Fighting my cold, a few fun things, a research study, company coming

This was definitely not my most wonderful week ever.  The cold I was so valiantly fighting has refused to die.  After my post a week ago I kept on doing all my stuff I know to do - Zicam, mucinex to loosen things up, Emergen C, hot tea with honey, straight cinnamon and honey (equal parts), sinus rinses, NyQuil to keep me sleeping at night instead of coughing.  What I'm missing are my trusty Halls Defense Lozenges with vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc. They don't even make them anymore and two years ago I bought almost all the packs left on Amazon.  Last year I bought a bottle of Sunkist lozenges with vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc from Amazon.  And guess what??  They are no longer available anywhere.  GRRRR.

I was pretty much keeping up with all my regular stuff, even had our first choir practice of the new season on Thursday evening.  And I babysat Hunter on Saturday.  Went to church Sunday morning and led the music and the choir.  And THEN I crashed.  I had the worst sore throat and my left ear was closed and I was miserable.  I hit the couch and did nothing the rest of the day but sleep, drink tea and water, and watch a movie or two.  I was still pretty miserable on Monday, but did do some food prep, but cancelled my piano lessons.

On Tuesday morning I had my regular 6-month checkup at the doctor.  Good timing!  In addition to my cold I also told her about the lower back issues I've been having for the past year and especially this summer.  She had me get X-rays of my SI joints (sacroiliac).  And she also put me on a round of Prednisone to get rid of inflammation in those joints.  She said it might also help me kick my cold.

I have started feeling better, but today I think I must have gone through 50 tissues.  Thankfully my throat is no longer sore and my ear is not as closed.  So I think I'm seeing the daylight.

And now for the few pics I took this week.  First, a beautiful sunrise out my dining room window one morning.

I discovered these black-eyed Susans along the side of the house and asked Dick where they came from.  He said he thinks maybe we got them from Lori way back when we got the other lilies and things, but he didn't realize what they were and would pull them out other years before they ever had a chance to bloom, thinking they were weeds, hahahaha!  I'm glad the weeds got ahead of him this year!!

Saturday afternoon was lovely, and after Hunter woke up from his nap we took a walk down to the playground below our house.

Then we walked up to the house and I decided to let him check out our little basement.  Austin used to like walking in there because it was just his size.  When Hunter and I went in to look at all the stuff Dick keeps down there, I saw something that I didn't realize we still had.  Actually Hunter is too big for it.  Last summer is when we should have used it.  But he LOVED when I pushed him up the street even if it was a bit cramped.  He liked the steering wheel.  Sorry this is taken from a wrong angle.

When we got to Anthony and Lori's that evening Austin wanted to show us his Ninja stuff that Anthony had hung between two trees.  Unfortunately, he was too tall for it, and later Anthony got a step ladder down there so he could hang the rope higher for him.

We pulled off the road to get a picture of the sunset that evening.  There were other people doing the same.  This is in the valley below Anthony's mountain and it feels so vast when the sun sets.

Today I signed up for a study that Geisinger (our health system) and Johns Hopkins are doing on women between the ages of 65-75 who have never had cancer.  The study is called DETECT and will span five years.  "The hope is that this study will lead to a blood test that may find cancer before symptoms appear, by testing for abnormal DNA molecules and proteins released from tumors.  It will follow 10,000 women to see how well this blood test can detect 8 common cancers (pancreatic, colon, esophageal, stomach, ovarian, liver, lung, and breast.)"

When I got the letter asking me to join I really couldn't see any cons.  I gave six vials of blood today, filled out a very extensive survey, and got a $10.00 gift card for Weis.  I'll have to do this two more times and that's it, unless a blood test would ever show anything positive.  Which would be a good thing to find out early, right?

They want more women to participate, so if interested just google DETECT research study at www.geisinger.org.

And now for a few crazy things from this week. This first one happened yesterday after my appointment with my doctor.  I'll just repeat what I wrote on FB yesterday.

"I almost got a free purse.  Went to Walmart to pick up prescriptions, thinking they were the only thing I would be getting.  No cart.  I paid for them at the pharmacy.

But while waiting I had noticed some things I could use for my feet, so I went to look at that stuff and decided on a few things.

Then I looked at school supplies nearby (old habits die hard) and realized I could use a few pocket folders for my old relic of a budget book.  Got a pack of those and wandered to the nearby purse display.

There was just the purse I needed!  (And a few people know how nearly impossible that is!)  My hands were getting full so I hung it on my shoulder.

Went to the self check out and scanned my stuff and paid.  As I grabbed my receipt and looked at the total I was surprised - much less than I expected.  Uh-oh!  I had a purse hanging from each shoulder!  So I took the new one off to scan it, but it had no tag!  There was not even any person guarding the self checkout lanes.  So I went back through the store with my bag of merchandise and a purse on each shoulder, found one with a tag, went front and paid for it.  I'm pretty sure I could have walked out of the store with that purse and nobody would have noticed!

And now for a good laugh I have to add Siri's interpretation of what I just said:

'So I went back through the store with my bag of merchandise and a person on each shoulder.'

'I'm pretty sure I could have walked out of the store with that person and nobody would have noticed.'"

And then another crazy thing happened today.  Again, here's what I posted on FB.

"Ugh.  I guess I was trying to cool the great outdoors.  Got home from an appointment that took longer than expected, carried in the jugs of water I had filled, bumped the AC down a couple of degrees, changed a load of wash, and got busy cooking in the kitchen.  I was thinking it surely was taking a long time for this place to cool down, but attributed it to the heat I was making at the stove.  About an hour or so later I took a potty break and coming back through the living room discovered the front door hanging open!  What??  Apparently I didn't push it shut tight when I hurried in with full arms, and a breeze (is there even a breeze today???) must have pushed it open.  I hope if anybody walked by they enjoyed the nice cool air coming out my front door."

We have a had a brutal return of HOT, HUMID weather these past few days!!  I think we'll get some relief soon.  I don't want fall yet, but this was pretty intense, especially for anyone needing to work outside or in non-air conditioned places, which is the case for Dick.  It really wipes him out.

Guess what???  We're getting COMPANY!!  From Portland!  It's been a whole year since we've seen Jeremy and Mike and I can hardly wait!  They will arrive in DC on Saturday and then here on Monday for a few days.  He's turning into quite the gardener.  Here are some pics he's posted recently.

He made salsa this past weekend and canned some!  Hmmm.  Wonder if he could sneak a jar of that with his luggage, hahaha!

Have a good rest of the week!