Sick
Blasted Lawn Mowing
Though not many, there are times when I miss living in an apartment. These times usually coincide with my having to mow the lawn after letting it nearly go to seed. When we bought this house with a tiny yard, <strike>we</strike> I decided it would be best to get a Reel Mower. That way we wouldn't have to spend money on gas or oil, plus the maintenance costs would be lower and as a last added bonus we'd get more exercise pushing it around the yard.
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Yes, yes, you can stop laughing now.
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No really, stop laughing at me.
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Bastards.
...
Anyway, we got one and before winter hit we used it maybe twice and it still seemed like an excellent idea. Now that summer is here I'm really beginning to feel that added bonus. Especially when I've had a cold for a week. A cold that had me coughing up huge chunks of flem, keeping me from going out and mowing the lawn in bits & pieces as I meant to do this week.
Instead, I just spent several hours fighting my lawn which had patches a foot or 2 high. Those of you with powered mowers are probably thinking "so what?". Those of you with reel mowers are (hopefully) thinking "you poor bastard."
You see, oh users of powered mowers, when you run across patches this tall a reel mower tends to bend the grass stalks down into the rest of the grass so they pop back up after you pass by the taller bits. To mow patches like this with a reel mower, you either:
- run at the patch, lift one side above the height of the tallest piece of grass at the last moment, and drop the spinning blade on top.
- or you use hand shears and chop it even more manually than with the reel mower (or you cheat and just pull the tall bit out).
With only one or 2 spots like this, it is not much of a problem but when you get to half the lawn it becomes a much bigger issue. Add in upper 80°, 50-60% humidity and you've got yourself a long, painful evening a head of you. Or at least I did when I started around 6:30 this evening1.
Still for all my complaining, once I finally finish with the lawn I do get a real sense of accomplishment out of doing all the work. And I'm meeting more of our neighbors than Ariesna because I'm out working on the lawn every week2. So when we attend neighborhood functions, more people tend to recognize me as that idiot nice fellow who was out working on the lawn. This seems to irk her a bit, but I don't mind. 
1 I finally gave up the fight around 9:30 with only 1 long patch of grass left to mow.
2 When I'm not sick. Usually. Ok, I'm out there at least every other week. Or so. *grin*
Interesting Couple of Days
Sunday night both Ariesna and I were feeling a little run down. Monday we both woke up sick. Not sure what her symptoms were, but I had a sinus pressure so bad I was dizzy. I slept through almost all of Monday, but around dinner time got up enough energy to head downstairs. And that night we had an unexpected visitor.
I was watching some videos on my computer when all of a sudden Ariesna was shouting. I looked over and saw something flying around. Turned out a bat had somehow worked it's way into the house but then was scared and flying around freaking out Ariesna. We locked our cat in the bathroom. Closed as many interior doors as we could and opened the door to our porch. Then after much cursing and effort we were able to drive the bat out onto the porch. All the time we're doing this, our cat is wailing and crying most pitifully from the bathroom. Though as soon as we let him out, all was well. *shrug* Go figure.
Then Tuesday we're both still feeling under the weather. I work from home liberally dosed with cold & sinus meds and feeling a bit tired, but closer to being back in the land of the living. Later that night, I mute the TV during some commercials to talk to Ariesna and we hear some rather pitiful wailing from our porch. I look out through the windows to investigate and find one of our neighbors' cat (was wearing a collar) is sitting out there. Since it was a warm night, I just left him alone but I felt kind of bad about it. I did check the neighborhood email list but there wasn't any reports of a missing cat. Plus several of the people in the area feel it's ok to let their pets run free1 so I figured it would just go home soon afterwords. I did keep looking out and after a couple of hours it eventually left but I still feel kind of bad about leaving it out in the cold2. Mind you, I'm not going to let a strange cat into my house with our current cat. But I suppose I could have let it into the screened portion of our porch.
Today I made it into the office, still slightly down but significantly improved. Ariesna stayed home sick again. Then she went to the doctor and found out she's got pneumonia. *wheee* She gets to stay home the rest of the week as she can't risk transmitting that bit of plague to the kids at her preschool. It also blows our plans for Friday and the weekend. Ain't life grand? *sigh*3
1 No, I do not share that opinion. It's dangerous for the pet (could be katnapped, run over, hurt, lost, etc..).
2 The weather recently warmed up, so it wasn't all that cold but still...
3 Yes, this post is mostly a pity party for us. :p
Banana, Crackers and Gatorade… Oh my!
Well, I finally feel like I am at least partly back from the dead. But really, that's getting ahead of myself; allow me to backtrack a bit.
2005. May. 7th. Ariesna and I were joined in wedded bliss. Unfortunately with her just finishing her degree and paying for a wedding money was tight so we didn't have the cash to go some place exotic and we couldn't really afford to spend more than a night away. So I picked a B&B just a few hours drive away. A helpful friend had recommended it as the most romantic B&B in the area. After the ceremony & reception, we drove out and enjoyed our one night there.
2006. Ariesna and I went back to the same B&B for an entire weekend. We ate out at a couple of nice restaurants, did a little shopping and hit up an art museum while we were there. It was a grand time, but by the end of it we were both tired. We got home, chilled for a while and eventually went to bed. Blissful slumber was interrupted at 4:30 AM by me waking up feeling like I was choking and/or drowning. I ran into the bathroom and spent the next 15 minutes or so kneeling in front of the porcelain throne. After getting myself cleaned up, I tried going back to bed but woke up a while later with the same problem. Again, I eventually got cleaned up and tried going back to bed. Later, I got the intense fun of making a trip to the doctor on what was supposed to be the last day of my vacation. I got weighed1, poked, prodded and a q-tip was shoved down my throat2. The doctor confirmed I had the flu combined with a sinus infection. However he was worried that I was severely dehydrated and wanted to put me on an IV to get some fluids in me. Alas after much poking (in both arms), they realized I was too dehydrated for the needle to go in properly. Eventually, they gave up on the IV and let Ariesna take me home. Though they did tell her to keep pushing fluids down me and recommended she get me to drink 2 liters of gatorade that day and keep pushing the fluids at me the next. She did so, continually waking me up from some of the best sleep I've ever had to drink, drink drink. And I don't even like gatorade! *sigh* I mean the fruit punch version isn't too bad but the rest.... yeck.
Anyhoo, I ended up spending the entire week home sick and now the night before I finally go back to the office I am feeling much better. I'm just not at 100% yet. My sinuses throb (and continually drain down my throat) and on top of that I've got an evening cough3 which feels like it's going to rip my throat in half. But I'm still taking the anti-biotics the doctor prescribed and I'm hoping when the pills are gone so will be the last of my health problems.
Oh yeah, if you're wondering about the title on this post that's pretty much all the food I've eaten in the last week. It's been thrilling. 
1 No, I'm not repeating what that lying hunk of metal claimed was my weight.
2 Apparently, that's part of the test for strep throat. Only nobody warned me in advance. Incidentally, the test came back negative but it has a 15% chance of failure.
3 It only happens after 5. No idea on why that is, but there you have it.
A Real Pill
As previously mentioned, Ariesna & I have been sick for a bit over a week now. So today, instead of taking a "romantic cooking" class through NewPi like we'd been planning; we got a trip to the doctor's office. Whee.... For extra fun, we each got a Zpak1. I guess that's a lot better for us than a box of chocolates, but it's nowhere near as much fun. Still, as I told Ariesna earlier; it's been a real pill of a day.
1 A 6 pack of azithromycin tables (250mg).
Sick
I've been under the weather for about a week now. I think I'm just about over this flu crap and will be back to posting slightly more regularly soon.
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