Good Bye Covid, Hello Lingering Cough

 

I don't know ANYONE who LOVES to be SICK.  It is just not much fun.  About the most fun I have ever had being sick was in 1964 when the Olympics were being played in France.  I had the flu, and as I recovered I watched the Olympics on a small TV (like a 5" by 3.4" screen) right there at my bedside.  THAT I enjoyed, even though I was sick as a dog.  This COVID crap, nope, no fun at all!

It has been four days since my last blog.  I have been well for the past two days, and feeling very good today...if you define 'very good' as being tired, exhausted, having a persistent cough, and feeling like you're in a brain fog.  Today is Marcia's first day of feeling well.  She is constantly a couple days behind me with this.

We both had a temperature while being sick with COVID.  Mine was a bit higher and lasted longer than Marcia's did.  I hit 101.5 at one point, but Theraflu and Advil brought it right down.  Our sore throats were about even, but her ears hurt much more than mine did, and is her biggest pest right now.  Thank goodness, neither of us found anything sneaking into our lungs.  Even the cough we both have comes from our throat, and not our lungs.

Indy the champ through all of this.  She KNEW we were sick, and as I recovered, she spent her attention on Marcia.  She is such a good little girl, until my brother Jim, sister-in-law Carol, or Niece Kathryn goes by, or she sees them in the kitchen window...then she turns into a little devil girl.  On the other hand, when her cousin Parker or her 'new to her' cousin Cocoa is out in the yard, she is just a happy little girl playing with her little doggie cousins.

Tomorrow we celebrate Mom's 93rd birthday, which technically is a few days away still.  I will sit in my camping chair near the door, Marcia will sit in the Motorhome and come up to the door now and then.  I doubt either of us are contagious anymore, but why risk it.  Of course I am especially looking forward to Arny's BBQ of Tri-Tips...I am so TIRED of soup and broth!!! 

As for this cough...I am afraid it will be with us for a few weeks.  I have it under control at times, then it hits like a female dog in heat...nothing seems to stop it.

20 Gallons Gas for $22.58, am I Dreaming???

With this head cold, (yes, we both still have it), it is easy to wonder what is real, and what is a dream.  Like my first car…a 1965 Austin Healy Sprite.  At 16 years old, it was a dream car.  Two seats, convertible…it held 8 gals of gasoline “IF” I filled it up until it started coming out the spout.  Had it for less than a year…rebuilt the engine twice, and if it wasn’t for those duel carburetors, I’d probably still own it today.  What I loved about it, besides the obvious, was that I could fill it up for under $2.  I think the most I paid for gas was $2.25 once, normally I could get by putting in a dollar.  Of course, gas was less than 30 cents a gallon back then.  What a dream!

  

Today I put 20 gallons of gas into the motorhome…and it cost $1.129 per gallon.  WOW…it sounds like a dream, but it was reality.  One thing about shopping at Winn Dixie, beside it being just down the street from the condo, is that you get 5 cents off in gas for every $50 you spend.  You can save it up for 2 months.  With 10 days left in this cycle, I decided to put the maximum, 20 gallons, into the motorhome today…at $1 off per gallon.  Sure could have used some of these prices last year on the Alaska Highway…that WOULD have been a dream!

Two years ago we purchased the SafeGuard tire pressure monitoring system.  On our last trip one of the car pressure sensors stopped working on us.  I thought it was a bad battery, even though we replaced all the batteries just last spring.  Talked to the company and they said to send it to them, and they would replace it for free…so I did.  But when I talked to them a week later, the guy said that it was just a bad battery…even though I had put in a “new” Energizer battery.  He put in a new battery and tested it, and sent it back.  I put it on the car and tested it over at the motorhome, and after I re-programed it, everything worked again.  Apparently in trying to get it to work, I had cleared the setting for this one tire…so it had a bad battery, and it needed to be reprogramed.  Sure glad they honored their 2 year warranty, that’s for sure.  We LOVE our tire pressure system.  It gives you a lot of peace of mind as you travel down the road…and it did catch that one dual tire problem last year.

As for our colds…it is like walking up an escalator.  For every three steps you go, you realize you dropped a step in the process.  YUCK!

Week-long Sickness

A week ago today we moved back into the condo after having the new floor put in.  We were sick…we are still sick.  Well, make that Marcia is still sick, I am doing much much better. 

This is the type of cold that holds on to you for a long time.  Yes, I still cough sometimes…but for the most part, that is all over.  As for Marcia, each day now is getting better…since yesterday…which means today is better than yesterday, but yesterday was as bad as last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. 

     

Thursday and Friday were fairly productive on my part.  One of the reasons we wanted to get rid of the carpet was due to high dust within the old carpet fibers.  Multiple vacuuming did little to rid the dust.  With the carpet gone, I dusted the ceilings, the walls, corners, just about every place one could think of.  Even though I had cleaned the ceiling fan real real good back in November, it was dusty as could be again here in March.  Friday, with the dust gone, it was time to clean the new floor.  We decided upon the Libman Freedom Spray Mop because the cleaning pad (top right) can be washed and used over and over and over again.  One can use the cleaner of their choice, which you put in the attached tank.  We put one part Vinegar to around ten parts water.  The floor was vacuumed with our Rumba, and it took about ten minutes to clean it with the Libman.   The hardest thing was trying to find a Lowes that still had one in stock.

Watching church from home again Sunday…although the coughing and sneezing are starting to subside…they do hit either of us, sometimes both of us, from time to time.  Heck, would hate to let out a big sneeze and wake everyone up!     

Got a copy of Skruffy’s Test results.  When we left Alaska, her liver tests were essentially “off the charts” but falling.  Happy to say, all of the liver tests now show she is right smack in the middle range.  HURRAY!!!   As for her diabetes…we had a Fructosamine test done, which is a blood test that is used in animals to measure the average level of glucose control over the past few weeks.  A reading of 300-400 is good…she came out at 331.  The vet said that her diabetes is very much under control.  HIP-HIP-HURRAY!!!!  The blood test monitors over 40 different things, and only 3 or 4 items are barely over normal, and one was barely under normal.  The vet said that for a 9 year old girl, she is in great shape.  And to think…nine months ago Dr. Meezie said those frightening words…”IF SHE MAKES IT THROUGH THE NIGHT”  If one needs to be reminded just how sick she was, read my post, “Skruffy’s Last Bark?”…guaranteed to bring on the tears….

Floor Done, Back in the Condo…with Head Colds

FINALLY!  We are back into the condo.  Although we would have liked the Vinyl Tile, the Vinyl Plank is also nice. We are VERY PLEASED with the floor.  No squeaking, not too loud when you have shoes on, no noise when you are bare foot.  Yes, pitter-patter from Skruffy's feet, but we knew that up front.

Saturday was the day they were able to do the floor.  I arrived at 7:30, they arrived at 7:45…they were gone by noon.  Here the underlayment, which is plastic on one side and a felt-like material on the side you see, is being put down.

I left shortly after 8, came back at 9:30 and the living room was nearly finished.

    

The only thing left for the floor is that the transition strips between the Vinyl Plank and the original tile needs 48 hours of curing with weight on it.  The upper left is the entrance hall, the upper right is the master bedroom to master bath.  The light brown in the floor matches the browns in the tile very well.

    

Along with the change also comes a change in furniture arrangement.  In the very first picture of this posting you can see the display case is now against the “mirror wall”.  The table that use to be along the mirror wall is now our TV table…only table that was long enough for the 40” TV.  The entertainment cabinet that use to be in the living room  is now in the bedroom, and the dressers are now on each side of the bed.  Hey, I was even smart enough to be sure that my dresser was on my side and Marcia’s dresser was on her side.

    

EVERYONE is happy to be home.  Bubba’s outer mouth infection seems to be getting better.  Skruffy had her first full exam since her sickness in Alaska and she is doing well.  Monday or Tuesday I am going to drop off the paperwork from Alaska, which I could not get to because of the floor, and pick up her compete blood workup.  It will be interesting to see what the results are…and I will be sure to share those results.

Meanwhile…BOTH Marcia and I have terrible head and chest colds.  I started getting sick Thursday night, on Friday she wanted a quick kiss, and despite me telling her she was going to get sick…yes, by Saturday she was coming down with it and today (Sunday) she has it full blown too.  Thank goodness for drugs…Tussin DM is doing the trick for me, and Marcia is going to try it tonight too.  I think I tied my record for sneezing all at once again…lost count at six.  It is never fun to pack or unpack the motorhome...it is way worse when you are sick.

Not feeling well, so we went home

Woke up Tuesday morning and told Marcia that I wasn't feeling well...might be the flu coming on, just did not know.  So we decided not to possibly infect others, and drove home.  Just took it easy, stopped at a rest area for an hour just past the 1/2 way mark.  It was a little hard to unload those things that needed unloading, and got the RV parked back at the storage area, dropped Bubba off and got home before dark.

After a good 10 hour sleep, after having broth for dinner, I am doing better today.  Did a bit of research and think now that with all that walking on Monday I should have drank lots more water than I had...it was probably a case of slight dehydration and Nutritional Ketosis from the diet.  Have had more broth this morning, some eggs, and much more liquids, including a liter of Diet Tonic Water.  Going to take it easy the rest of the day and see how it goes.

Sniff Sniff, Cough Cough, general update

   

We have all been there before … head is stuffed up and your mind is foggy, your ears feel like they are going burst, throat is sore, the cough, the sneeze, the sweating, the hot feeling, the cold feeling.   Started hitting me Tuesday and by Tuesday night I was down and out.  The waves of feeling good followed by feeling bad, followed by feeling good … you wonder if you are ocean beach with so many high and low tides.  Friday night is the first night without medicine, and things are calming down, but then a large wave hits and, well, we have all been there before.

Remember the sinkhole swallowing the car about 8 weeks ago? (800 feet from our front door, by-the-way).  Well, she was able to move back into her house this past week…..AND….

...Hyundai of New Port Richey replaced her car for her as a "gift" for all the "national publicity" that Hyundai got when her old Hyundai was pulled out of the hole.   Well, that’s not what they said, but I am sure that Hyundai Inc. chipped in on this too.  She sure was a happy, happy lady…out of the motel room and back home with a new car to boot.  Where did she park it?  In the exact place her old one was parked.  Oh, and he County is going to start work on the sewer project again starting Monday …. they promise not to pump as much water out this time .... and they still don't agree that the work and massive pumping of water had anything to do with the sinkholes.

Before I got sick I did have a chance to use the new camera a little bit.  Here is a picture of the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs, no photoshop enhancements at all.  Below is a close up of the boat and birds in the center of the picture with minor photoshop to adjust the brightness, and no tripod used either.

Yep, going to like this new camera a lot.  You might also notice the new header picture which is similar to this view, but it is a panoramic view of the area using the panoramic feature.  I really like this camera!

Here is a shot of the motorhome with the solar panel sitting inside the windshield.  It is enough to keep the batteries charged, as long as I don’t have lights on all night like I did a week ago.  Had picked up Bubba and took him there to give him his topical flea, tick & heart-worm medicine and then let it dry before I took him back.  I accidentally left the bathroom lights on …. the only lights that are not LED or florescent …. and there are four or five bulbs.  Well, I caught it early, but the battery did fall below 50% for around 24 hours.  Ran the generator for a few hours and got it back up to near 100%, checked it twice since then and all is fine.

Last Sunday night I took Skruffy to an area she like to frequent not too far from where we live and we saw this terrible situation going on.  Found out there was a wreck with a fatality on the nightly news, which turned into an even more tragic news on Monday morning.  First, there was a DUI wreck, the intoxicated driver was driving the wrong way along Highway 19 causing a three car wreck, the emergency vehicles responded.  As they were cleaning it up, a motorcyclist got into a wreck going the other way on the other side of the highway.  The wife of the tow truck driver, who was riding with him, got out to help the motorcyclist and walked right into the path of a SUV as she was crossing highway 19, and she was the fatality.  We did not hang around very long, and I “think” this picture was taken after the lady was hit crossing highway 19.

   

Friday night we had some good clouds for sunsets…I just wasn’t up to going out to where the view would be better …. just glad I was feeling good enough at that moment to go out and get what I got.