Intensive purposes

So, last night I slept in reasonable sized chunks, put a towel over the top pillow because (a) it feels good and (b) I've been soaking the pillows lately.

Up at 6:30, could not get back to sleep for that last extra hour. Did my usual morning things. My head was clear, but chest is still rumbling a little.

Work was educational. There was a series of tests on my plate which involved testing a piece of the European video standard called DVB, ( cut for geeky TMI )

But it was fun to see the new table pop up on my video analyzer with all the stuff I'd entered. Less fun when I had to repeat the test for every country in Europe and several other permutations.

Lunchtime I made the long drive to Stevens Creek Blvd & Lawrence BB&B and I'm glad they have shopping carts because I needed a crutch. It took a long time to find the pillow I wanted (to match one I bought 2 weeks ago, only sold by BB&B) because instead of displaying them face out, they filled a whole wall with them, narrow edge to the customer. And they placed the sign about 7 feet up. And then another challenge to find a low thread count pair of pillowcases. High thread counts are less absorbent and dry too slowly. I wanted 200, but the lowest they had was 300. If I had time I would have gotten them at Walmart.

That took most of my lunch hour, but I had brought breakfast with me which did not get touched because Friday is Bagels-or-Donuts day, and today I was there early, plus a lot of people are still on vacation, and they had both. So breakfast was a bagel & a donut, lunch was a PBJ sandwich, a banana , a sliced up apple, and some devil's food chocolate dipped donettes. I also had a cup 'o' noodles in there somewhere to help with the cold.

Talking is still a crap shoot. Sometimes I can say a few sentences, sometimes my lungs will trigger the cough reflex and I'll be almost doubled up after a word or three. My next door neighbor is sad because he likes to chat with me, but I can't. Can't have lunch with the gang either until this blows over.

Went home at 5, refilled the vaporizer, fed the cats, put the pillowcases on the pillows, watched some of the Cotton Bowl over a bowl of chicken soup, scanned a bunch of photos from two Menlo Players events and posted them on FB. Coughed too much.

Plans for tomorrow:
Depends on how my cough is. It's manicure day, and I want to give her a calendar. But I may need to go to Kaiser urgent care instead.
Lots of football to watch all weekend.

Chirps

• Пт, 15:31: Working on my new book, "Mary Todd Lincoln: Zombie"
• Пт, 23:18: It's been a few days since Tweets were transferred to my LJ. :-(
• Пт, 23:19: Okay, time to attempt sleep. Bronchitis does not love me being horizontal.

Round 2

I was hoping I'd be incrementally better enough to have a mostly routine day today, but the nasty side-wrenching cough continues just frequently enough to make a trip to the nail parlor out of the question. I did get up at 10 and get dressed, but took it easy, watching TV/Tivo/football. Made over-easy eggs for brunch and hard boiled half a dozen more for next week's lunch box.

By late afternoon my side was too painful to sit in the recliner, so I got off my butt and drove to Kaiser and asked for an urgent care appointment. They got two nurses to see me (a senior one and one in training, I think). Senior nurse asked what I am there for. I coughed when I tried to answer. "That's what I'm here for". They tried to boost my priority due to all my chronic conditions, but there was nothing available. There is no way I would go to an ER for this. They arranged for another phone doctor appointment. It was 2:30, the doctor was due to call at 5. I knew I would have to come back to get drugs, so I thought about staying, but that was too long. I also thought about hanging at Starbucks down the block, but I didn't have my netbook, I'd be way too bored. So I started driving home. 1/3 of the way the phone widget came on the car's audio system, it was the doctor. I parked at a 7-11 and we went over the symptoms. He Got It. He said he would phone in prescriptions for stronger antibiotics, stronger cough syrup, and something for the pain.

Back to the pharmacy, the line was out the door. I figured it would take that long for them to fill the prescription. Half an hour later I was at the front, the nice lady said usually phoned in stuff took 4 hours to process, but she would put a rush order on, and they would call my name - don't wait in line again - in about 20 minutes. I saw my name go up on the board in half an hour, but no one called me. Finally one pharmacy tech started shouting for people to see him at register 2 if they were waiting to be called, so I went over. Everything was ready, and there was an OTC item as well, allergy stuff, which they keep behind the counter. I had to sign for two items, made me feel like opening my own drug cartel.

And then another 15 minutes waiting for a pharmacist's consultation. I was the only one in line.

4:30, on my way home I remembered I was going to make a Safeway stop for a couple of items. Did that, then home. Refilled the vaporizer and started it cranking. Put on the kettle. Watched the end of the Texas-Bengals game, and at 6 I took the antibiotics, pain killer and allergy meds. I'll wait till closer to bedtime for the cough medicine. They said to try not combining it with the pain killer. So I'm still coughing a bit.

Two hours later none of my symptoms have decreased but I do feel significantly slower and I suppose you could call it drowsy, but it is more like hung over, minus the headache.

Dinner was celery stalks dipped in bleu cheese dressing, followed by split pea soup. Klondike bar for dessert. Gave the cats their treats, as I usually do when I grab dessert.

Watched the Saints-Lions game, it's still on.

Plans for tomorrow:
Depends on how I feel. Probably will stay home with the NFL. I would really like to get together with Janice for Starbucks, now that they have stopped playing Jesus music - Janice is back from a trip to the antarctic, and wants me to make her videos into DVDs.