wildcelticrose.net

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My apologies to anyone I owe correspondence, well wishes or phone calls to. I’ve been feeling like crap and have had a rough week and a half.

I had high hopes for this weekend to be happy and relaxing.

I really needed it as work has sucked stinky stressed out pond waterbeen [ahem] “challenging” this week, and I’ve been dealing with a series of pounding sinus headaches on the tail of a rather unusually unpleasant menstrual period.

I got off work Friday ready to run some errands while the guys worked on the roof. I approved them starting a day late because they were going to try to finish Friday, Saturday morning at the earliest. No biggie, I wasn’t planning on being home Saturday morning so the noise wouldn’t disturb me.

I stopped by the house to snap a picture and check on the progress. They hadn’t told me that they wanted my gate open (the last job they did, they said they could take care of all the access from the front) They had removed hardware to get the gate to open. I would have much preferred them to tell me that they needed the gate open so that bolts, screws and things aren’t being taken in and out of wood and ending up loose, wobbly and not secure.

Whatever.

Then I noticed that they (employees of a company that promises to protect your landscaping) were tromping through the landscaped part of my front yard to get to the gate instead of using the side walk. This removes the layer of mulch, tears weed cloth and exposes the cardboard in areas where it was used as an underlayment and creates a lot of work. More than one plant was stepped on or had something dragged over it.

It was then that I noticed not one, but TWO of my rose bushes had been flattened by shingles and other items being thrown off the roof.

Now, I’m PISSED. (but I saved it for a polite email to the company asking that they ask their crews to be more careful)

So I get out of there to go run errands, one of which was finding soap making supplies locally so that I could do my first batch this weekend while the weather was yucky instead of waiting for mail order supplies.

My favorite candle supply store down in Lakewood has started carrying soap making supplies. Since I love them, I was excited to head down there.

When I entered the store, the woman who was working behind the counter, snapped at me and said, “Our computer is down.” I realize that she was stressed and was on the phone trying to get it fixed, but she made it quite clear she’d rather I just got the hell out.

Uh, I drove a LONG way at rush hour… I told her “No worries, I’d just browse a bit and see if it comes up”. She did not look amused that I wasn’t leaving. (seriously, WTF? If I had a customer wanting to give me money, I’d POLITELY explain the situation and then try to figure something out for them when the situation was resolved or not)

Finally, I just left. It was not so much that she was trying to work on the problem, but that she was so incredibly pissed off, I just didn’t want to be around her. (I was working very hard on not being pissed off myself)

I stopped by our local natural food market in hopes that they might have some of the oils and butters needed for soap making. I lucked out, and found everything I needed. Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, and Castor Oil (I picked up cheap Olive Oil at Fred Meyer)

It was expensive, but I had sourced it locally and would be able to make a batch this weekend.

Next stop was my neighborhood Ace Hardware for lye which is sold as drain cleaner. Lye (sodium hydroxide) is used in the manufacture of meth so most places won’t carry it any more. I did find it on the Ace website, so I hoped they had it in the store.

Nope… I could order it on line and pick it up at the store, but they won’t keep it in the store.

As they said, “It wouldn’t be so bad if the meth heads just stole the lye, but they steal everything else on the way out.”

Damn meth heads!!! First my Sudafed, (any pharmacist will tell you that the fake stuff is not as good and doesn’t work as well) now my hobbies. They ruin things for everyone. (one of them stole my friend’s car the other day)

Disappointed, I headed to Safeway to pick up my BCP prescription and head home.

The roofers were gone for the day. Ah, peace and quiet.

I went out back to let the chickens out into the yard to eat greens and run around, and discovered Lovey laying in the pen next to the waterer.

Her eyes were half closed, she could not stand, sit upright and could barely move. When I tried to move her, she just rolled over. I was sure she was going to be dead by nightfall, which was not far off.

The first thing I had to do was get her away from the other chickens, Not only so they wouldn’t peck her, but so if she had something infectious, she would not pass it on.

I put her in a box in the basement with some food (which she ate) and some water.

I never really got around to eating dinner nor getting ready for my triathlon the next day. I had things mostly packed so I finally went to bed, way to late to be getting up at 5:30 in the morning.

The next morning, I woke up with a pounding sinus headache and feeling sick so no triathlon for me. I went back to sleep only to be woken up by roofers.

Oh yeah…

That was awesome.

I managed to get the pounding head under control enough to get out of the house to run a series of errands so I was exposed to minimal pounding.

When I got back home, they were gone.

Their equipment was not.

The roof was not done.

Part of it was still tarped.

There was no note or phone call telling me when they’d be back (Oh, joy, more “holiday” weekend filled with banging, generator noise and people killing my plants, how “fun”)

This morning, no one showed up.

I called their phone number and it forwarded to a voicemail box.

I finally used the emergency feature on the website asking when this was going to be finished and expressing my concern over the rain storms on the way.

The owner called me back explaining that the supplier hadn’t delivered all of the supplies and that they can’t get them until Tuesday (oh, when it will still be raining).

Well now I know.

I had to get this all out.

My next blog posts will be about the good things I’ve been doing to make being sick, frustrated and sad over a possibly dying feather child a bit more tolerable.

~L

Mood: Not so Happy

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I had such grand plans for the weekend.

Unfortunately I felt like a warmed over crap sandwich that had been dropped and stepped on, then maybe run over by a car at the end of my work week.

It was a crap week and I was fighting off some sort of bug or crud.

I had a 10K race I was supposed to run on Saturday, so I turned down in invite to go to Voxxy Valllejo’s band practice Friday night (which is always a party) but since I’d been feeling bad and had to rest for the race, I sat home like a loser instead (you’ll see this theme throughout this post)

I had a difficult time getting to sleep and woke up too late to take care of nutrition, hydration and the call of nature” in the right sequence to prevent “issues” during the race. That, and the fact that I felt like crap, I decided to be a loser and miss the race.

I thought I might go for an easier run later and then maybe a swim.

Nope, that didn’t happen. Loser girl just wanted to lay down. It was like someone sucked all the energy out of me.

I did finally get up off the couch long enough to drive over to my friend Molly’s so I could use a hose, wheelbarrow, shovel and driveway incline to get all the wet yucky sand out of the back of the truck. The old bags of sand I put in last year had disintegrated because I didn’t get them out after last winter was over (Home Depot was out of sand tubes which are designed for the purpose, so I got playground sand) and since the shell was put on in a rainstorm, it was so wet back there that I was having to crack the front window of the shell open because of all the condensation. Since I really don’t want mold to grow back there, I had to get it cleaned and dried out.

I didn’t have an option to do this any other day as this was the only day with sunshine forecast and I needed the back of the truck/shell to dry out.

It took about an hour and completely wiped me out. I spent most of the drying time watching the musical Evita. Madonna did an amazing job playing channeling Eva Peron. And what a woman she was.

I declined an invitation to dinner because I didn’t feel well and wanted to rest up for a bike ride the next day.

Once again, loser girl declines and invitation and sits home alone feeling like crap.

I had anther bad night not sleeping well, and woke up way to late to get bike gear together and get to Tukwila. So I laid around like a slug, a sad, sick lazy, unproductive slug.

I did wander to the corner market on Sunday afternoon to get some badly needed groceries.

I picked up a copy of the Tacoma News Tribune because our Art Co-op was feature on the front page of the SoundLife Section.

The article can be found here: Tacoma News Tribune Article on our Speakeasy Arts Cooperative

This is a bad scan of one of the pictures in the paper…

Between bouts of feeling sick, lazy and like a loser, I did manage to fix my vacuum cleaner. The combination of my very long, strong hair (they say the average person sheds 100-300 hairs a day; I’m pretty sure I’m on the high end of that), and BadKitty’s massive quantities of multi-layered long thick fur creates a substance stronger than Kevlar (maybe NASA would be interested?). After I cut and pulled and cut and pulled that amazingly strong substance out of the roller, took the thing apart to clean and replace the broken belt (I keep spares for just this reason) I was finally able to vacuum.

So I really don’t feel like I had a weekend and I’m kind of bummed about that. My work weeks have been so overwhelmingly stressful that I really need to get out and exercise and play on weekends, but it was not to be this weekend.

I just don’t know at what point (at this time of year) my body needs rest or to move to feel better.

I’m going to try to take a short run break at lunch today and to go to masters swim at the Y tonight even if I don’t feel like it. Maybe especially if I don’t feel like it.

Gee, wasn’t that exciting?

~L

Mood: Crappy

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I was up at 5:30 AM, not by choice, my body just wouldn’t sleep (never mind that it took forever ot get to sleep and once I did, I woke up more than once to a coughing fit)

I logged into work at 6:00 AM because I had lots of things to do today in addition to work and was in and out most of the day.

First, I had to meet Steph and pick up the metric buttload of work that she had for me.

After that, I headed over to Costco to get a new battery for my truck. They couldn’t believe that I got eight years out of the original battery. For liability reasons (all the fancy electronic crap on cars now) they don’t do installation so I brought wrenches and gloves so that I could do it right there. It’s not like it’s rocket science…

Apparently, it’s more difficult than I thought, because all the wrenches I brought (I had other errands to run and didn’t want my expensive craftsman tool kit left in the truck so I just picked common sizes) were way too big. I felt vindicated when they took a long time to find one small enough (I brought a crescent wrench, but it was tearing up the bolt) Once I had the proper tool, I had the old battery out and the new battery in and no sparks flew.

After that, I needed to hit the grocery store. I was out of food. I like food. Food is good.

Then I went to the pharmacy and then my mailbox.

I went back home and worked for a few hours and then had to head to the bank.

After the bank, I did something crazy, insane, and self indulgent.

I went back to Costco and bought myself a birthday present.

I finally replaced my 15 year old 19” TV, with a 32” inch flat screen. In my teeny tiny 12 X 12 apartment (and in a few months, my teeny tiny house) it looks HUGE! It’s like having a big screen without having to buy one. (you’ll notice that the first thing I watched was intellectually stimulating)

The thing weighs virtually nothing; the skinny box comes with a plastic handle for carrying.

I came home, hooked it up (I honestly don’t know what all the fuss is about, it was easy to hook up and run the setup menu.

I worked some more and then headed to the kitchen.

One thing I need to be better about is prepping things to take to work for lunch ahead of time and cooking real dinners. So instead of cooking a big meal and having a bunch of it go to waste because I don’t dish it out for lunches and it goes bad after I get tired of eating it, I’ve decided to cook up a couple of meals each weekend and freeze portions first.

Today was my famous infamous Turkey & Black Bean Chili. (I didn’t get any leftovers from the batch I cooked Saturday night)

I cooked up a half batch, and immediately put most of it into containers to cool and then put in the freezer.

Look, it’s still steaming…

Tomorrow will be spicy chicken enchiladas and then maybe I’ll go get lasagna fixin’s. That will give me variety for several weeks of lunches and I can add a meal every week or so. (I always keep salad fixin’s and smoked salmon around for quickie lunches.

I’m invited to several parties and events tomorrow, but I’m not back to 100% so I think I’ll lay low instead of being party-hopping girl. I’ll do the Wheelmen costume bike ride & party and then head over to Molly’s for some best friend time & haunting the house for the kiddies.

Now, I need to go to bed and hope I actually get to sleep before 12:30 AM.

Mood: snotty

~L

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Today was an “interesting” day.

I set my alarm for 5:00AM on the off chance that would actually get some sleep last night and not wake up coughing my head off.

I had already emailed work to let them know that I was hoping to come in and leave early for a doctor’s appointment which I made for 11:45 this morning.

Of course, I didn’t sleep, (unless you count the odd hour or less increments between coughing fits), propped up on lots of pillows in an effort not to choke on my own snot, as I kept having to get up, neti-pot, do a steam treatment, gargle with salt water, take more cough stuff, etc…

One of my nice stainless steel stock pots has a steam vent in the lid which works perfectly for inhaling steam infused with essential oils.

I did get up at 5:00, long enough to email in and say it wasn’t going to happen today. After 4 nights of not sleeping, I honestly didn’t feel safe trying to drive.

I went back to bed, and slept in hour increments until about 10:00 AM, which was the most sleep I’ve had in several days.

By the time I got up and moving I had to leave for my doctor’s appointment; I managed to down a few bites of crispy bits, but never had my morning latte.

I wasn’t told anything I didn’t know, but got a prescription for some cough syrup with codeine (a pharmacist laughed at me yesterday when I asked him for advice on an OTC cough syrup, he told me, “I have all the stuff that actually works back here.”) and unfortunately, a Z-Pack (five days of zithromax) to take because my snot was turning fluorescent yellow. Luckily, this is all “above the neck” (the big joke, “all in my head”) and my lungs are clear. I’ve been very lucky to not have this kind of thing go into my lungs since I was a kid.

I guess I’m going to have to suck it up and have an ENT specialist look at me and see why I keep getting sinus infections, this crap has got to STOP.

The pharmacy was of course, packed with sick people and I had about a 20 minute wait to spend the last of my money until payday on Friday on the co-pays. I was getting headachey and dizzy from being hungry, but it didn’t make sense to try to go do something else and then go back, especially not feeling well.

When I went back out to my truck, it didn’t want to start. I knew I needed to get a new battery when it almost didn’t start up in the North Cascades, I just forgot to do it. The truck is 8 years old and so is the battery, the fact that it lasted this long is amazing. I tried and tired until there was no point and I called the roadside assistance program through Verizon Wireless. Of course, it was great fun to try to get the woman to understand my laryngitis riddled voice. She said it would be approximately a 1:05 hour wait.

That was when I was ready to cry, I was sick, hungry, sleep deprived, had a headache and already waited a long time in the pharmacy. I knew that none of the blue haired little old ladies were going to help me jump start my truck (I have cables) so I sat there with my hood propped up while no-one ever thought to ask if I needed help. Oh well.

Luckily, it only took about half an hour for the guy to arrive and about one minute to jump the truck.

The truck is now parked until I can get it in for a new battery on Friday. Hopefully, I can get someone to come jump start it if it doesn’t start up for me.

And now, I’m going to go to bed and hope that I get some decent sleep. It’s been a long time.

~L

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The weekend I mean…

I’m just now getting around to typing up a post.

Friday started out with a phone call from the police department (work related and not local that’s all I’ll say) and I spent most of the morning logged in to work.

I ran few errands, including running my calendars over to Speakeasy and then met my friend Betsy for birthday margaritas.

I started feeling a bit scratchy in the throat but didn’t think much of it.

Saturday was my birthday and it didn’t start out quite the way I’d planned. I’d realized the day before when I picked up my mail and got some birthday cards from friends, that I’d never see another birthday card from my Mom.

I may have had a less than stellar upbringing and we may have had a weird relationship, but she was my mom.

Normally, I’d have talked to my mom on the phone, and she’d have re told the story of my birth, starting with my near entrance in that silly restaurant at LAX (the one that looks like the Space Needle, only suspended by four arms)

then the ambulance proceeded through the streets of Los Angeles and broke up a Nixon rally. My mom always credited me with his gubernatorial defeat in 1962 because no one wanted to hear him speak, they wanted to see what was going on in the ambulance.

And of course, the story ended with her “hanging on to the side rails, looking up at the clock (upside down) which read 3:26 AM and saying “NEVER AGAIN” and I didn’t!” (not unlike the scene in City Slickers when Billy Crystal’s character gets the annual call from his mom on his birhtday talking about her labor)

I’ll never get that call again.

I did not expect to have it hit me like that; I did not expect to send a few hours on my couch crying like an idiot. I supposed the first Christmas, Mother’s Day, etc… will be “interesting”

I hadn’t slept well the night before due to the aforementioned scratchy throat and several coughing fits.

I finally pulled it together and headed over to Molly’s house to cook up a batch of my famous infamous turkey/black bean chili and have some best friend time.

There’s nothing quite like some best friend time, and created a meal that everyone enjoys to cheer a person up (a glass of champagne helped too)

My friend Lauri was out from Sand Point Idaho for SteamCon, so I was able to “introduce” her to my friend Don (formerly of Wyoming, now from here) who was also attending and they drove down together…

I hadn’t seen my friend Monk for a while, and he certainly got into the spirit of the whole thing…

Jill was a “hot chick in a bikini”

Gretchen & Al had the whole “Sonny & Cher” thing going on

Rick & Tony were a spooktacular couple

Deborah, Steph and I had the super hero thing going on (which we will expand upon at our work event later this week)

Of course, there was much karaoke fun and dancing goodness

The rest of the pictures are available here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildcelticrose/sets/72157622659291784/

I was dealing with an increasingly scratchy throat and lost my voice by the end of the evening (singing karaoke with a cold is not a smart thing to do unless you want laryngitis)

But my night wasn’t over; even though it was well past my bed time and I still had to make it over to the event at Speakeasy (which is thankfully VERY close to my house).

When I walked in the door (after lots of hoots, hollers and “Right Ons”) walking down the street dressed as BatGirl I discovered that one of my big photographs was gone. There were two possibilities. One was that it got knocked down and the glass in the frame cracked or that it sold.

Angie ran up to me and told me that it sold and handed me a check. THAT was a warm fuzzy! (and I really needed some money for groceries, gas and cat food)

I got home way too late and was up most of the night coughing.

I hit the ground running on Sunday knocking errands off my list: bank, gas, groceries, lunch at Molly’s, pick up new print at Costco, buy new frame for said print, and a meeting at Speakeasy, where I rehung the print. By that time, I couldn’t speak at all without near excruciating pain in my throat.

I came home, got into my moose jammies and started a routine of using the neti-pot and gargling with salt water every two hours (sadly, even when I should be sleeping because I’d start coughing if I didn’t)

I added cough syrup with an expectorant to thin the mucous to my arsenal of : Ricola cough drops, Traditional Medicinal teas, neti-pot and salt water gargle. The couch and throat is all snot, so the neti-pot is to deal with that and the salt water gargle is to heal the throat and keep it from getting infected. I’ve also been using steam with essential oils in it. I should probably buy stock in Kleenex.

I’m hoping that I sleep tonight because I really need to be at work tomorrow (at least this crud hit on a four day weekend and I never felt “sick”)

I don’t really care if I get my voice back tomorrow or not, I hate talking on the phone [wink]

and with that, I should get my snotty self to bed.

~L

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The Star Wars Trilogy was on Spike the last three nights. (if I’m going to be sick, at least I’m sick with cable TV)

There were things in all three movies that I didn’t remember or remembered differently, which is not all that surprising since the first one was 32 years ago.

When a friend blogged about Hayden Christensen (who played Anakin in the prequel) appearing in final scene of the 3rd movie, I did some checking and discovered that a lot of changes had been made in all three movies.

Here are the sites listing a good number of the changes as well as some good screen shots showing the differences.

changes made to Star Wars-A New Hope

changes made to Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back

changes made to Star Wars-Return of the Jedi

I’ve been going more than a bit batshit sitting here on the couch being sick. It’s just not good when someone’s already grieving, stressed and depressed. I’m starting to cry for no good reason (OK, well maybe I have good reason; my mother’s memorial/ash scattering is this weekend), but I’ve got to pull it together and get healthy)

I decided that at this point, stress (which is what lowered my immune system in the first place) and depression are a greater threat to me than moving around

So I went for a very short walk over the park and conservatory in my neighborhood and shot a few pictures.

It was a good distraction, and although it tired me out, I don’t think it did me any harm, and it definitely distracted me for a while.

The sun came out and there was a rainbow in the fountain

The “Lady of the Lake” (the proper name of the sculpture is “The Fisherman’s Daughter” but she’s the lady to most of us) still holds court, and still has her head, it was missing in the water for a number of years before the refurbished her as part of the park renovation just before it’s 100 year anniversary celebration

I took a few shots in the conservatory:

The begonias outside were so pretty, I just couldn’t resist:

The rest of the photos are available here:

Or as a slideshow

I’m going to get to bed early tonight and hope that this stupid fever finally breaks tomorrow.

They laying around being sick is not restful, it’s stressful.

~L

Mood: Crappy

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I’m under “house arrest” (can’t go anywhere or see anyone because I’m still contagious) until Wednesday afternoon, and that’s if my fever is gone.

I finally broke down and went to the doctor this morning because I was pretty sure I had a sinus infection after whatever crud I came down with.

I still feel like crap.

My doctor isn’t even going to venture a guess as to what viral infection I had (those who were waiting too hear that it was Swine flu/H1N1 shall remain curious-Oink!), but the fact that I’m still running a fever is not good and she’s worried about my immune system because of the amount of stress I’m under, so I’m off work until Friday to reduce my exposure to cooties as well as to keep my stress level down while my body heals. (although my job didn’t ask for it, I had her give me a letter to send in)

I had her put Avelox (aka the Devil Pills) I took for the sinus infection last summer on the list of things not to prescribe me and was not hot on the idea of Zithromax which I was given first because it didn’t work.

So I’m on Amox-Clav (Augmentin) 875 mg twice a day for 14 days.

That should nuke any rouge bacteria (I’m eating yogurt and have Diflucan at the ready) hanging out without making me violently ill (as long as I take it with plenty of food)

She said that I’m OK to run, swim and ride, once I am asymptomatic and feel up to it. I’m also OK to ride RAPSody on the 22nd/23rd even though I’ll be on the last two days of my antibiotics. (they won’t build up metabolites in my kidneys, I asked)

On to more amusing things…

Star Wars Episode IV (the first movie back before the Star Wars movies turned to suck) is on Spike TV right now.

I was 15 when this movie came out in 1977 and I had the biggest crush on Mark Hamill (now I feel like a perv watching this; he’s a mere”baby” at 26 and I’m old enough to be his mama…)

Perhaps I should start lusting after a more appropriately aged (he was 35 in 1977) Han Solo instead…

I couldn’t find actual move clip of the bar scene, but this Richard Pryor (before he set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine) was pretty good…

Now to finish geeking out over the movie
~L

Mood: Crappy

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Yes folks, it’s time for my now infamous weekly blog feature (gotta “clean the pipes out “for Drama Free Thursday and Things that Make Me Go Squee”) WTF Wednesday.

WTF Wednesday is when I (and anyone else who cares to; a few already had an early start) get to moan, whine, bitch, complain and vent with impunity)

It’s when I sit down, make a good strong margarita (with GOOD tequila) sit around in my underwear and vent.

*OK, I typed this up last night and am posting it while on a break at work so I’m not drinking or sitting around in my unmentionables (but trust me; that will change when I get home tonight)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about supporting and promoting Popfiend’s Drama Free Thursday with my own “Things That Make Me Go Squee” and this is, in part, preparation for DFT.

I’m all about putting good energy out there (because what we put out there it what we get back)

But I’ve realized that in order to appreciate the “good” things, we need the “bad” as well, realizing of course that “good” and “bad” are shades of gray and that nothing is black and white. (and no one likes a “Pollyanna”)

It’s Wednesday, and I’m gonna bitch and vent about people that I like to refer to as “Cheetoheads”.

I wrote about this several years ago in my now somewhat famous infamous essay,

It’s only one Cheeto-A sad commentary on our society

Each week I give an individual or group the “Here’s your Cheeto award” in honor of the rude, obnoxious, selfish, “It’s all about ME” asshats that we are force to live, work and walk amongst every day.

Today, the “object of my objection” is

People Who Go To Work/Send Their Kids To School Sick

note, this recycled WTF Wednesday post is not about the swine flu situation, this is about the fact that my (and the Icky Boy’s four day weekend was ruined AND I had to miss work yesterday because someone decided to come to work sick and “just stay in their cube” which does not work.)

Seriously, WTF is wrong with people?

Yeah.. yeah…. we know….

YOU are so important.

No one can do your job but YOU

YOU can’t afford to take time off because you have a family to support/are your own soul support

Guess what asshat…

If you can’t afford it due to company policies, neither can your co-workers that you are knowingly infecting.

The rest of us have jobs, responsibilities and financial concerns too, and when you show up to work, infectious, blowing your vile and foul snot and phlegm all over the place, you make US sick too. (same goes for you jerks that drop your infectious spawn off at school/daycare and then haul them around town and/or come to work without washing your hands)

You touch doorknobs, light switches, counter tops, drawers, cabinets, fax machines, copy machines and a lot of other things that those behind you can pick up your cooties from.

Then we have the misfortune of coming by and catching the cooties YOU brought to work because you and/or your issues are so much more important than the rest of us.

Think on this for a moment.

If you don’t care about “regular” people, there are those who for varying reasons really can not be exposed to your bugs.

Some people are immunosuppressed due to treatment for cancer or other illnesses.

Some people have asthma or other respiratory issues which mean that cold or flu germs can send them into serious and life threatening pneumonia.

Some people have children or partners at home who don’t need your cooties either.

If you are sick, stay the heck home and don’t share the misery.

It’s not all about YOU!

*note, this latest swine flu scare should be a wake up call to employers and government that sick policies need to be changed. People should not be penalized for staying home and not infecting others when they are sick. As a matter of fact, they should be mandated to stay the hell home.

And I have a suggestion as to where you can put it!

I think that’s plenty of venting (was it good for you? It was good for me) and I actually have more to “squee” about tomorrow than to “WTF” about today, so I’ll leave it there.

None of this is earth shattering or even life changing it’s all minor annoyances in the grand scheme of things.

But I had FUN venting, and damn it feels good.

There, doesn’t that feel better?

Have a happy drama free Thursday tomorrow. I know I will.

Break’s over, back to work with me…

~L

Mood: WTF?

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Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “S”

“S” is for Snot, Swimming, Snarky, Swine “colds on Steroids”, Sinuses and Sick.

Apparently, I over did yesterday (I was so excited at the prospect of not having to lay on the couch all day) because I felt like crap last night.

I finally got my laundry gathered up and did a couple of loads over at the Icky Boy’s when he had a break in between jobs. He had to postpone his 2nd job so we got to walk over to the HUB for happy hour pizza a a beer. After that, I finally made it to the grocery store for some badly needed supplies.

I guess that was too much because it sure kicked my butt.

II picked up a new allergy medication; I’m trying Zyrtec instead of Claratin because it allegedly works against more allergens and is supposed to be better for those of us who have issues with cats and pollen.

Unfortunately, with the resurgence of this gosh darn upper respiratory infection (no, it’s NOT the flu; it’s more like a “cold on steroids”) I can’t tell if it’s helping or not. I woke up at about 3:00 AM with pretty miserable sinuses.

Pollen levels are down today because it rained last night and this morning, so my allergy symptoms shouldn’t be worse.

I bought a small package of the generic stuff (even in generic, it’s not cheap) to see if I like it better than Claratin which I felt could have been doing a better job)

Anyone have any experience comparing Claratin with Zyrtec? What worked for you?

Which leads me to the whole swine flu thing.

All we seem to hear is panic or poo pooing (maybe todays letter should have been “P” eh?)

I find it amusing that those who are laughing off the threat of a pandemic are the ones who do not have any medical background.

These are the idiots who go to work sick, send their spawn to school sick, don’t cover their coughs sneezes, wipe their noses with their hands then touch surfaces others have to touch, etc…

There is middle ground here people.

Instead of flipping out and/or sticking your head in the sand, how about educating yourself?

The CDC has a website that gives good, solid scientific information regarding swine flu.

One thing ostriches with their head in the sand about this flu and genetic mutations don’t get is that due to factory farming and overuse of drugs in both our food supply and in ourselves most of these viruses mutate and build resistance faster than science can keep up. (who really is the dominant species on this planet?)

This particular bug has been killing healthy adults between the ages of 25 and 45. Typical flu kills the very young, very old and immunosuppressed.

Is this “the end of the world”?

Not likely.

But the fact is, that some day a worse bug than this (likely of our own creation either in a lab or by the aforementioned factory farming/drug overuse) may get out, and it will not be contained.

Uh yeah, it’s “small”. They all start out small. But when on person gets on a plane, infects people on that plane who get on trains/buses then go to work, school whatever, you’re not going to contain something bad when it gets out.

So let’s all use some common sense folks…

If you’re sick STAY THE HELL HOME.

I don’t care if it’s a cold, the flu or the plague. I’m tired of people bringing these things on public transit and to the workplace.

Wash your darn hands.

Cover your cough/sneeze with the inside of your elbow/sleeve. Don’t wipe your snotty nose with your hand then touch doorknobs, copy machines, telephones, etc… that other people use.

You know why I’m so Snarky today?

I’m home sick because someone who had sick leave and the option to telework CHOSE to KNOWINGLY come to work where they could infect people.

I’m sorry, “I’ll stay in my cube” does not work when you’re touching machines and door knobs.

Perhaps this sine flu scare will lead employers and the government to take a good hard look at sick leave policies and encouraging/ordering sick employees to stay home.

The sick employee is not productive, and then there is further loss when the illness spreads through the work place.

It’s cheaper in the long run to let employees stay home with compensation then forcing/intimidating/coercing them to go in to work sick.

/sick people at work rant

In happier news, I did get to my mailbox yesterday before bonking and I had a couple swim/triathlon goodies waiting for me.

I got my Blue Seventy swim socks for when the water is horribly cold (like in the high 40s low 50s like the triathlon two weeks ago) They will add a couple seconds to my transition time to pull off, but I think they’ll be worth it. Once the water warms up a bit, I won’t need them, but that’s going to be a while.

I also got my lifeguard can. This will make it a lot safer when I’m swimming alone or with someone else (Gene always brings his when we swim in case someone has a cramp or takes on water) They’re not that much work to pull along and could really help out if someone runs into trouble in the water.

With that, I’m tired again, so I’m going to lay back down for a while.

~L

Mood: Snotty

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I have determined that I am sick, likely with whatever crud A-Wall and Steph had.

Luckily, it’s a fairly short term bug (about 72 hours) upper respiratory infection and not the flu as some have suggested (body aches are common after hard physical labor followed by a hard bike ride, followed the next day by a ten mile run on hills followed the next day by a 40 mile bike ride in snotty weather)

Oh, and if they don’t crack down on people showing up for work sick (we do have paid sick leave) I’ll be working from home if this flu is found in WA state.

Even if it’s not a flu pandemic, I’m pretty damn tired of people showing up for work sick and infecting the rest of us in our little recirculated air cube farm.

If this Swine/Avian influenza spreads (living in a town with an international airport puts us at greater risk) I may have to temporarily stop taking the train to work. I’m a big supporter of public transit, but I’m not about to ride in a sardine can/petri dish with people that aren’t smart enough to stay home when they are sick.

One (of many) problems we have created in this world of international travel is that a disease can spread to several countries before it’s even identified. Ten people get get sick, hop on a place, everyone on that plane is exposed, etc.. etc… etc…

WHO has already stated that there is no way to contain this thing and that it very well could go pandemic. (the last pandemic being the Hong Kong Flu in 1968 which killed about one million people globally and about 34,000 in the United States) I suspect that if this one does go pandemic, it’s going to make the Hong Kong Flu pandemic almost laughable.

OK, enough gloom and doom.

I attempted to do one productive thing today (yes, even though it was slug day)

When I was out and about on Friday (between the eye doctor appointment and my ten mile run which as it turns out may not be 100% responsible for me feeling like crap) I got a headset for my PC so that I can use “Soft Phone” when I telework.

I had resisted getting the program installed because I don’t have a land line and don’t want calls forwarded to my cell phone (which gets expensive during the week) but when I found out that it had “road warrior” mode and I could make calls through my internet connection at home.

Speaking of eye doctor appointments, the eye drops he prescribed me have been helping with my pollen irritated eyes. They’re still a bit itchy, but I don’t wake up with them stuck shut.

Oh, but check this out. This teeny, tiny little bottle would have been $109.00 at Walgreens if I didn’t have insurance….

WTF!?!?!? (penny added to show just how teeny tiny that flat little bottle is, seriously, it’s not round, it’s flat)

And with that, I’m going to get to bed (yes, even though I laid on the couch all day)

I’m hoping to feel well enough tomorrow to do laundry (it IS critical) and pick up this place a bit.

~L

Mood: Tired

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