It took weeks to get over the cold I came down with on Christmas morning (it had been coming on for at least a week). I get very loquacious when groggy, and when I was groggiest, there was nothing to talk about except being sick, so starting about the twelfth, a large swath of this issue is organ recital.
Much of the rest is about food, but there's a good recipe or two in there.
I was resuming normal activity at the end of the month.
Washed clothes, spell-checked and mailed the December Banner, uploaded and validated it.
I have a date — Dave and I are going shopping together tomorrow.
It wasn't much exertion, but I came home tired, and after lunch I slept until time to cook supper. Maybe it was all those decisions as we made a cartful of groceries fit behind the seats of the truck. (Now is a fine time to realize that we could have taken some cardboard boxes to keep them from bounding around in the truck bed.) We meant to re-schedule for just me to drive to Owen's, but when Dave went out to warm up the Versa for me, it was too cold to start. I'm not very good at four-wheeling, so it was back to the original plan.
We split up the list, and took about the same length of time to fill up our carts. So we took both carts to the check-out instead of transferring Dave's stuff to mine.
I bought two pork chops, and for supper I dredged one in Fryin' Magic, dipped it into an egg with a little milk beaten into it, and then coated it with "dredging flour", which I believe to be a mixture of white-wheat whole grain flour, whole-grain corn flour, salt, and pepper.
Then I put it into a puddle of peanut oil in a skillet just a tad bigger than the chop, turned it over, and baked it at 375F half an hour, turning it over at fifteen minutes. This was a very good way to cook a pork chop, but I plan to simmer the other one in gravy tomorrow.
I also baked a small skillet of frozen vegetables, celery, and carrot sticks. I tossed the frozen vegetables in a little peanut oil in the soup plate I'd used for the dredging flour.
I closed out the December Banner yesterday, and noticed that I'd never mentioned the excursion Jan Balzer, Helen, Rita, and I made to Fort Wayne. We had planned to go to Jefferson Pointe, but agreed that it was too cold to go to a strip mall, and went to Glenbrook Square instead, then drove to Target for a few more things. All I bought was lemon-pepper chicken with a side of noodles, but I enjoyed the trip very much.
I read in Saturday's Times-Union that tourist cabins, rebranded as "Tiny Homes", are now $195/night.
Before breakfast, I cut the fat off the chop, put the rest into the rice cooker set on "keep warm", cut the fat into bits and rendered it in the skillet I'd used for baking the other pork chop, and made gravy to pour over the chop. Then I remembered that I'd forgotten to salt the gravy, and sprinkled the last envelope of Goya chicken-flavor bouillon powder on it. That was too much salt for one cup of gravy, but Dave, being low on sodium, didn't notice.
I served it with wild rice. I've had a box of it for a long time, but never got around to trying it. Dave was a bit dubious at first, but it rapidly grew on him.
Spent most of the day fiddling around with the computer. I reformatted the Table of Contents page for my sewing book, and brought the "spine index" type comments up to date. Don't recall doing anything else that was useful.
I once asked alt.usage.english what one should call a spine index that isn't on the spine of a magazine, but they came up blank. I suspect that I didn't even manage to communicate the question.
I scored 8 at Hexavirus! At 1:11 this morning, unfortunately.
Just when I thought I was getting over my cold, Dave came down, harder than I did. He's spending today in bed; I never got worse than taking longer naps than usual.
Yesterday, while Dave was feeling punk, I rode all the way to the library to pick up a book I had on hold. (David Drake's _The Spark_, and very good if you like high fantasy with a realistic feel.)
The streets were very very wet, but quite clear. Probably the last time for a week; this morning, a KABS driver reported that he wasn't picking someone up because of a sheet of ice. Well, he said that the passenger's father had taken her because of the sheet of ice, which doesn't compute for me — I'd leave driving on ice to the experienced professional, particularly when I already had one scheduled. I presume that several factors weren't mentioned.
It's 38.6F out now, which means that no new ice will be forming, but it also means that any ice that formed during the night will be very slick. It's still overcast and gloomy. I did see "cloudy bright" on the snow while I was undressing for my nap yesterday.
And while I was typing that and going window-to-window to check on the fog — I can see as far as the edge of the lake — the temperature rose to 38.9F. Weather Underground says it will continue warm until Friday. And our first sight of sun will be on Sunday.
A bit of luck: On the way back from the library yesterday, I stopped at Owen's and bought a chuck steak that was too thin to fry or bake, and I didn't feel like pounding and breading it, so I had already decided to make soup for tonight before I found out how sick Dave is.
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The changing of the guard: I got into bed for my nap just before Dave got up to make himself lunch, and he came back to bed just as I'd decided it was time to get up.
Sleeping all day seems to have done him a world of good.
I washed a drainerful of dishes today. I spent most of my time reading _The Spark_. I also found a page on my Web site that needed a lot of attention.
And I spent a good bit of time trying to find out why the code that wraps lines at 30 em doesn't work in this file. I finally made it validate, but it still doesn't wrap. [I eventually discovered that I'd been viewing it with "style" turned off.]
The chuck soup was good.
This morning, all the snow was gone, except for a few places where the snow plows have piled up ice. By good luck, the ice piled up at the end of our driveway was not one of those exceptions; I could drive the Versa today if I wanted to.
My shopping list is long enough that I really ought to, but we have plenty of food.
This will be my first ride in a cab since very early in the sixties. I told Dave that I was going to Dr. Darr with him because I didn't want him driving, and he said that *neither* of us should drive today, and called FastCab. They are supposed to get here at two, and it's now a quarter till, so I'm poised to dart.
[Dave read this and reminded me that I used a cab during our move to New York. I don't remember where I was going or why, but I do remember going to bed worried about being up and dressed when the cab came for me.]
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Dr. Darr listened to my chest and said that I should take antibiotics too.
I did want to drive the versa yesterday morning, to pick up my antibiotics, but the doors were frozen shut. There was also ice on the windows. There is sun on it now; if I were to brush the thin film of snow off the windshield, it would probably thaw the car — but I'm still very tired.
I coughed all night. I feel better now that I'm up and walking around. My belly muscles are sore. When I noticed, my first thought was "at least I'll get a flatter belly out of this", but when you work until sore and keep on working, muscles are more likely to break down than to get stronger.
No church today. I'm not even up to getting dressed. Indeed, having to put boots on is my primary reason for not brushing off the Versa.
And now my temples hurt when I cough. So far, I can manage by pressing on them with my hands.
Back to a normal schedule, but I'm not near as fussy about the laundry as usual.
The sheet has needed changing for days, but if I get exhausted halfway through, I won't have any bed to crawl into.
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All week, every time I crawl into bed, Al is already there. We're beginning to think that he feels as punk as we do. I was rather pleased, halfway through my second morning nap, to hear him sharpening his claws on the box spring. But I yelled "whap!".
This morning, I noticed that his dish was nearly empty, wondered why he hadn't bugged me about it, dumped the crumbs outside for the critters, and gave him half a cup of dry food. Later on he sauntered through the kitchen into the living room, paused for an interested look in the direction of his dish, and continued to the patio door — where there was very little on squirrelevision.
Perhaps he didn't bug me because he had just eaten. I think the half cups have been hitting the dish about as frequently as usual.
I have decided that tomorrow is soon enough to wash the second load.
When Dave got sick, I assumed that he'd caught my cold, but I think that he caught a different cold and then passed it on to me. I definitely took a turn for the worse while we were in Dr. Darr's office.
I woke up rested this morning, and it took a while to resume coughing. I had been waking up with a backlog of coughing to get off my chest.
Part of feeling better was dressing to go out. While combing my hair, I realized that I hadn't combed it since Friday. It was a tangled mess.
The rested feeling didn't last long, but I've resumed believing that someday I'll get over this.
Alas, my reason for putting on jeans was that Dave was giving serious thought to going to the emergency room. [Later he decided that his annual appointment, which is the day after tomorrow, will be soon enough.]
The sheet with my antibiotic said it might cause changes in taste — that must be why stale spit has been unusually foul, and doesn't rinse out. Plain water tastes funny; luckily we are amply supplied with seltzer. And I just ate a piece of 70% chocolate for the first time in days, and it was as bitter as 85%. Left a foul taste in my mouth, too.
I think I just heard the washing machine stop.
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Subsequent waits for the machine were spent lying on the bed — but *on*, not *in*, and I took a regulation nap after lunch — I even took my bra off. And I was actually hungry at suppertime.
But I'm feeling like bedtime at half-past seven. I plan to stay up until at least nine
Neither of us felt like taking trash out yesterday, and the bin is full of paper towels and tissues.
I got the bed made before naptime! That's more strenuous than it sounds, because I changed the mattress pad too, and Dave switched his double pillow from two flat, hard pillows to two fluffy ones that were very difficult to cram into a case. I suspect that once he tries it, he will want two separate pillows.
Since a king-size mattress pad is too big to wash, I use two blankets under the sheets. I had to tumble the dust out of the one I threw into the wash and the one I put back onto the bed. I should have also tumbled the one I got out of the blanket box, but it was already on the bed when I noticed the lint in the fold. Having got started, I also tumbled the three upper blankets, and every one filled the filter up with dust.
Dave did want another pillowcase when he went to bed that night.
He drove himself to Thursday's appointment, but sent me in to pick up his new prescriptions. The blood tests and the chest X-Ray came back clean.
When he was backing out of our parking place at Zales, he called my attention to the window reflections that give you a panoramic view of what's behind you.
I remembered more than one high chair in the Beyer building's waiting room, but it has been several years since I got my ribs X-rayed. The one that's there is the one that I sat in then, and I *was* in a good bit of pain. I may not be remembering clearly.
JOY98's high-pitched whine gets more annoying every day. Perhaps I should quit playing with the computer and do something useful.
I chickened out of shopping today — partly because I *must* go to the library and return the book I finished over a week ago; it's a seven-day book, and somebody may be waiting for it. Also, there is only one renewal.
Something useful: I think I shall copy my shopping list into a more-organized form, then pick up a no-brainer hand-sewing job that I laid out before I got debilitated.
One out of two ain't bad. I did organize my list, and yesterday I returned my book and went to Aldi's, and didn't get all that tired.
Aw . . . in reading tonight's mail, I learned that if I'd gone to the go-kit assembly party, I'd have gotten to use a soldering iron for the first time since Heathkit.
With thirteen people assembling four kits, I probably wouldn't have gotten a turn, but I'm still very curious as to what a "go-kit" *is*. It appears to be something that you use right in the room where it's stored, rather than something you grab on your way out of the house.
I looked out at the rain and fog this morning and decided that there isn't much point in going to church and hiding from people.
Didn't help that all my clothing is cotton.
I still have deep, racking coughing fits, but far enough apart that my stomach muscles have healed enough that I have to check whether they are still sore.
Dave is improving at an imperceptible rate. I think that the Al-snoring wheeze is gone, but the bubbling purr is still there.
With it wet and windless, I burned a few of the downed limbs in the outdoor fireplace. I couldn't find the poker; I hope it's just hung on the wrong hook, or behind something that I didn't look under.
I got rid of some obsolete financial records at the same time.
Today Dave felt up to dragging the trash can to the curb, but just barely. I, on the other hand, did three loads of wash and two weeks of dishes.
Since we use paper plates and plastic cutlery, that was only a drainer full. My fingernails have never been so clean!
The muslin I ordered to make new sheets and pillow cases arrived today. I'd worried about where I'd store thirty-three yards of ten-foot muslin, and I'd worried about how I'd wash thirty-three yards of ten-foot muslin, but I didn't anticipate that I can't *lift* thirty-three yards of ten-foot muslin.
I'm in the habit of dumping Al's crumbs on the patio in the hope of attracting critters to amuse him. They have been accumulating for days or weeks, but this morning all were gone. I don't know whether a critter got hungry or they blew away in the night's high winds. I suspect that it was the wind.
The lake is still frozen over, but I'll be surprised if anything without webbed feet and down underwear walks on it. I haven't even seen any birds today — perhaps the drain from Dalton Foundry has cleared a pond at the north end.
I've got a sample of the muslin in the washing machine. I plan to soak it all day and all night, and wash and tumble-dry it tomorrow.
I think Dave is wheezing less, but I may be fooling myself. My cough seems to be holding steady. I hope to take a short bike ride tomorrow; exercise in the open air always improves a cough — if not overdone. I used to fantasize about having someone follow me in a mobile home, so that I could fall into bed the moment I'd had enough.
Then, as now, I mostly stay home.
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I just looked up "oregano" in Wikipedia, pursuant to a conversation on rec.arts.sf.written, and was amused to see that the only "see also" at the bottom of the article is "thyme".
I planned and prepared for this milk run as if it were a major expedition. Well, in my present condition, three miles *is* a major expedition.
My physical strength was up to it, but I wasn't fond of the gray sky and the misting snow. Good thing I went as soon as I was ready; there's a film of snow on the ground now. It wasn't particularly cold, but I wore my warmest woollies anyway. Including a pair of silk tights that came in the same order with the muslin.
The muslin shrank three inches per yard in both directions.
Mostly loafed around today. I did change the cat box — and aired it in the sun for an hour before re-filling it. (We have two, and I change the dirtier one each Thursday.)
And I spent a few minutes finishing one of my new bras. That leaves three to go, and enough elastic to complete one. Tomorrow will be a lovely day to go downtown and buy elastic — but I'm soaking a load of hot whites to dry in the sun instead.
And Friday was a lovely day. I emptied the hot-with-bleach bin of the laundry sorter, and filled both lines. I was rather surprised that it wasn't difficult to put the clean dish towels back into the drawer. I must have gotten rid of some of the less-desirable towels.
They didn't hang in the sun as long as I would have liked, because they were whipping in the wind.
I went to church today, and didn't cough much during the service. I didn't shake hands with anybody.
Looked like no more than half as many in the congregation as should have been there. Cora and Candy were both present, and looked healthy.
I wiped the gaskets and door handles of the fridges, but didn't even look at the ice trays. I imagine it would have been all right if I washed my hands well beforehand, as I was going quite long times between coughs.
I'd forgotten how to dress — it didn't matter that I forgot my church key, since there was no chance that services would be cancelled, but I also forgot to take cough drops and my eight-ounce bottle. A coffee cup filled in for both, but I had to pay attention to it that it didn't tip, and had to sip more often than I would have if I'd had cough drops.
Only one load of wash today. I washed two days of white underwear when I pre-washed the sample of muslin, and I washed a shirt by itself yesterday so a stain wouldn't set. There must have been a few other small things. I changed only three pillow cases.
While waiting for the washing machine, I tore the muslin sample into five pillow cases and pinned them, but got hungry before opening the treadle sewing machine.
I thought of a meatball sandwich, but meatballs don't go well with bread. So I zapped a potato and put it in the toaster to keep warm, then heated up the meatballs and spaghetti sauce. It was quite good.
Then I tried DuckDuckGo and the e-edition of Saturday's paper in a vain effort to find out what the First Friday theme is. I found sites that claim to be about Warsaw's First Friday, but none had been updated this year.
Today's paper says that eventually US 30 will bypass the bypass, as US 31 did at Kokomo. Does that mean we'll have new 30, Old 30, and middle-aged 30?
I suppose they will, boringly, re-name it US 930.
I figured that on the first good day, I'd make a dump tour — a good length for a first outing, and I can have lunch at the Panda Express and look at the new restaurants said to be in progress. But when it was time to pack up and leave, I didn't feel like sorting out and packing up a pannier of stuff for Goodwill, so after dumping plastic bags at Owen's and magazines at the emergency room, I bipped across 30 — on one of the dangerous intersections mentioned in tonight's paper — and went into Menards, Martin's, and Aldi.
It's a good thing I shortened the tour: though the temperature rose during the day, while I was in Aldi it dropped again, and I stopped at the first bench to make sure my shirts were zipped all the way up and put my mittens back on.
I was exceedingly annoyed in Aldi. I passed up capers at both Owen's and Martin's because I'd bought the capers we decided were good on pizza at Aldi and I wanted the same brand. And Aldi didn't have any capers.
Assuming, of course, that if they had capers they would be with the giardiniera and salad fixings. They also weren't with the sandwich pickles or the pickled beets.