New times, new digs

Hello friends!

 

The Spud, Miss Pickle and I were out at the park today, it was a lovely day for a game of Sticks.  But if you are Miss Pickle, every day is a lovely day for sticks.

It has been lovely hearing from many of you either in your blogs, comments or by email.  I am glad many of you are doing well.  My heart goes out to those who have been hit close to home, I send well wishes and will keep you close in my thoughts.

I have been thinking about life in our new reality and decided I want to document these days, because it feels like something good should come out of this.  So, I have opened up a new blog, something I have thought about doing for a long time.  And, I have decided to go transparent, no aliases for myself.

If you are interested in reading the real life and times of Janie Jones, drop me an email and I will send you my new address.

janiejones.greatwhitenorth@gmail.com

Keeping tabs

Hello everyone.

I just read a post from Sarsm, and it made me think outside of my four walls.  So many of you in the blogosphere are emotionally near and dear, and being as how you are spread out across the globe, please spare a minute occasionally and let us know how you are doing in the wake of COVID-19.

So far we have been fortunate as there have been no cases reported by authorities in my neck of the great white north.  However, our local officials are being proactive and schools have been shut down and many businesses are closing or reducing hours to limit large gatherings.  Many programs are popping up to help people obtain food and maintain wages if their workplace is closed.  Stickittoyou U has cancelled all in-person events and mandated all non-essential employees to stay home.  I am fortunate that the vast majority of my work can be done from home, so I am not financially affected at this time.

Our primary and secondary schools have also shut down.  For the time being all lessons are suspended, but schools are to resume at the end of the month using online learning methods, and it sounds like they will remain that way for the rest of the school year.  I don’t know what this will look like exactly for the spud, but I am glad she will not have to be riding the public bus to school every day.

So, the spud and I are doing our best to stay at home and have supplies delivered as much as possible.  Even if we were to catch the virus, we are probably not at high risk for complications beside severe flu symptoms.  But Leif has a lot of other complicating health issues, so we worry about him.  And we worry about our other friends and family members who are also in high risk groups or areas where the virus is hitting hard.

It has been a very surreal time, but we are trying to stay calm and do what we can to be as safe as possible.  I just wanted to check in with everyone out there.  Please let me know how you are doing!  I will try to check in regularly, and I hope you will find a way to pause in the midst of adjusting to the new normal yourselves and keep up with your bloggy buddies.

My best wishes that you, your family and friends all whether this crisis with good health.

Hugs,

Janie

 

 

 

I didn’t studder

I am having a very bad week.  I am feeling quite frustrated, overwhelmed, exhausted, and as though everything I come in contact with gives me a paper cut and then a salt bath.  To make matters worse I developed a raging cold/flu.

On top of my general yuckitude then, my cold/flu has gifted me with it’s own brand of joy.  I ache, I burn, I am even more exhausted, I feel like I’m wearing sandpaper, swallowing Brillo pads, I can barely keep my eyes open but I can’t sleep, and am freaking hot.  But I got up and went to work.  Even though I wanted to go home, I met with my research adviser after work even though I told him I was feeling quite poorly and preferred not to meet, he wanted to anyway.  I hope he gets my cold.

Everyone I saw today says, “Oh, Janie, you don’t look good.”

To which I reply, “The universe hates me, I don’t feel good at all, I’m having a bad week and a wretched cold.”

And if one more person says in response, “Maybe it’s allergies.”  I swear to all the deities ever worshiped I will sneeze in their face and let the mucous freely flowing from my nose drip directly into their face as I scream “It’s not F*&king Allergies!”

And then I just want to lie like a beached whale in front of a fan in a spaghetti strap undershirt and my underwear but the lovely landlord picked this week to come and put a new roof on the house and brought his son and a family friend to stay in the basement while they work. Because its so hot, if I close the door I lose any hope of a cross breeze, so I stay mostly clothed and lie quietly with the lights out.

It absolutely amazes me how you can be lying half asleep in your room after telling people you are sick and don’t feel good and they still seem to think nothing of trying to engage you in conversation.

WHAT PART OF I DON’T FEEL GOOD, I AM TIRED AND WANT TO REST DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!?  I AM SICK.  EITHER MAKE ME SOME DAMNED TEA OR LEAVE ME THE F*&K ALONE!

I would type some of the internal monologue of obscenities I would like to scream if my throat didn’t burn so bad, but the mucous is dripping on to the keyboard, and that’s too gross and I’m too tired to keep cleaning it up.

Good night. Maybe I’ll feel better and less cranky tomorrow. Or maybe I’ll call in sick.

Still under quarantine

“My dear doctor, I’m surprised to hear you say that I am coughing very badly, because I have been practicing all night.”

-John Philpot Curran, 1750-1817

 

I am feeling rather disconcerted.  I woke up feeling a little better yesterday, now this morning I feel absolutely stoned.  And, that’s without any drugs, as I didn’t feel bad enough to need any last night.  I can barely focus, which is weird, and adds to the stoned feeling.

My friend, Pete, who I had dinner with last Friday apparently has the Influenza and pneumonia.

I’m not convinced I have Influenza.  I don’t have a fever, I don’t have any nausea/vomitting (thankfully!) and most of my problem seems to be in the sinuses, which I generally think of as a simple cold.  So, I don’t think my case is as serious Pete’s, but I am still disappointed I’m not feeling significantly better today, considering I came home early yesterday and went to bed by 5:30pm.  I am hoping tea and a hot shower will help, otherwise, it’s going to be a rough day.  I can’t afford to take off work.  And, of course, school doesn’t stop just because one is ill, although I have been skipping my afternoon classes the last few days.

*Sigh*

Well, we are supposed to get our grades back today from our first physics test of the semester.  At least I have something to look forward to in getting up today.  I’d roll my eyes in a sarcastic manner, but my head aches in a funny way.

Better health to you all.

 

 

 

Well, now I know why I had that screaming headache Saturday

Saturday I did finally make it out to the farm, only  to have the washing machine (which is maybe a year old) break on me.  It would not drain.  So, I did my best to fish out my clothes, hand wring them, threw them in a garbage bag, and bailed out the washing machine.  I then schlepped the very heavy bag of sodden half washed clothes to the truck and drove back to town.

I had some errands to run, so I stopped on my way back to my room.  First I went for a haircut, I go to one of those no-appointment discount places, but there is a particular hair dresser that works there that I always wait to see, as she does a pretty good job.  But she wasn’t in on Saturday.  It was a bit of a long shot, but the salon was in the same shopping center so I thought I’d try my luck.  Should have known better.

The I went to the crafts store.  I wanted a decorative shoe box.  I thought I had a coupon.  So I looked at the various options, some were marked $9.99, and some $3.99.  So I opted for a plain black one.  I waited in line for about 10 minutes (there was only one check out lane open), finally got to the register, discovered my coupon wasn’t good until March, then apparently the plain black boxes were also $9.99.  Well, I wasn’t about to pay ten plus dollars for what basically is a black cardboard shoe box, so I left.

Next I went to the computer store.  I need a micro USB to VGA adaptor for my new tablet/netbook.  I wandered about the store as they had rearranged everything and the computer accessories weren’t where they used to be, naturally.  Finally a clerk found me and led me to their new location.  No micro USB to VGA adaptors were to be had.

By this point, it was almost 3pm.  My headache was down to a dull roar, thanks to a liberal use of naproxen and muscle relaxers, but I was feeling quite worn out.  So I called off the rest of the excursion and drove back to my place in town, only to break the wheel on my laundry tote trying to haul the big bag of wet clothes inside.  It is rather impressive how much a load of wet clothes weigh, even after you’ve hand wrung them.

Once inside, of course the other renters were already using the laundry machines so I had to wait to finish my stuff until Sunday.  I decided the day was such a loss I’d just reheat some pizza and watch Jane Austen movies until I fell asleep.  So I went to set up my DVD player, which I haven’t used since I bought it on uber-sale after Christmas.

Hahahahahahahhahahahahahaha.

Oh, Janie Jones, don’t you ever learn?

Well, the diagram for plugging the damn thing into my ‘smart’ TV that came with the VCR didn’t match the configuration on the actual backside of the TV.  So I had to randomly try plugging the stuff in until I finally gave up and dug out the TV manual.  Then I realized I had tried the correct combination more than once, but it still wasn’t working.

Eventually, about a half hour later I finally figured out that there’s a special setting called COMP that I have to switch the TV to when I want to use the VCR, and that I need to go into the menu options then in the COMP setting I have to type in VCR so the damn ‘smart’ TV knows to search for a VCR through the COMP ports.

So, after this I decided it was Rum Punch time, muscle relaxers and naproxen be damned.

You know, Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility and a Rum Punch do tend to make up for a lot of things.

I would have posted this yesterday, having woken up feeling much better, but I got busy with various household chores like rewashing my laundry.  In general the day started out quite well, with the exception of being quite lonely.  Leif, who knew of Saturday’s travails, happened to call while I was feeling quite blue and that cheered me up enough to get a fair amount of things accomplished, until mid-dayish when I realized I had come down with a head cold.

Proving once again, if it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.

Now some people would say there are lots of things I should be grateful for.  I didn’t die.  I didn’t even wreck the truck or have a house fire, or break my right arm.  And even though he’s far away, I had that lovely phone call from Leif just at that precise moment when I needed a figurative shoulder to lean on.  But seriously, how cruel is fate that after such a miserable Saturday I should come down with a cold on Sunday?

 

 

Fun epidemiological fact

Apparently DNA of the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi (the bacteria responsible for causing Borreliosis, or Lyme disease) was identified in the 2010 autopsy completed on the 5000+ year old Otzi the Iceman, making him the oldest suspected case of Lyme disease.

I’ve heard of people with incurable illnesses cryogenic freezing themselves until a cure could be found in the future, perhaps Otzi had a similar plan?

All the great intentions in the world and still you get bupkiss

I had wonderful intentions to do some blogging over the holidays.

Then the Spud, the first class disease vector she is, arrived home and shared the joy of the head cold she incubated at her Dad’s down in the midwest.  My gift of the lesser plague came snot wrapped on Christmas Day afternoon, and had pretty much knocked me out ever since.  I can report we have gone through about 4 boxes of Kleenex since her arrival and I have had to disengage the IV drip of tea as I was so stoned on caffeine it was hard to tell if the congestion or the buzz was keeping me up despite being absolutely exhausted.

I have managed to do some work on my laptop so I will still get paid over the holidays, but besides from that I’ve mostly been curled up in a fluffy blankey playing Free Cell, reading the books I got for Christmas and eating every manner of holiday treats I can get my hands on.  I remarked to Leif, who is also sick as a dog, that it’s been nice doing not much of anything, but I would prefer doing nothing while I’m healthy.  See, I’m never satisfied, am I?

I did feel slightly better yesterday so I took the Spud sledding.

Rupert was much smarter than us, he got about 20 feet from the Jeep and decided “F*#k this, my holiday sweater isn’t rated to -30!” and ran back and jumped in the Jeep.

It wasn’t much sledding as much as it was like the luge without walls.  The snow had frozen into a sheet of ice which we pretty much careened down at breakneck speed until we hit the hard crusty snow banks below and were thrown from our sled.  While I don’t handle carnival rides quite as well as I used to, neither the Spud nor I was daunted by the primal screams extracted from our congestion encrusted lungs and continued to race down the sledding hill, laugh as we flew from the sled, and once confirming neither of us was actually injured and the sled still intact, we slogged back up for more again, and again, and again until the Spud’s feet got too cold.  Yesterday at sledding time the windchill was reported at -34, but it didn’t feel so bad when we were running up the hill and laughing like idiots and screaming with terror as we sped back down.  Oddly enough her Dad did not send her with winter boots rated to -30, so she had to borrow a pair of mine which we stuffed with extra sheep’s fleece.  Apparently, however, our efforts to pad my old boots were only half successful, as one foot stayed toasty and the other got painfully cold.

So despite the colds, we are managing to enjoy our holiday as much as possible.  Besides from not blogging myself, I haven’t been visiting much, so I hope you all are enjoying your holidays, too.  The spud and her bio-hazard spewing mucosal membranes are returning south on Sunday.  Maybe I’ll heal up and be able to return to blogging before school resumes.

Maybe.

Happy New Year!