December 5, 2009

I've been sick for way over a month now with this nagging cough that sometimes causes me to turn inside out, with sniffles, sneezing, stuffiness, tiredness, aching...in short, I haven't gotten much accomplished other than to drag myself to work, drag myself back home and drag myself to bed.  Didn't even manage to drag myself to work 3 days last week...yikes!  I have way too much to do.  Can't be missing work!  So, I finally broke down and went to the doctor because it just seemed like I was getting worse and worse as time went on.  Found out I have a sinus infection and bronchitis.  But I'm really wondering if it isn't moving into pneumonia.  I got some high-powered antibiotics that were supposed to work in 5 days, the last of which I will take tonight.  But I'm much worse; not even a little better.  It's getting kind of scary.  I had blood trickling out of my right ear for a couple of days, though that seems to have dried up now.  But there are far too many times when I feel like I just can't breathe!  My lungs are so full of paste (O.K., not really full of paste, but the mucus is that thick), I can't catch my breath.  That is such a frightening feeling...I hate it!  And I cough and cough and cough until I can't even stand up.  I "slept" last night curled up in a ball face down with my legs under me and my pillow between my legs and my chest.  It was the only position that allowed me to breathe, strangely.  All I want for Christmas is to get well!!!

December 7, 2009

It has gotten cold, which I totally hate, not being a winter person.  Evidently Zoe isn't much on winter either.  I've had the gas fireplace going the last couple of nights and Zoe has decided she likes it very much.  As I write, she is curled up in a little ball about the size of a basketball and is about 1 foot in front of the fireplace, eyes closed, occasionally sighing a contented sigh.  I can't complain too much about the weather because a couple of years ago at about this time, we had a horrible ice storm that left me without power for 5 days.  It was awful!  So though it is in the 20's to low 30's right now, there is no ice or snow, which leaves me thankful for small blessings.  I'm thankful for the small blessing curled up by the fire too.  She warms my heart on the coldest days.

December 12, 2009

I'm STILL sick and I'm SO TIRED OF BEING SICK I can't even tell you how tired I am of this nonsense.  I've had bronchitis that turned to pneumonia that's back to bronchitis, but I'm still having a lot of trouble breathing, I'm exhausted all of the time, I'm hacking, sneezing and coughing so much I can't sleep...complain, gripe, sniffle...I just can't believe how long this has gone on.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get over it!

Zoe has been trying to keep me distracted from how bad I feel.  Just this morning...at about 2:30 a.m., actually, she decided we needed to go smell things in the yard.  Of course, she indicated she just HAD to go do her business, which is why I finally drug myself out of my warm bed, bundled up and ventured out into the cold night.  She made a b-line for a specific place in the yard, which is always a bad sign.  She has this amazing nose (Schnauzer...schnauze...nose...) that often leads her to various critters that have ventured into her domain.  This was no exception.  Seconds after she arrived at the "spot" in the yard, I heard a weird squeaking sound coming from whatever it was she was trying to pick up in her teeth.  I found myself instantly awake, alert and running as I croaked out, "leave it, Zoe, leave it!!!"  Not much voice at the moment, but the intensity was there, trust me.  And of course, being the totally obedient little dog that she is (ha!), she tried to pick it up again.  More squeaking...more intense this time.  I'm still running, which is hard when you can't breathe, but I was doing the best I could.

When I arrived, I discovered she had a mole...yes, a MOLE...the biggest, fattest mole I have ever seen in my life.  I knew the moles in my yard were big because of the craters and massive tunnels they have created for themselves that go from one side to the other and one end to the other.  They even have some cities and six lane super-highways, I'm sure.  This mole was as big as a gray squirrel, only MUCH fatter.  It looked like a glove that had been inflated to the point of almost bursting.  This mole knew how to EAT and evidently it was getting a lot of food beneath my yard.

What caused it to venture above ground, I couldn't tell you.  I didn't even know they did that.  My grandfather hated them and used to set out traps for them, so I've seen my share of moles.  This guy was at least 3 times as big as anything I ever saw my grandfather catch.  He's the Sumo wrestler of moles!  Or he was.  He has been dispatched to mole heaven (or hell) as I took advantage of his sluggish movement above ground and in the cold and used my trusty snake-killing shovel once again.  I'm hoping the rest of the family will come up for a peek as they try to figure out what happened to "Sumo" so I can give them a first hand experience and show them the way to where he went.  These pesky critters have done their best to destroy my yard and while I don't hate moles, I'm rather frustrated with what they have done to the place.  I'll let you know if any of them venture up while we're outside (or if Zoe wakes me up to go out because she smells them).  There's just no end of excitement around here, you know?  And it's always in the middle of the night!

December 25, 2009

Wishing you and those you love a warm, wonderful, joy-filled Christmas and a blessed and prosperous New Year!