I'm missing out

Any of you who know me at all, know that I hate to be left behind. I will rise to the occasion, come up out of my sick-bed and do anything it takes in order not to miss out.

But today, that's not going to happen.

Our 14th grand baby is scheduled to be blessed at a special ceremony on Sunday, and we were all set to drive out to Denver and participate in this special event. But that won't happen now. 

All week I have been fighting some sort of bug. I tried the old Musinex and Psudafed trick with the nasal decongestant spray, plus an Aleve. Everyone of these OTC drugs are 12-hour long-lasting, except the Psudafedederin. It was only a 4-hour pill, but I managed to forget it after the first dose.

I had heard if you feel a cold coming on, if you take all these things, you can bypass all the nose-blowing and coughing part of the cold and get well anyway. But the problem was I didn't get well. I just continued to sleep 18- 20 hours a day, but with no congestion, thankfully.

Finally yesterday, Sailor came home from work, "dukes" up, all ready to confront me with a speech about getting me to a doctor, (I don't care if we have to wait until 2 in the afternoon) and maybe not even go on this trip. But I agreed with him readily, and sunk into his arms from exhaustion.

Today, we went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with Influenza AND pneumonia! bummer

So, instead of a 12-hour drive and all the commotion that goes with traveling, probably with me sleeping the whole way there, lots of people, (family) suitcases, packing and unpacking, driving to the son's house from my mom's, then another 12-hour drive back home, (plus exposing everyone else to this terrible disease), followed by a 5-hour round trip to choir the following Tuesday, I'm stuck at home, sipping Fresca under mountains of quilts, nursing a bowl of pro-biotic yogurt on the side.

I'm missing out on the BIG EVENT and I am sorry and sad, but can't do a thing about it.

the doctor said I was optimistic and resourceful. Sailor says that sums me up pretty well. I couldn't understand if I was keeping all the mucus at bay with my arsenal of medications, why pneumonia would set in anyway. But he said in my weakened state it just did. Oh well. At least I'm not snuffing.
onward and upward

~a

trouble with blogger

While writing the last post on Christmas Surprises, I had trouble downloading pictures, placing them where I wanted them and getting the text to go to the right spot. As a result, I hit publish before I was ready. So in order to see the whole post, if you are reading this from a Reader, you will have to click on my site and go read the whole thing. I started writing this at 10:30 pm, and didn't actually finish it until 12:15. Almost two hours.

The way blogger works right now is it downloads your pictures while you wait. It used to download them in the background and suddenly pop up at the top of your blog. As annoying as this was, I think I much prefer it to just drumming your fingers as you wait for it to download all your pictures with no way of editing or writing.

So I got clever and clicked a new window open and began to write the text for the blog. But the bad part was, it didn't save any of my text, and therefore I had to go back when the other one was finished and try to remember what I had written. Also I clicked publish before all the pictures were approved or clicked on, so I lost all those that had downloaded. The new blog program allows you to chose where each picture goes, and click OK with each one. I was just trying to get them all on, then insert text, but that is not so easy either.

As I downloaded the pictures one more time, I clicked on a new window, and started a brand new post. Calling this one "2"

When the other one finished downloading the pictures, I clicked back and forth, copy/pasting the text into the original post. Then I deleted "2".

Had I been extra clever, I could have just renamed the post and deleted the one that was giving me fits, and it wouldn't have shown up in your reader or your email.

Now you will have to be inconvienenced and go to the original post or you will miss out on a fun post. Sorry
~a

Crazy Mixed Up Dream/Nightmare and why I haven't been blogging lately

Yesterday I went to choir for the first time in about six weeks. We gave our concert the Saturday after Thanksgiving and got a break for Christmas. I was sick for 10 days after Christmas with bronchitis and basically slept for all ten days and nights. It was sort of an awake coma, if you know what I mean. I would get up, eat, use the facilities and do things like clean the kitchen or do laundry, which I vaguely remember doing and sometimes was surprised it was done. I got a box in the mail of Ocuvite vitamins that I barely remember buying. I better be careful if I ever get something like this again. Sailor will have to lock the computer and hide the keys.

But then I'd go right back to bed after getting up and sleep some more. Sailor would come home in the evening, and I would awaken enough to eat the dinner he made for me, then settle right back into my pillow and sleep through the night. I was coughing so hard that I didn't know whether to cover my mouth or hold my chest with both hands to keep it from burning as I coughed. Eventually on Sailor's day off (about a week after I started feeling bad - which, incidentally all fell on the New Year week), he took me to the doctor, I was diagnosed with bronchitis, got on meds and finally came out of the deep sleep. Only to find I had lost part of my life.

It was disorienting, because basically 10 days had been taken out of my life. I was surprised to hear that Obama would be inaugurated here soon, I thought to myself, "wait, doesn't that usually happen in January?" My Christmas tree is still up, because I usually leave it up until the Christian holiday called 12th night. It is when the wise men symbolically found the baby Jesus. We know actually they didn't find him until he was around 2 years old. So it is a symbolic day. But in my mind the 6th was not until another week or so.

Anyway, back to my day yesterday. Tuesdays are always LOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG. I usually try to leave the house before noon and have a list as long as my arm of things to accomplish in the big city as long as I am spending the gas money. (its a 2.5-hour drive one way)

I went to Bath and Body Works yesterday and had a grand time purchasing some of that wonderful cherry blossom and yummy vanilla hand soaps. Can I just say that I *LOVE* their hand soaps? I don't purchase lotion for hands or feet there, because I have my own favorite lotion I purchase elsewhere, but the hand soap makes me feel so happy every time I use it.

I also went to Costco, purchased a bunch of stuff you can only get at Costco including a good price on gasoline, $1.49, then to Michael's. I purchased some glass paint and beads. Then I went to see my Beautiful D1 at her workplace. She manages a hair salon. I delivered the Christmas gifts which I brought home from our out-of-state relatives and visited with her for a few minutes. She is such a delightful girl. She is always happy and smiling. I LOVE seeing her. She always makes me feel happy after I have seen her, and it keeps me smiling for a good long while after I leave. Thank you, Sweet and Beautiful D1. I LOVE YOU.

I hurried onto WalMart to exchange some things, purchased some great fabric for a quilt I am starting and a few things on my list. I then hurried to our Choir Board Meeting and then Choir until 9 pm.

I had awakened at 6 am and got home at midnight. Did I mention that Tuesdays are long? After putting away the perishables and heading to bed, I laid there and buzzed. I can't just go to sleep the minute I get home. I just laid there, mind racing.

After Sailor fell asleep, I got back up and checked email and surfed the web for a while, made a purchase, and I finally fell asleep by 1:30.

I usually NEVER remember my dreams, but this one droned on and on and was more frustrating than scary.
I dreamed I was watching over a bunch of out-of-control children. I knew the children in my dream, among them was a nephew who was about 8 in the dream and others, I think including my grandchildren and several others. We had taken the whole lot of them for a visit to a friend's house and were trying to settle them down for the night. Some were obediently going to sleep in sleeping bags spread all over the floor of the living room, but others felt exempt from my rule, even though I was their temporary babysitter and guardian.

One nephew in particular was fiddling with the foot peddles of a piano and was making it produce a very low and loud sighing noise. The sound was more of a noise that would come from the foot pedal of an organ rather than a piano. Isn't that how dreams go? He fiddled with it and when I called him off, the piano/organ kept emitting the low regular noise. This would cause him to go back and fiddle some more, only to have it continue to make noise after he would walk away.

I was getting very frustrated with the whole situation and the children we had worked so hard to put to bed were all stirring. But I couldn't get the obnoxious nephew to stop fiddling with this piano/organ.

By the way, I don't think this frustrating dream has anything to do with the fact that my DIL1 and S1 want us to come and babysit their four daughters this summer while they take a trip to celebrate their 10th anniversary. Although babysitting other people's children, even my own grandchildren, really makes me nervous. I feel so out of practice, you know?

Luckily for me, Sailor got up for work, and I awoke. The Obnoxious Dream was at a frustrating but non-conclusive end. Thank Goodness.

Now that I write about it, I think I can figure this out. I think I was incorporating Sailor's snores into my dream.
How simple is that?
hope you have a great day
xxoo
~a