Winter is officially here...

...and we just passed the winter solstice and the days will now get longer.  Of course, it's too soon to feel it.  It's a couple days before Christmas, which falls on Wednesday this year.  I took last week off... let me explain why.  On Friday (10 days ago), I was working the airport and just as I arrived there, I was starting to feel this pain in my chest.  It was a weird pain, but I have a lot of (what I call) "wrap-around" pain from my back muscles that seem to pretty regularly bother me, so I thought once I got going with my duties, it would stop bothering me.  But it didn't and it started to freak me out a bit.  Susan Lucci has been doing these PSA commercials about women and heart attacks lately, about how different and subtle the signs are for women, and of course that came to mind.  So I left work and called my doctor's office and made an appointment for 2:45 - that was a long 4 hours! I was tempted to see if a friend who lives close by was around so I could go hang out with her.  But I toughed it out.

Well, Cheryl (she's my PA) did all the tests - a couple blood tests and an EKG and a chest xray.  Everything was fine, except she said my right lung looked a little "fluffy" - yes, that's the word she used!  I think she was trying not to freak me out!  She said it looked like I had a touch of pneumonia.  I was shocked - other than this pain, I felt fine!  She sent me home with a script for an antibiotic and one of those prednisone packs where you take 6 pills the first day then one less each day after that.

And the pain went away.  Since it was on the left side, I doubt it had anything to do with the "fluffy" in my right lung, so I concluded that it was probably a "poke" from the universe to get me to the doctor to clear up whatever it was before it got bad.  But, because I work with older people, I decided I probably shouldn't expose them to it just in case I was contagious.  I was planning on taking Thursday (Merry's birthday) and Friday (Mark's birthday) off anyway, so I just took the whole week off.  (It was Mark's 70th birthday, which I thought might kind of be hard... )

The prednisone... OMG, I slept like the dead for 3 nights!  All my aches and pains were gone!!  It was amazing.  And I went on with my week.  Had Pearl groomed on Friday.  Liane came over for dinner on Saturday.  I was starting to feel a little scratchy spot in my throat by the time she left and by Sunday, I was going into what I typically call a full-blown sinus infection.  I think what happened is the antibiotics and steroids got it all loosened up and it started to make its way out.  I've always felt like the scratchy throat is probably caused by something in the mucus that has been sitting in the recesses of the sinuses, turning kind of toxic.  My throat and tongue get SO sore until that stuff gets OUT!  So I had to go ahead and take off until after Christmas because I'm at that point where I have coughing fits that get so nasty that I get close to tossing my cookies!  I think it's likely I won't be able to work Thurs. or Fri. either, but we'll see.  Maybe I'll get over it faster than usual because of the antibiotics...

I have high hopes that today is the worst day and that I'll be ok to join the family for Christmas.  I guess we'll see...  I didn't get any sleep to speak of last night, so I am utterly exhausted. 

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I spent the day dozing off at the dining room table.  I didn't want to take a real nap today while my drainage was heavy because it wakes me every few minutes as it piles up in my throat.  YUK.  So I just watched TV, drank lots of water, sucked on cough drops and dozed.  Oh, and I made me a small batch of French onion soup and ate little bowls of that throughout the day.  Onions are supposed to be very good for fighting colds and such and I LOVE onions soup!  It was DELISH!

And I do feel... well, less awful.  Throat is still sore, but less so.  Still a lot of drainage.  Feeling a little dizzy (I think there's a little infection in my left ear...)

Liane came over for dinner Saturday after she got done working and we had salad and pizza.  We've been meeting for lunch periodically, but she seems to like coming over here better.  She really likes my house, but I think she says she likes it because it's cheaper than going out.  I always pay because she's really strapped all the time, and I don't mind it because I can afford it, but it probably makes her feel bad.  But on the up side, I think I convinced her to go ahead and apply to get her social security when she turns 62 in January.  I know she's not going to get much, but the way she works mostly "under the table", she's never going to add much more to it and might as well have the benefit NOW of having some extra money so she is struggling so much... I figured it out back when I was deciding about it that I would have to live about 11.5 years beyond my full retirement age to justify waiting until full retirement age.  That made it an easy decision!  Of course, if I'd been earning $40,000 a year, it would have been worth waiting, but I was already mostly retired by then...

As for my plants, I'm maintaining everything inside on my regular schedule, but I am having a hard time making myself go out to the GH to water.  This happens most winters - I lose enthusiasm for the one that aren't in my constant line of sight. And they are suffering.  I really need a good kick in the ass to get me out there for a solid few hours.  I think I'll buy an audible book and let Alexa read to me.  Or maybe I'll do what I did last summer - one day when I was painting, I told Alexa to play Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which is a double album. Worked perfect to keep me on the project!  Ok, I just thought of one to listen to tomorrow!  Planet P Project.  An obscure 80's band whose music I really got into!

Day after Christmas... it was ok.  Brian's prime rib was tasty but a bit rare, even for me.  But better too rare than too done.  It was the usual chaos with the kids.  And the usual annoyance with Merry and her "you're so stupid" looks she's famous for.  It feels like I can't start a conversation about anything without her contradicting my opinion or view or understanding.  It makes it hard to be enthusiastic about hanging out.  I want to have a decent sister relationship, and Mom would want that.  And if I had this trouble with other friends, I would probably say, "hm, maybe it's me".  But I enjoy hanging with my other friends, and conversation is easy and back and forth and no coming away feeling like they think I'm stupid.  I just don't get it why it's so hard with Merry.  And it's not just me... I spend a lot of time cringing at the way she "corrects" Rick, so maybe it's just her personality.  **SIGH** I guess, as they say, it IS what it IS and after this long, it's not likely to change.  Not worth cutting ties, obviously, so I guess I need to just be like teflon and not let it stick! 😁

So I spent an hour or so watering and I definitely have some losses.  But for the most part, the young plants are ok.  But they were DRY.  I need to get some more done yet today - I'm just taking a break after going through about 6 gallons of water!  But here's a new one for me... I noticed the Dischidia ovata above my kitchen sink has baby aphids on it!  WTF???  In the middle of winter?  Aphids are one of those pests that usually come for a short period in late summer and early fall.  They seem to especially love viny plants and attack the newest foliage/vines.  But where would they come from now??  And inside, no less!  Crazy!

I'm back to putting coffee grounds on my plants again.  I try to throw some on top of the soil once every 6 months or so.  They seem to like the acidity.  I just start keeping my little Kuerig pucks and put one whole puck's grounds on the big ones, and about half on the small ones.  It feels good to recycle, especially at the cost of coffee!

I just learned that one of our long-time drivers at Enterprise passed away.  His name was Don Stephenson.  He was quite a character!  I knew that he was into motorcycles and used to race them, but in my search for his obit (which isn't out there yet), I found an article about how MUCH he was into drag racing... so much so that he was inducted into the Nebraska Auto Racing Hall of Fame: About Don I had no idea he was quite so accomplished.  I didn't work with Don much, but he certainly left an impression when I did.  He was one of those ornery characters that you'd expect to live to be 100!  I think he was about 80...