Winter and Colds Sucks!

After my three day vacation from minor depression---nothing like a good, no-rules political debate to make me feel alive---I’m back to wondering why I’m bothering to get out of bed in the morning other than I have to pee. I’ve only been out of the house a few times since before Christmas but on one of those outings I’ve managed to pick up a bug. Not the flu bug but something that is making my head stuffy and my throat fighting sinus draining. A cold? Maybe but I’m not coughing. And I literally can’t sneeze or blow my nose. I’ve tried. Whatever is up there doesn’t want to come out. Fumbling around in the medicine cabinet I hauled out the Zyrtec. It’s an antihistamine for allergies but I’m on day three of taking them and I’m not getting any better. I’m not getting any worse either and to that I say amen, hallelujah and whatever else I’m supposed to say to express that I’m grateful for small blessings. 

Yesterday it was noon before I got dressed and I only got dressed then so I could go down to the mailbox. Going out to the mailbox in my bathrobe is a line I won’t cross until I’m ready to sign myself into a funny farm aka nursing home. In recent years I’ve tried to make myself feel guilty about not getting dressed before 10 AM because I know social workers use that fact to help them evaluate old people for depression. Ticks me right off, if you really want to know the truth. Young people can wander around for hours in the sweats and t-shirts they slept in and no one gives it another thought. Young people are “lounging” don’t you know, but seniors are “slipping.” 

I was expecting a medication in the mail that I didn’t want sitting outside too long. What a saga it was getting that refill! My doctor has been testing my thyroid and adjusting my dosages since last October and until now I’ve had no trouble getting my online prescriptions filled. This time they decided to cancel all four of my thyroid prescriptions with a message to call my doctor because I had varying dosages in their files. Duh, I was only ordering the latest one! I tried finding a phone number to call the online pharmacy without success. Next I sent an online message to them to explain what was going on and I got an automated reply that they’d response within 72 hours. In 72 hours they sent me a phone number to call. I called and spent forty minutes between being on hold several times and talking to a pharmacist who eventually reinstated the prescription with the latest date and lowest dosage just like I ordered in the first place, but I was required to stay on the phone while she made notations and changes in her system.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past month including the following books: 1) The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict and it was interesting. It’s about Albert Einstein’s first wife and their 13 year marriage before they divorced. She was also a gifted physicist and there has long been speculation that she contributed to his ground breaking theories but he cut her out of getting any credit. This book although fictionalized is based on that speculation and on all known facts about their romance, marriage and children; 2) Theft by Finding Diaries by Davie Sedaris. I only read a fourth of the way through this book before I decided I couldn’t take another description of being high on illegal drugs; 3) Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson is another book I’m struggling to finish. I really want to read it but it's making me feel like a third grader trying to read post-graduate work; 4, 5, & 6) Spencer Quinn’s dog detective series hooked me for a while and I read three back-to-back: The Tail of Vengeance, A Cat Was Involved and The Dog who Knew too Much. They were fun distractions that didn’t tax my brain and I've always liked books written from a dog’s point of view; and 7) In Book Club we read My Mountain Story by Lori Lansens. This was an engrossing book that all twelve of us loved for the many sub-plots and the complicated characters. It’s about four people who got lost on a mountain but only three came back. The New York Times calls it “a fast-paced, suspenseful adventure and a gorgeous tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.” The book is all that and more.

I started writing this blog in the morning, then I went to the grocery store and came home to fix dinner. By the time I sat down to finish writing it, my nose was running like the business end of a Water Pic and I’m getting the big-time chills and have developed a wicked cough. I don’t want this! I don’t need this! But with any luck it will just be a bad cold and I’ll live to fight another day. ©