August 18, 2013

• Sunday Catch-up

  It looks like another beautiful Michigan summer day outside. I've been as far as the back porch trying to get Boo's attention. It's pretty easy for him to ignore me since I can barely croak out a whisper for the 4th day in a row. I've had a nasty cold (I refuse to accept that it is anything worse because as soon as I do I'll start feeling even more crappy than I already do) since last Tuesday. Actually, it hit on Monday afternoon with a sudden, acute pain in my neck, but since I was talking to someone about Windows 8 at the time, I assumed it was caused by anger and tension. Since Tuesday I've been single-handedly (or single-nosedly) keeping Puffs tissues in business. I sincerely hope somebody else can take over that burden by the end of this week. I've been kept pretty busy coughing, sneezing, blowing my nose, popping cold pills, whispering, slurping down Jello, and sucking on throat lozenges, cough drops and hard candy to help ease the pain in my throat. I have not drunk Bushmills, @bricker59, because I'm already so light-headed I really can't afford to add alcohol to the mix. But I do have a partial bottle and I will use it if I get desperate.

  This stupid cold came at a bad time. Not that there's ever a good time to get a cold, but I had plans for this month. This month is 31 Days of Geocaching and I made a commitment to myself to find at least one geocache every day. There are several new ones not far from The 'Duh that I was saving for this month and I've been picking them up, plus a few that are further out as I feel up to it. Yesterday I asked @Bookmark61 to drive me to a park about 12 miles away. I was too light-headed to drive, but managed the easy walk in the park to find the two caches hidden there with only one stop to catch my breath on the way back to the van.

  On Thursday, even though I was sick, I helped out an elderly friend who is selling everything she owns and moving back to Grand Cayman where she was born and raised. I had committed to working a four hour shift at her garage sale and took a box of surgical masks and a pump bottle of hand sanitizer with me. I'm sure I looked pretty silly wearing the mask, but everyone who stopped by the garage sale should be grateful.

  Yesterday was supposed to be a fun day spent hiking and geocaching with @murisopsis and @OldDogSparky on a hiking trail up around South Haven. Then we were going to come back to my house and Brett was going to grill sausages and I was going to let Mark and Val test the pie recipe I created for the village pie contest next month. I had to cancel the outing because I don't want to get Mark and Val sick, and I don't have the strength for hiking at the moment. I still had a half-dozen pears that needed to be used, though, so first thing this morning, before the day wears me down, I made my Captain Morgan Spiced Pear Pie with streusel topping, using the homemade pie crust recipe I found online. The pie just came out of the oven. I made a small change to the recipe so I hope I can taste it well enough to tell if it's an improvement. I baked the leftover scraps of pie dough and tasted them (sort of). It was very flaky crust, so I've got that going for me.

  And that's about it. I've been reading, resting, coughing, sneezing, garage selling, geocaching, making Jello, and baking a pie. And those are just the highlights; I didn't go into every detail of my week. You're welcome.

  • 11:48 am
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