Return from the dead

You probably can't imagine just how thrilled I was when I woke up this morning and realized that I had not had to make any midnight maybe-gonna-puke dashes.  Aw, yeah!  Kicking this virus to the curb!  Except for the part where my whole abdomen hurts, and eating is kind of painful, and also I need a nap.

I tried making plain old noodle soup for lunch, and that hurt despite its innocuousness.  So, not as recovered as I had hoped.  But I was able telecommute for most of the day, and dinner (two french rolls, a little bit of soft cheese, and a little bit of pear) felt okay.  Maybe tomorrow I can get back to normal.

Except that tomorrow I have a dental appointment.  Not sure if it will involve anesthetic, but if it does then lunch is probably a bust.

After several days of eating between nothing and very little, I have some food cravings building up.  I think JD and I are going to have a Five Guys blowout (i.e. the same meal I always get - a little burger, and half an order of fries) later this week.

I haven't heard anything about coworkers being struck down, so perhaps I did not pass it on to them.  One can hope.

Any minute now

Gracious but I'm tired.  Not Lyme tired.  Just tired tired.  It's the end of the week, and I finished up by wrangling a dog and a cat at the vet's office.  And I have stuff I need to do to get ready for the weekend.  Writing stuff, organizing stuff, yadda yadda.  I really want to go to bed though.

Can you believe the look that cat gave me?  She wanted me dead from sarcasm.  (And that was BEFORE she saw any veterinary professionals.)  Beauty, as usual, was everybody's favorite.  There's something about her that makes every vet tech, client, and patient of the canine persuasion come over to say hi.

I wish I could show you a better picture of this puppy with one blue eye and one brown eye.  Puppy could not get enough of Beauty.

So we did that and then I came home and fed everybody and surfed Amazon for free books to put on my new Kindle!  So exciting.  Extra exciting that my library does online lending so I can just go to a website to find books to read and they download themselves automatically.

I got ye olde cheapy model with the ads on it

I love the part where you charge it once a month or so.  I've been reading on my iPhone happily enough, but I use up 5-10% of its battery charge if I use it to read before bed.  It's the backlighting that does it.  Plus, with the Kindle I won't be tempted to check my email before going to sleep.

And, here's what my brain feels like right now:

Kept in the dark and fed on manure (or a rotting log in this case)

Okay any minute now I'm going to leap up and do all the stuff I need to do.  Any minute.  Right now.  As soon as I rest a little bit more.

I'm happy to report that I have now had two days in a row with no fever when I checked in the morning.  Which is awesome.  Every other time I've had Lyme disease, that fever hung in there for weeks and months.  I'm definitely getting the feeling that I'm gonna whup it this time.  As opposed to the reverse, which is what usually happens.  I just need to stay out of the sun for another three weeks.  No problem.  I mean, it's not like this is the nicest time of the year to be outside here or anything.  Or like I have a backpacking trip planned.  Or like there's a horse who'd like me to come see him before it turns dark until March.

Anyway, I'm off to do the stuff I have to do.

Any minute now.

Sometimes I'm easily distr- oh look, shiny!

Oh thank goodness I have Eddy back.  He's driving smooth, too.  It was good to be in the driver's seat again.  I picked him up after work today.  Rabies is now parked again and I hope not to drive her for a good long while.  I got tired of planning extra space around everything.  And parking at the back of the lot because she's too big for any of the normal parking spaces, that got on my nerves.

A typical scene in my living room.

This cat has had too much caffeine.

I didn't get a ton of sleep last night.  JD's plane was delayed due to tornadoes.  I did finally get to sleep before he got home.  JUST before he got home.  I wasn't terribly alert when he came in.  I woke up and from under the pillow I observed the dog tilting her head from side to side.  Generally she would get up and start barking and whining when JD came home, but last night she just put her head back down.  The next time I opened my eyes, I could see a naked man from mid thigh to mid chest.  Which, I admit, made me open my eyes a bit wider.  And then I mumbled a sleepy "Hi, honey" and went back to sleep.

This morning, I kept hitting the snooze alarm for over half an hour. I finally pried myself out of bed with the promise of caffeine.  Caffeine AND a breakfast sandwich.  I was actually dressed and down the stairs before I remembered that I would be driving Rabies.  I've been avoid drive-thrus because I don't see myself successfully navigating the little lanes without taking out any curbs or menu displays.

Fortunately the cafeteria at work reopened not long ago, and they cook up breakfast sandwiches.  It wasn't greasy like McDonald's, and it didn't come with hash browns like McDonald's, but it was good.  And I got to have strawberries and watermelon on the side.

I'm still feeling a bit disjointed.  My train of thought derailed last night, around the time my attic fan started making jackhammer noises.  It stopped, but that was the last time I had any luck in.. what was I talking about again?  I have no idea.

Okay I'm going to bed now.

I stare at maps

So, I've been home for a solid two days now.  I'm hungry and I ache all over from sitting in a desk chair all day.  Which means I'm already planning my next excursion.

Technically my next excursion is next weekend with DeLee, but that will just be overnight, and I expect it to be fun and easy.  I am not bothering with much planning.

The excursion I'm planning now is for next year.  I figure I'll have about two weeks of vacation to blow on long distance hiking.  So, which section to do?  I have fewer than 250 unhiked miles of Appalachian Trail to pick from so my options are getting a wee bit slim.

I could opt to go south again, and do Mahoosuc Notch before I get any older or more decrepit.  Although that would mean doing Mahoosuc Arm southbound, which doesn't sound like fun.  Maybe I could start in Gorham, New Hampshire and hike north up to Rangeley?  That's only 78 miles but some of them are tough miles.

I need to order some new maps, obviously.  Gotta get some staring done.  JD reads books at night and I stare at maps.

Real or zombie, I'm up and moving about

Hello!  I'm alive.  Thanks mostly to JD who did my chores last night so I could go to bed around dinnertime and sleep until my back started to hurt.  I really wanted to sleep more but my back said "Nope, get out of bed."  So I started telecommuting well before seven, and did you know the day goes really fast when you do that?

I was still pretty puny this morning, even with Dayquil.  This evening I'm feeling much more human.  2 day illnesses worry me a bit, as in my case they seem to lead to Lyme 2 weeks later.  So I'm going to up the andrographis for a while.  Love me some andrographis.  It's death to spirochetes.

Seeing as how I was done working in the middle of the afternoon, and also I was home, I moseyed on over to the couch and watched some True Blood.  I have seasons 1-3 at home.  I have watched part of season 1, all of season 3 (just recently), and now I'm starting on season 2.  Possibly I might end up confused about the timeline.

I can't believe that I've spent only two days not going for a midday walk, and my back is this pissed off.  It *really* doesn't like me being slack.  I'm a little annoyed that I have to be active all the dang time.  Sometimes it's nice to just stay in the house and veg.  But apparently that is not an option now.