What has been seen cannot be unseen

Linus as Geddy Lee!

So sorry to hear of Neil Peart's passing

He was a wonderful drummer and lyricist.



Neil Peart, Rush Drummer Who Set a New Standard for Rock Virtuosity, Dead at 67: Hall of Fame drummer and lyricist succumbs to brain cancer

Tomorrow

at work they're having resident interviews for the coming year, and so our clinic has only a few patients and there are no surgeries. I found that out in a memo a few months ago and put it on my December calendar page so I'd remember to ask off for the day. I'll miss a building-wide potluck, but that's fine. It's nice to be on the mend (I'm still a little snotty and coughing, and wheezing in the mornings, anyway, but I feel much better. So tomorrow I need to clean and reorganise my room--do things like put the laundry away, make the bed, clean up some soil that's on the floor from when the kitten stole one of the succulents out of its pot--things I wasn't able to do while sick. I also need to wash some linens and see how much other laundry is in the house.

It's been a little quiet at work this week, and I've gotten caught up on everything except I do have to notify some families of upcoming imaging appointments, but by the time I finished today I had it so most were a little way out, so I can call on Monday. I set the autoresponse for e-mail and an alternative greeting for voicemail, and then I high-tailed it out of there about a half an hour early, as I'd worked a little over this week and didn't want to go into overtime. So...here I am, it's nearly 2 am. I've been spending time with my roommate, who has my crud, and making sure he's taken care of and that the animals have their treat. Earlier I checked on a friend (by phone) who is battling cancer and is now back home after being in the hospital/rehabilitation centre for a while. I think I can go do errands for him if needed this weekend--it'll be almost two weeks since I got sick--I just don't want to spread anything to him.

I took the following pictures today of the orchids in my bedroom; I think they're doing well. Both are 'bargain' orchids that had been marked down that just kept putting out more buds after the initial blooms fell off. The spikes on the other three are developing nicely. I don't remember what the colours will be, so it'll be a surprise.





Okay, I really should go to bed now. Have a great evening and a better tomorrow!

I made an actual resolution

For every negative thing I share on Facebook I will share three positive stories. That way I won't get bogged down in the sad or horrible things on my newsfeed. As YKWIA told me the other day, people with anxiety issues tend to look for things that increase their anxiety and obsess on negative stories. I should do that here as well. :) 

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.