly. It has taken me something like 25 minutes to write this, as I've had to go back on my phone a lot. I'm just tired in general and tired of this crud. :(

Happy New Year

I'd like to say that I have been enjoying a strange midweek day off, but actually, I've been in bed most of the day with a cold and have only come out to forage for food, get some more water, and go to the bathroom. I do have Stahist and Mucinex, so it's a little better than it could be, but I still feel miserable. But at least I can be miserable at home; I started feeling bad on Monday and then on Tuesday my symptoms were getting worse, but the other person I work with was off and I couldn't very well call in as I was needing to do her job and mine, and while we're back up for each other, no one else knows how to do it and we're currently between managers. So...I'm glad I went, as there was a surgery added on that at first didn't require authorization and then the post-op code did, and I'm not sure anyone else would have been able to know how to do the post-op codes and follow up, and the insurance will not allow you to put it in after the date of service. So all was good.

Still, I don't know about tomorrow. If I feel decent, I'll go. If not, I'll not...I don't want to spread germs any more than I have and it's just gotten so I'm more punky than I was. In any case, I have a rheumatology appointment tomorrow so it was going to be a short day.

I did venture out at one point and discovered we were low on bread. The Sabbath challah, which is two loaves, usually lasts a week, but money and food have been somewhat scarce this week and we've eaten more bread and peanut butter. So I thought I'd make some bread, but I didn't pull the recipe out and I was making it from memory with probably a low-grade fever. So I put too much sugar in it (just 1/4 a teaspoon, though) and what I thought was too much (1 teaspoon) of yeast, but everything seems to have come out all right. Then I remembered you add a teaspoon of yeast for the rapid-bake cycle, so the bread might be slightly sweeter, but otherwise should taste fine.

I got up for some water and to feed the animals and my roommate was sleeping as well. I took a shower after speaking to him briefly (the animals make a racket, of course, when you feed them, and that woke him up. I feel slightly better and that way I can probably skip one in the morning as it's late enough to work out as far as being clean. But I'd been sweaty and I hate the way I smell when I've taken Mucinex (guaifenesin). It has a distinct smell that affects all the mucous membranes and I've never liked it. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to it, but there you are.

I have been up long enough to get the bread out of the machine to cool, feed the animals, get some water, eat a mandarin orange, and take the shower. I'm actually starting to feel hungry; I wasn't so much earlier at all. I have had one banana, a baked potato, an apple, and the mandarin orange today, nothing else. Maybe I'm starting to feel better if my appetite is returning. But for now, I think I may crawl back into bed--I'm still very tired. By the way, I'm not coming up with any real resolutions this year, but I am going to try to write more. We'll see if that works.

So much for new year's resolutions

Oh, and I'm sick again, have been since Sunday's game. I went to work Monday hoping it wasn't anything to worry about, but it's a nasty cold and I stayed home Tuesday, Wednesday, and today, and when I went to the Little Clinic yesterday (my doctor couldn't get me in the day before), they did a flu test, which was negative, but gave me some cough syrup and told me not to go back to work until Monday. I'm still very tired and coughing, and snotty, but I am feeling a smidge better. I've actually sat up for about two hours at a time, maybe an hour and a half, and that's better than the half an hour at a time I was doing previously. I also took a trip this morning to get some Mucinex and cough drops and picked up some Lysol wipes at the time, but unfortunately, it was like closing the barn door after the horses were out--YKWIA appears to be coming down with it now.  :(

I've gone through an entire 124-tissue box of facial tissue. I got another one today.  Even the kind with the lotion has rubbed my nose raw to the point of needing to put more lotion on it.  Tomorrow I should get an order of some medical supplies from an online store that takes flexible spending cards, and one of the things I got is the nasal gel you use when you have a CPAP, as they can dry your nose out a lot.  I'm looking forward to that stuff.  I also got some extra pen needles (I take seven injections a day, but I tend to get just one box with my prescription, and that's only 100--so you can do the math).

Anyway, I'm feeling up to short bursts of the Internet, although I'm still spending a lot of time in bed and taking my non-drowsy cough syrup and trying to hydrate.  I guess that's best for now.

I've been sick

It started the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. I had a low-grade fever and a sore throat. I was off work Thursday, pretty bad off with a nasty respiratory virus (it wasn't the flu, I'm sure, as it was a gradual onset and didn't have a higher fever or really much of a whole-body ache). But it was nasty. I was feeling a little better that Friday with Mucinex and Stahist, and it was a light and short day as we had our company Christmas party that afternoon, so I left by 3 pm. I was careful to handwash or use sanitizer, but I did feel better. By 4 pm, though I was in bed because the sun was going down and that always seems to make a virus disease feel worse, in my experience. I spent the whole weekend in bed. I barely made it into work, but I did go to work Monday through Friday. I did feel better after Tuesday, but Friday (as in two days ago) was the first day I really felt myself again. I even went and had dinner with our friend who has cancer, as we were better and I think we weren't contagious anymore.

Yesterday I did a lot of errands.  I went to the bank and put in some money that was an unexpected gift.  I finally was able to get my taxes from H&R Block.  Lord save me from accountants--it took me almost an hour and a half to pick up and pay for my paperwork, the man there was so meticulous.  Thank goodness I came in when I did.  He was with a client when I came in, so I had to wait a little while, but there were three or four after me who waited the entire time I was here.  But I eventually left with everything I need.  Then I went and got my insulin and some medications for YKWIA at the pharmacy before they closed.  I stopped by Staples and got some ink for the printer, as we hadn't had any since September.  I also got gas and a few groceries.

I was tired when I got home. I'd left at 10 am and it was about 2 pm when I got home.  I did some work around the house and then went to bed for a nap for about 45 minutes.  We were going to work on the floors yesterday and also do the postponed latkes for Hannukah that we missed.  But I was really tired, still, so we put it off till today and cancelled the game.

This morning I woke up clumsy, feeling bad, and full of mucous.  It's better now that I've gotten the Mucinex and Stahist in me, but I am coughing, blowing my nose, sneezing, etc.  So maybe I'm not out of the woods yet.  I thought I'd gone into a sinus infection.  That may be true, but I'm out of breath easily and wheezing.  I think I may be going into bronchitis.  I do have a nebulizer and some medicine for it.  I may see if that helps, and use it at night.  I've swept so far, and the mopping is nigh.  I'm also doing laundry, as I didn't for two weeks and I have one purple pair of pants left (hey, I liked the alliteration), and no other pants or shorts to speak of.  I'm running around in pyjama pants and a t-shirt in the house right now, and those were both leftovers, the shirt from yesterday and the pants from the dirty clothes.

Anyway, I guess I'm mostly back.  The house is better--I did the dishes and bathroom and trash.  Thursday night I took the trash containers to the kerb and did a thorough job on the cat boxes, as they'd gotten bad while we were sick.  I need to get something stronger for the shower, like Kaboom, to take care of some of the stuff on the tile.  But otherwise, things are better,  and I do feel better.

*sigh*

Went to work today feeling pretty well and my doctor's office called and told me to stay off till Tuesday, that I have an elevated white count and need to take an antibiotic. So for the second time this week I've been sent home. But other than feeling just a bit tired, I'm doing fine. Frustrated, but fine.

I've been sick

On Sunday, we were playing the game and despite some caffeine, I was falling asleep through most of it, and it was very interesting.  YKWIA had a candid talk with me afterwards about contacting our family physician (we both go to him), as this just wasn't normal.

On Monday, I felt so terribly tired.  I was fuzzy, making mistakes (and hopefully catching them), but it was hard to do even basic scheduling, dragging, dropping, hitting all the drop-down menus, etc., keeping the days straight, and putting x-rays and doctors' visits on the same day.  In other words, 90% of what I do in a day became suddenly really hard.  I checked my blood sugar, which was a little over normal but not high enough to cause that sort of thing, and it wasn't low.

So at lunch, I went down to the employee nurse's office.  She was over at the university hospital getting something from the cafeteria there.  The education person, who is also a nurse and in her department, took my temperature and it was over 99 degrees--not terrible, but I run about 97, so it was a low-grade fever.  I was chilling in front of her, with goosebumps.  I had a headache, was aching all over, and was generally feeling really cruddy.  My throat was scratchy and hurting, as were my ears.  When the employee nurse saw me and heard about the fever and symptoms, she handed me some Tylenol to take with me, and sent me home, as it sounded like early influenza.  I told my boss, she said to go home, and I'm sure they rearranged things.  I had to be 24 hours without a fever without medication to return.  I drove home, although it was hard (I couldn't even listen to the radio, it just grated).  I got home, told my friend they'd sent me home with a fever, and YKWIA sent me to my room and away from him, but brought me tea with honey and homemade mushroom soup in a little while.  Then I went to bed and stayed there most of the next 24 hours.  I never even changed clothes.

I never did more than sneeze a few times and cough a little.  The tiredness and aching feeling were the worst.  I took my temperature regularly, with and without medicine, and still had a bit of a fever this morning.  I did finally get a shower and into other clothes today, and I was afraid I had a urinary tract infection on top of what was obviously something viral, so I made an appointment with my doctor and went this afternoon.  The good news is that I don't have a UTI.  He was thinking I had a viral syndrome of some kind until I mentioned how difficult it was to use the computer, text, etc.  The fog apparently happens with the flu.  He wrote me a note saying I could go back to work on Friday with the caveat that if I'm still feeling ragged they would extend it if needed. I let my boss know and she was fine with it, saying if I needed the extra time to let her know.  While I wasn't officially tested (the tests were on backorder, there's a shortage), both of them were pretty sure I had the flu, and I'm still very tired.  I think I'm going to go on to bed, in fact.  I just wanted to check in.

The doctor did say one of the reasons I wasn't having much in the way of an upper or lower respiratory infection was that it was ameliorated by my flu shot back in October.  It's mandatory where I work (we have one person in our department who can't take it, and she's pretty much relegated to working in her closed office and needs to wear a masque if she comes out).  So while I got the flu, the vaccine helped keep it to fatigue and a low-grade fever rather than getting worse.  He also thought I probably have the A strain, not the B strain that is worse this year.  He prescribed more rest as needed, saying it was the best thing I could do.  I guess I'm lucky--I haven't had the flu since I started taking the shots over a decade or more ago.  Technically I've lost as much time from work as I did the last, terrible flu I had (which was followed by a stomach bug).  That year I had three occurrences in one week, trying to keep coming back to work.  This time I had the good sense to just get some rest and my boss was very good about it, too.  So it's one occurrence.

So rest is exactly what I am about to do.  My spelling sucks tonight--I'm glad I have that Grammarly plug-in to help.  I'm still a little foggy, I guess.  Good night.

It's been a very wet Fourth so far

so I don't know if there will be fireworks tonight. I got up by 8:15 (but it was lovely to sleep in that much), and while I've been moving slowly, I have paid my bills through the first third of this month, except for two that come out automatically, and I've added that in my cheque register. I'm still coughing and snotty, but I feel better. I'm going to go over to YKWIA's in a couple of hours and we'll do something together. I haven't taken the trash out because the rain has been pouring, although I think it has eased up a little. So I think my next thing to do is work on the book review that's due tomorrow. It's a text on managing electronic resources, so hopefully, it will be a good read. I also need to check the Kentucky library job list--I think there's a job closing tomorrow with the state. I'm going to try to work on the books after spending some time with my friend.

Hope you're having a great and happy Fourth of July.

You know you're really tired

When you fall asleep before nightfall fully dressed, including bra, because you are too tired to change.

I thought I was doing better about staying up after a long workday, but I guess the summer cold sapped my stamina. I also went the whole day without caffeine, and had a raging headache. I couldn't even bear to listen to music.

That was three hours ago. I woke up, got dressed in some shorts and a tank top, and had a fruit pop to ease my throat. It's mostly left my head and has settled in my chest, but that means less nose-blowing, at least.

But I think I'm just going to rest tonight and start doing some things here tomorrow. Specifically, I need to:

1. Take out the trash.
2. Pay some bills, online and paper.
3. Work on a book review.
4. Go through and weed books. I have between 2,500 and 3,000 books, and need to reduce them by 2/3, and at 20 or so books a box, and about 50 days, that's two boxes a day to remove from the collection, if I did the math right in my head.
5. Go to YKWIA's and do something fun.
6. Watch the Idle Hour fireworks, weather permitting, as per usual, including being able to park at the old hospital to watch. :)

Have a safe and lovely holiday. Good night.

With much effort

after being in bed almost all day except for occasional foraging for food, I got up and showered, got on some comfortable yet clean clothes, and went over to YKWIA's for a small shopping list and went to the store so we'd both have food while we fight off this cold. He is not happy I brought a plague into the house. Also, we called Brenda and told her about the plague. She's having some sinus issues, but we're actually contagious, I think and feel crappy, so he called off the game. Brenda has a possible conflict next week so we won't play for two. We've generally been consistent, with just a few hiatuses. This week actually marks the 26th anniversary of the weekly Call of Cthulhu game that we've been playing continuously. It's an interactive story that just has kept going on. We've been raising kids, fighting Cthulhoid monsters, surviving attacks from warlocks and witch hunters, occasionally going mad, that sort of thing. The kids are actually the toughest part. I do love the game. I am, however, not going to do the game notes tonight. I'm going back to bed for awhile. I'm so tired.

How is it

that I am 50 years old, spent 12 years in school from kindergarten through high school (yeah, I know, it should be 13, but I skipped first grade) in nine different schools and five different states, five years as an undergraduate in college--including matriculating through a 'Great Works' programme--and eleven years in graduate school studying library science and European history (albeit prior to 1789), and until yesterday I had no idea that Alexandre Dumas, the author of numerous beloved novels and other writings, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Christo, was the grandson of a Haitian African slave? Granted, I read The Three Musketeers, which I adored--and one day I should read the sequels--on my own, not as part of my schooling. When I was a kid I loved anything which involved swordplay. I was also a great fan of Zorro, and I also loved The Scarlet Pimpernel. But you would think that detail would have been gleaned sometime in all those years of education. Of course, our system, particularly when I was young, was biased towards European white authors, but still.... Anyway, I know it now, at least.

I'm home from work today due to a bad cold. I spent yesterday at work, using copious amounts of hand sanitizer, but I blew a lot of snot out of my nose constantly, coughed, sneezed, felt like my head was ten times its size, and just generally felt miserable, and when I woke up this morning, after a fitful night, I felt worse. I texted my boss to see if I could stay home and then went back to sleep. I woke up again at 8:30 am, called YKWIA to see if he wanted to go to the doctor if I could get an appointment for both of us, but he is trying to keep the medical bills down, so he declined. I then called our doctor's office to see if I could get in, but they are already usually closed by 1 pm on Fridays, and they were going to leave early due to the impending holiday, too, so I couldn't. I could go the Little Clinic at Kroger, but it usually takes forever, according to people who've gone, and frankly, I don't feel like sitting or walking around Kroger that long. So instead I went back to bed and slept for about two-and-a-half hours, and then woke up, took my medicine, and got some food in me. I feel a little better. I still have a headache and I am stuffy with a sore throat (those frozen fruit bars help with that) and earache, but the pressure in my head isn't quite so bad, and while I'm still blowing stuff out of my nose, it isn't quite as constant. On the other hand, I've only been up less than an hour and I'm already tired so I may go back to bed for awhile--I just wanted to that stuff and feed the fish. But despite the rest I've gotten, I'm still pretty pooped. But then, that is a defining symptom of a viral infection, that feeling of being hit by a truck and having no energy. I really couldn't have worked today, even though it was a lighter day. My brain feels like mush, and it's just too much mental juggling to do when you're not at your best. Plus, the woman I sit next to is five months' pregnant, and while it's possible that I've passed my cold to her already, I did at least try to keep away from her as much as possible, use lots of sanitizer, etc., and it wasn't as bad yesterday, to the point where at first I still thought it was allergies. I also made sure I didn't infect anything as far as anything I handed the families. Some of our kids are medically fragile and certainly don't need a cold. But all in all, for my sake and theirs, it seemed better to stay home today.

I hate to say it, but I'm going to have to go back to bed. I almost wrote 'good night', even though it's sunny outside (or was when I started this, as it now looks like it's clouding up). Have a good day, and stay healthy, because being sick, even a fairly icky cold, sucks. I know, it could be far worse, of course.

It's a little sad when

you have to take a knife to open up a 20 oz. bottle of soda. I got one at Thornton's on the way back from my unemployment review and class, because I was very thirsty, and couldn't get into it, so I came home and tried a jar opener, a case knife, and finally I was able to make a bit of a perforation with a sharp paring knife (without hurting myself, always a plus) where apparently it didn't make one. But I feel somewhat puny. I also had a light in the kitchen flare out when I got home, and had a light bulb, and got on my little step stool only to find that I barely can change a light bulb, given my short height. I need a taller step stool. There is a reason most of my overhead light fixtures' actual covers are carefully put away, as I can't put them on or take them off at all, without an actual ladder.

The class and review were fine. I got to see three former co-workers, all from different departments. I gave in my list of jobs for which I've applied, and the lady went over the various services they offer and things we have to do to keep our benefits. I have to revise my system résumé, at their request, to take off two old jobs and my references, and have that printed out and ready, along with a packet, by Thursday at 9 am, when I go in for a small-group résumé review. I'd brought everything today, because I wasn't quite sure what was expected, and I was one of the better-prepared job-seekers. I hope that means there's a job out there for me.

After I came home, I opened the windows (it's 77 with a breeze right now, but it's supposed to be humid and close to 90 degrees later), pulled a few things out of the walk-in closet, and called about the air conditioner and the toilet running. When I talked to the leasing agent, I found out that the inspections have been put off till Friday, which gives me some time to vacuum, mop, and go through some of these boxes that are stacked up. This morning I got up at 6:45 am, later than I planned, but it was good, cleaned one little bit of wall that had something on it (I think it had a little mould from where I keep a hamper there, and I thought I'd need bleach, but it turns out Citrasolv works well, as that's what I had), did the dishes, and took the trash and recyclables out. Then I got ready for my review, and I was there 15 minutes early.

I called pulmonary rehab and cancelled for the day, and they were very understanding and told me to call Thursday if I still needed time, since it's an upper respiratory thing, and even if I could breathe better, stop coughing, etc., by then, she said she didn't want me wiping myself physically with the exercise programme if I'm not up to it. I have a sinus infection, cold, and bronchitis, and of course, bronchitis sometimes takes awhile to get over. I'll try to do the actual breathing exercises tomorrow if I feel up to it. I could have worked this past week, but on the other hand, I'm glad I could get some rest. I just would have had to push it a lot more, and rest in the evening more.

That leaves me the rest of the day to look for a job, go through some things here, and maybe go get some medicine for YKWIA if he needs it, later. We talked on the phone briefly. He's still hacking, too, and there's a medicine they gave me but with his insurance I think they were more expensive, so he'd held off. But they do help with the coughing, although I wish they lasted all night. I'm waking up early each night with coughing. This morning I was awake from 3 am to 4 am because of it. The coughing subsided after awhile, and then I couldn't get back to sleep for almost an hour. I'd also like to start The Glass Magician (and I need to check on my library books and when the next ones are due) and maybe watch a couple of things sometime today.

I got a call from my former workplace. They really want me to come in and help cover for the maternity leave, and she wanted to know what they could do to have me come in. YKWIA told me to tell them a full-time job with benefits and the same salary I had before. :) I'd like to help out, but I don't think it's viable. It would take quite a bit of time from the job search, not pay more than unemployment (unless they change that drastically), and make things more complex with the parking and the like. I'll call her back and hear what she has to offer, but I just don't think it'll work. They were saying before that they needed me for eleven hours a week for about twelve weeks. But I need to focus on getting a full-time job, soon. My unemployment benefits are only good for six months, and we're six weeks in. Also, soon I'm going to have to pay for the medical end of COBRA, and between that and the dental, it's about $750 a month. The sooner I get a new job, the sooner I get benefits, including health care, and can save money.

Oh, and I need to go back to that one post, a few down, and review my agenda for today. It is one reason I do that, it's sort of my way to make lists that I'll remember to go back to.

Hope you're having a great day.

In truth, I've gotten a little done this evening, but not much

I did work in the bedroom, true excavation, for about 45 minutes and took care of that. I'm feeling stressed now, mainly because the house is not in the shape I'd like it to be, and I'm still too sick to really do what I want with it, and I've run out of time for the most part. I think I'm going to have to just let that go, and do the few things I can before tomorrow morning. I may just go to bed early tonight, because I'm not feeling energetic in the least, and I'm having some trouble breathing. Rehab might be interesting tomorrow. I'll try though. The worst I can do is be sent home as too sick to do the exercises, I guess. I was debating on getting up early and doing the laundry and some work here, and really that's just the anxiety talking. I should just focus on going to the review tomorrow, trying to do rehab, and then I can come back and do laundry in the afternoon after that. I'm also going to see about getting my allergy shots tomorrow; I didn't feel up to it at the end of last week, and so I didn't get them at all, although I will say both arms itched the entire week from the week before, so apparently we're up to a fairly high concentration. :)

I think I'll just go on to bed, even though it's only 10 pm, and get up early, and see if tomorrow is a brand new day after all.

I actually read last night, and finished a book

that I'd just been on chapter three when I started. It's The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg, and it was an excellent light read, and exactly what I needed while recovering from this crud. This afternoon I went to the library and picked up the other two in the series. A little while ago, out of curiosity, I looked to see how much they were on Amazon, and while the paperbacks are quite inexpensive, the Kindle series (all three books) was only $4.05. So I got them on that, because I decided it would be better to hoard electronic books rather than paper ones. :) But really, I want to read the next one, The Glass Magician tonight. I'll read the physical book, as it brings me a bit more pleasure to turn the pages, then take the others back to the library so someone else can enjoy them, and finish up the series on the Kindle with The Master Magician.

I took A to work early this morning, after calling him to wake him up (but he went back to bed), but we got there just in time. That was 8 am. Then I got home and proceeded to sleep until about 11:30 am, and YKWIA called (he'd just gotten up again, too), to see if I could run to the store for a couple of things, that turned into a fairly good-sized grocery run, involving two stores (why are pearl onions suddenly impossible to find?) Then I got back and we watched a couple of episodes of 'Trial & Error' on Hulu (which is hilarious, and expiring, so while he's seen them all, we've got about half left for me to watch in about 11 days. But they're short.)

I came home, rested for about an hour (I didn't actually go to sleep, and I'm only tired because of the crud, but I took some medicine and listened to some music for awhile). I finally started to drift off, but the music was rather peppy, so I got up and excavated approximately half of the bedroom this evening. I have three tubs on the bed--recyclables, dirty clothes, clothes that are clean but need pressing, and then I've folded some of the cold-weather stuff I haven't been wearing that need to be put away and they're piled between the tubs. I also have a pile of bedding (there are a lot of pillows and a very warm comforter that came with my 'bed in a bag', and I can't sleep with all of them on the bed at night time).

I have a few other things to go through, some books stacked, a couple of loose piles of things, and such, but I made quite a bit of progress. Tomorrow I can launder the dirty clothes. I can press the ones that need it, and hang up the ones in the hang up pile. The cold-weather things are going to be put away into some easy-open tubs I have, and stored in the bottom of one of the bedroom closets. A few things need to be put away in the chest-of-drawers. The last couple of things I should do tonight, and move the tubs off the bed, and then I'll be able to sleep. I'm not finished in there tonight, yet. I just got overly hot and had to sit under the fans for a bit. I hate how tired I feel, and how winded I get whenever I try to do anything. I still cough a lot.

When I got home, I watered the outside plants and deadheaded the spent blooms. They're growing nicely. I also watered everything inside as well. I was supposed to do that yesterday, and didn't. Just like today or yesterday I should have done a water change for the fish tank of about 10-15% of the water. I'll try to do that tomorrow. The fish seem happy, at least, and I have done it weekly for a couple of weeks since everything was set back to full-functionality.

It's almost dark. I can't really celebrate mother's day, but I thought I'd light a candle for my mom tonight and let it burn for awhile. I'm thinking of her, anyway. I miss her. We didn't always have the best of relationships, and once upon a time we were too close, really, but I miss her nonetheless.

Okay, I guess it's back to work on the bedroom. I'll have to switch Pandora back to the bedroom TV. Good night.

Hey!

I managed to sing for a few minutes! (Coldplay's/The Chainsmokers' 'Something Just Like This'). Okay, granted, the opening, even sung by Chris Martin, is rather low. But hey, I managed, even the bit with the higher chorus. :)

PS Drat. Now my throat hurts. That was premature. :( I think I strained my vocal chords just a bit with that, and I didn't even sing the whole song. Back to as much silence as possible.

A relatively pleasant day so far

I didn't go to bed till late last night, around 2 am, but I woke up this morning feeling rested. I'm still hacking, and I do feel more tired than normal, and I think my speaking voice is very near a baritone rather than soprano (and singing is right out), but I do feel slightly better. I did manage to take some books back to the library, including one that was a couple of days overdue, paid my fine, brought back a 'lucky day' book that was a 14-day-loan that I realised never actually got checked out to my account, didn't sound the alarm, and generally I'd absconded accidentally with in the act of trying to check it out. They were happy I brought it back. I'd gone all the way over to the Beaumont branch to get a book that had been an Audible special today that is called The Ten-Cent Plague about the early days of comic books, censorship, and generally how people lost their minds over the things in terms of their influence of young minds. It sounded interesting, and for all that I once worked at a comic book store, I don't know much about that period or the problems they encountered.

Then I took a couple of friends to an appointment, went and found some socks at Gabriel Brothers, got them from their appointment, we went to Subway to eat, Kroger for dog food, and then I dropped one off at home and one off at work. Now I'm home, and I've got the windows open, and it's sunny, the birds are singing, and I'm feeling tired but good. I need to go check out my e-mail; a glance tells me that I got several dealing with the UPS delivery yesterday (totally unexpected) of a second refurbished computer, without power cord, keyboard, or mouse, that was shipped by mistake. So I'm going to go take care of that, take my contacts out, take a nap, then get up and try to do some things around here. I'm here for the rest of the afternoon and evening (I do have to get A at work at 1 am), so it would be nice if I could get some stuff done, especially as they're doing a walk-through/inspection of the apartments Tuesday, and of course, while better, things are pretty cluttered.

We're not playing the game tomorrow, as both the game master and I have been sick, and when he explained that to Brenda, she was happy to stay away from plague. So I'm going to focus on getting better and not push to do notes today unless I feel like it, and get some rest tomorrow, too. I also need to remember to request my unemployment cheque tomorrow, and then Tuesday there's the eligibility review. I'm also hoping to go back to rehab on Tuesday, if this crud will work its way out of my system.

I feel like I'm burning up

I had about three good hours in which I was able to go to the pharmacy to get the medicine that got left out of the bag, go get a friend from work, take him by his place, take him by another friend's house, go get wine for a libation tonight, and go to the grocery for just a few things (for example, I got potatoes last night, but nothing to go on a baked potato). Now I'm home, and I'm pooped. Thoroughly pooped. I've got the windows up and two fans going. It's actually pretty cool outside; it's not air conditioner weather, and things are too bad in here. The heat is all internal to me. I probably have a low-grade fever, plus I'm hot-natured anyway. Later tonight I may watch something, but right now I'm really considering taking a nap. I'll check the news (none of which was good earlier, with a ransomware attack hitting computers in at least 74 countries, including British hospitals).