Topic Tuesday #163 2015/09/01 "Sick Rituals"

No, not twisted and horrible "sick" rituals. I mean things you do when you are getting sick. It appears that I have a runny nose and sneezes and sniffles and a sore throat, either allergies are really affecting me, or I have a cold. The good ol' rhinovirus.

I know many people have traditions around what to do when they get sick. Bundle up and sweat it out. Herbal tea, vitamin C, and honey. Hot showers. Sleep. and the list goes on and on. Everyone has some ritual they go through when they get sick.

So me, when my nose gets all stuffed up, I eat spicy food to clear my nostrils. Works great for a while. Then I pound dayquill until my liver says uncle and I feel better. Today, right after I write this, I'm eating my spicy soup, drinking a tall glass of water, and drugging myself to sleep. Hopefully I can knock it out early, but in all likelihood, I will be sick a couple days and it just has to work it's way through. With real luck, I won't suffer any ride along bugs known commonly as opportunistic infections. If I get bronchitis, I'm down for the count for a while and no one's got time for that!

And with that, I'm out. What rituals do you do when you start to feel an ick coming on?

Topic Tuesday #127 2014/12/23 - "Achoo choo for Christmas"

So there I was (so many great stories start this way, this is not one of them) renovating my bathroom. I had taken the precautions that had served well on previous days. I was cutting cement wall board for the tile backer in the shower. The diamond blade kicks a lot of fine chemical laden patter into the air and breathing it will knock you down pretty quick. Things went well and the boards were going in, the mortar mix was setting. It was time to take care of family matters, as I started sneezing and noticed my nose running.

Here in Florida, we have absurd weather. Humid all the time, sunny much of the time, hot most of the time. During winter we tend to have an 88 degree day followed by a 52 degree day. Then, many times, it will spike back to the 80's or 90's. This rapid shifting of the temperatures tends to make me sick. It was chilly Monday morning. Tuesday, the air is back on in the house trying to cope. So I have the sniffles, the days leading up to Christmas.

My saving grace this year is the vacation time I took to renovate the bathroom and work on the house. I'm scheduled out, so falling asleep after dropping the kids off to daycare was wonderful. Right now, I'm about 10 minutes from going back to sleep for the rest of the night.

I am on the mend, and will be signing off key holiday favorites by the electric firelight in no time! I hope all of you are having a happy and healthy holiday season.