27.04.2024 Half baked cooky rules.

 ~o~

  Saturday 27th, 37F/3C. Fry and bright but misty with a smudgy sky. It could reach 13C later. Warmer weather ahead. 

 Up at 7am after a much better night. One visit to the fire bucket at 3am. Woke at 6am but slept for another hour. Still coughing but not as badly. I have to shop today. Or it's mackerel on toast again. And nobody wants to see that. 

 My Chief Medical Advisor has recommended I have a chat with a pharmacist. Just to see if there is any over-the-counter meds for treating my prolonged "man cold." Probably wise advice. Given that I have just finished the last of a vintage pack of Strepsils. Without any obvious effect. Let alone any improvement. My sick bed remains far too heavy to lift unaided.   

 There is a trillion dollar industry to treat coughs and sneezes. Ibuprofen is recommended by the least sales oriented "medical" website. The list of reasons to avoid included several of my own. Bloody thinning aspirin, etc. 

 I completely missed the sales advice of most websites. Not only did they want to push their sponsored products. They wanted me to fill out a two page questionnaire. "Allowing" me to avoid automatic opt-in. Before planting lifetime cookies anyway. 

 I closed each and every one of them. Why didn't the corrupt legal-sleeze numpties? Who make up these silly rules. Demand automatic opt-out as standard. With opt-in for cookies only for the cringeingly gullible or the cripplingly naive. And all those who would cheerfully volunteer their bank details. To any passing stranger. Who "seemed nice."

 

  ~o~

 

26.04.2024 Spring is ris.

 ~o~

  Friday 26th 39F/4C. Overcast with rain and wind. 

 Up at 6.45 after one of the worst nights of my life. I was coughing constantly. Awake more than asleep. I'd put my record number of visits to the fire bucket at 18. I imagined an hour had passed since the last time. But was peeing at quarter of an hour intervals according to the clock. I'd had nothing to drink, since lunch, except for a small glass of water. Nothing to eat since lunch except a biscuit. 

 10.30 Raining hard and blowing. 8mm of rain since I emptied the gauge yesterday evening. I have just lit the stove because the room had dropped to 62F/16.7C. Still coughing. It feels more shallow than previously. More akin to a clear-out. Rather than an attempt to stir the murky depths.

 16.00 Increasingly aware of sleeping while seated at the computer. I can't stay awake! Dare I have an afternoon nap? Alarm clock as an arrester wire. To avoid the old afterburner from overshooting the runway.

 16.45 Safely resurfaced. I found that controlling my breathing. To the barely alive. Kept me just below the wheezing level. Where I was guaranteed to trigger a coughing bout.

 17.00 71F/21C in the room. A pretense of sunshine. Needs more rehearsal. The brighter light is emphasizing the sudden burst of leaves onto the scene. The hedges look well enough for a top trim. Hopefully before they get away from me. 

 It had taken this long for them to recover from my onslaught of two years ago. Nature can sometimes overcome an NDE. Aided and abetted by a 150-year, record rainfall in April. [Since records began in 1874.] It makes a change from warmest and coldest ever. That was last week.

 I have been seeing movement out of the corner of my eye for days. Through the window and towards the main entrance door. Today the culprit spent some time perched on a sloping bar. A tiny wren was using the bar as a base to forage all around the area. A wren used to nest above the door under the roof overhang. I'll have to check for a nest. Wrens have a lovely song.

 Dinner was mackerel on toast. With a beer.

 

 

  ~o~

25.04.2024 Still a mouth breather.

 ~o~

  Thursday 25th 39F/4C [at 7.45] Overcast. Showers possible. The bad weather seems to be sliding past towards the NW.

 Up at 6am after an odd night. The weird dreams continue. Coughing bouts in the night. My dust dry mouth needed a visit to the kitchen tap. I am afraid to have water on the bedside table. I'd be fumbling blindly for the remote light switch. Only two trips to the fire bucket despite a beer with dinner.

 I am not well enough for my cooking class yet. It would not be kind to share my germs with them anyway. 

 It is approaching 8am and I have cabin fever. What can I do outside? I was wobbly yesterday just walking to the postbox. About 25 meters each way. Is a longer walk sensible? I am particularly deaf today. I can't hear myself type. Blocked sinuses? I hate feeling old and decrapped!           

21.00 Another day watching YT videos. Around 18.00 I suddenly felt unwell. Dizziness and nausea. I had spent half an hour catching up on the washing up. It was only 63F/17C out there. So I was probably chilled. 

 It had only been 64F/18C in the living room. Lighting the stove late hadn't helped. I kept all my clothes on and went to bed. Shaking furiously with cold for a while. I have had no afternoon bread roll nor dinner. I couldn't face anything. The room is now up to 21C/70F but I have probably ruined my sleep patterns for tonight.

 

 

  ~o~