But Wait There’s More

Just when I thought it would be safe to think the fever was gone, it returned this morning, hiked back up to 100F+ again and stayed there even longer today. This morning my throat felt like the surface had been ripped off when I first woke up but that got better. Mostly I’m just still barely moving around. Called in sick for tomorrow. I sure wish I knew what kind of virus this is. Flu is supposed to be 102-104F so how could this be flu. Colds have more airway distress. Well, hopefully tomorrow I’ll do better.
Deep Thought:Whenever anyone says “I can’t,” it makes me wish he’d get stung to death by about ten thousand bees. When he says “I’ll try,” five thousand bees. (“I can,” one bee.)

Today I am grateful for: Low-maintenance cats

Back Among the Living

On Thanksiving Day, I went for a walk with my family in the very cold windy air and noticed a little tiny difference in how I felt almost immediately. Now I know you don’t catch colds from the cold. Nevertheless, by evening my throat was scratchy. I went to work the following morning feeling a little bit of cough and my voice changing. Worked a half day, went home and proceeded to have a fever up to 100.5 from that afternoon for the next 24 hours. Woke up many times last night. Boy am I tired. But I’m back again. Fever’s broken. Thank goodness it happened on the weekend so I could just lay around.
Deep Thought:I think my new thing will be to try to be a real happy guy. I’ll just walk around being real happy until some jerk says something stupid to me.
Today I am grateful for: Digital thermometers.

Gathering Matters

Holidays are both a group and an individual experience.  This article describes what happens at Thanksgiving in a way I can relate to.

For me, it was the gathering.  I noted many personally precious details.

Deep Thought:  If aliens from outer space ever came and we show them our civilization and they make fun of it, we should say we were just kidding, that this isn’t really our civilization, but a gag we hoped they would like. Then we tell them to come back in twenty years to see our real civilization. After that, we start a crash program of coming up with an impressive new civilization. Either that, or just shoot down the aliens as they’re waving goodbye.

Today I am grateful for:  Children of all ages.

Thanksgiving Prayer

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us. We return thanks to the rivers and streams, which supply us with water. We return thanks to all herbs, which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases. We return thanks to the moon and stars, which have given to us their light when the sun was gone. We return thanks to the sun, that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye. Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit, in Whom is embodied all goodness, and Who directs all things for the good of Her children. (Iroquois Prayer)
Deep Thought:Love can sweep you off your feet and carry you along in a way you’ve never known before. But the ride always ends, and you end up feeling lonely and bitter. Wait. It’s not love I’m describing. I’m thinking of a monorail.
Today I am grateful for: the original inhabitants
P.S. Have a peaceful and yummy Thanksgiving everyone.

Skin Freakout Update

So the little bump on my cheek turned out to be seborrheic keratosis, which as you can see in this article is often related to aging but may closely resemble skin cancer.  Check it out just so you can rest assured if you ever get one.

Whew! P.S. That is not my skin in the photo – OK?

Images from Hubble
(click on photo)
If you have a moment during Thanksgiving preparations, take a look at the universe as seen by the Hubble. It takes a moment to load and has sound so you might want to turn down your computer radio if you have it on. Kind of puts things in a certain perspective, doesn’t it?

Deep Thought:How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn’t have that dangerous beak.
Today I am grateful for: Orthotics

If we can get past various fundamentalist attitudes about the spiritual life, such as attachment to a too simple code of morality, fixed interpretations of stories, and a community in which individual thinking is not prized, then many different ways of being spiritual come into view.  We may discover that there are ways to be spiritual that do not counter the soul’s needs for body, individuality, imagination, and exploration.  Eventually we might find that all emotions, all human activities, and all spheres of life have deep roots in the mysteries of the soul, and therefore are holy….    Thomas Moore

Deep Thought:  Happiness is not a circus clown rolling around in a big tractor tire so that his arms and legs form “spokes.” Happiness is when he stops.

Today I am grateful for:  Natalie Maines.

As I grow older, I find that life is a process of paring down, weeding out, simplifying.  This is different than youth, when the process was about adding to, expanding, collecting.  It’s all good.

Deep Thought:  Higher beings from outer space may not want to tell us the secrets of life, because we’re not ready. But maybe they’ll change their tune after a little torture.

Today I am grateful for:  Vivaldi.
(I see that the image I included in this post from my work computer does not show up on my computer at home. Sorry if you can’t see it.)

Day of Rest

Thank god I had nothing I HAD to do today. In my refrigerator was a bag of stuff from the deli that I bought to have on hand for the kids yesterday, which included a couple of egg rolls. I had only planned on one little container of teriyaki chicken, but the deli talked me into several for the price of just a bit more. Anyway, this morning I chewed my way clear through one of the egg rolls, even though it was really greasy and didn’t seem to have anything tasteworthy inside and for the approximately five hours since then I’ve been flattened. I just went and laid on my bed with a blanket over me and three of my felines set up a triumvirate watch around me. Now I’m feeling slightly better. Never did have to throw up (yet). This should be good for my weight loss project.
So now I’m going to go out in the fresh air for a quick errand run.

Deep Thought: If I could be a bird, I’d be a Flying Purple People Eater because then people would sing about me and I could fly down and eat them because I hate that song.
Today I am grateful for: Sundays

Mouseorama

My latest small rodent karma – The first clue was a few months ago when suddenly upon turning on my dishwasher water came flooding out into the area under my sink. I figured it was something wrong with the dishwasher which I had just paid an arm and leg to have repaired not long before, so I decided to wash dishes by hand for awhile till I could deal with having the dishwasher repairman come again. Next clue, little bits of insulation stuffing began appearing on the floor in the kitchen. I didn’t recognize what it was and couldn’t figure out how it got there. Third clue – one of my cats brought a mouse into the house from outside, dropped it in the kitchen and it ran into a small space between the edge of the dishwasher and its housing. Final clue – the aroma that began to make itself known. So today my son came and pulled the dishwasher out of its hole (a project in itself) and behind it, sure enough mice had chewed all the way through the dishwasher cord, peed and pooped, and there was even a dead mouse. Oh the joys of home ownership. So we sprayed Raid all over the place in there, I cleaned everything with bleach, and he put the machine back in its space and took a piece of the broken cord to see if he can find a replacement. So my life isn’t sexy, so sue me.

On the brighter side, I took my grandchildren to see Brother Bear, which was actually quite sweet. I even got a little tear in my eye there at the end. Then we tasted our very first Krispy Kreme (sp?) donut on the way home. Evil. I can’t wait to see what mundane miracles will happen tomorrow.
Deep Thought: What am I afraid of? I’ll tell you: a feather. That’s right, a feather. How could anyone be afraid of a feather, you say. That’s an honest question, and I’ll try to give it an honest answer. First of all, did I say it was a poison feather?

Today I am grateful for: Eskimo Pie Dark Chocolate Covered No Sugar Added Ice Cream Bars