Colds, Creeks and Comics

The word of the week is trepidation. Don't stress about it.

April 25 - Let the nasal discharge begin...

Bah; looks like I picked up a cold over the weekend, likely from riding public transit home on Saturday - it was warm enough that I didn't wear gloves and I'll just bet I shared a handrail with someone who used their hand to stifle a sneeze - ick. My throat's sore and my nose is threatening to run off by itself... but that's the way it goes. I learned many years ago to avoid most winter colds by not touching my face at ALL without first washing AND sanitizing my hands. The university I went to had many separate sections with hallways, each section closed off by doors - EVERY one with a doorknob. Add thousands of sick students to the mix each cold season and YOU do the math as to how many germy hands touched each doorknob every hour of every day - totally gross!

April 26 - More Bad Enviro News

Last weekend a fuel truck crashed along the highway next to Goldstream Park, which is an environmental tragedy as the fuel went right into the creek. I thought it was bad when I mentioned that fluorescent dye had appeared in the streamsome months ago, but this is far, far worse. It may mean the end of the salmon run in Goldstream Park, leaving many species such as bears and the rare bald eagles without a source of food they depend on. Having driven the highway that curls around the park and wends its way along sheer rocky cliffs, I know it's not a great route to travel when the weather's bad... but this crash happened in daylight with no foul weather. It's tragic that we can't figure out a safer way to transport toxic substances across our country than on the back of a thin-skinned tanker truck...

April 27 - Achoo to me and you!

My cold is in full swing; I'm battling it with some success with the help of decongestants, vitamin C and nasty thoughts towards germs in general, plus some echinacea herbs to level the playing field. So far, it's just meant that I'm tired of blowing my nose when nobody's looking; I highly recommend tissues with lotion, as I'm surprised at how quickly one's nose gets sore from the constant attention. I'm just hoping that it doesn't move into my chest, as a chest cold is even worse in some ways... ah well. At least I avoided one all winter and maybe the fresh spring air will help me recover sooner rather than later.  

April 28 - I don't wanna work...

Things at work aren't getting better; it's not that I don't know how to do my job, but that I can't bring myself to really care to do it well. I know this is one of the signs of burnout, but there's little I can do about it other than quitting completely - which I'm not going to do until I either a) have found a comparably-paying job or b) have enough saved up to just go on a work sabbatical for up to 6 months to clear my head. As I've mentioned before, I'm almost at a point where in a few months I will have less to worry about financially, so I can sit back and not fret that I'm letting down my family fiscal obligations by quitting my job. It's something I've been looking forward to for some time( years! )but I don't want to go from a being a manger to bagging groceries just to duck out on some stress. It's not like I've had anything you could call a career, but I would like to find an alternate job that I can take with some nod to making use of my past skill sets and current talents.

April 29 - Comic Relief

I've read comics for many years, both the kind you buy in stores and the ones you read in newspapers. In particular, the second kind have become rarer in my life, as it's been many years since I last subscribed to a newspaper - I think it was the Toronto Star. I really enjoyed browsing to the comics section daily and reading up on my favourite strips; the best ones always had a humorous take on life's foibles in general. Of late, I've taken to browsing the T.Star again online and discovered that they have a feature that lets you select your fave comic strips to view daily! So once again Hagar The Horrible, Zits and Sherman's Lagoon have been making me laugh in the mornings - and without getting ink all over my hands either!

April 30 - Really, Really Exhausted

Argh... busy days and cold recovery do not mix; today was a case in point. It wasn't so bad for most of the day, as I had another staffer on, but less than 30 minutes after she left the crowds started to pack in. I've no idea why, as it was a lovely day outside ALL day long so there was no reason to come in all at once before dinner, but there they were. I spent the last 2 hours of my shift frantically dealing with an onslaught of people and phone calls for no reason I could discern, with the usual "How come there's only you working?" thrown in there time and again at me. I'd love to answer "How come you didn't come in when the place was empty two hours ago?" but I can't; all I could do was deal and disarm with charm. I went home bloody well exhausted and fell asleep a few times before finally dozing off totally well before 11pm. At least my sinuses seem clear now...

May 1st - A New Month Of Sunshine And NWN

It was a gloriously sunny day outside, and after I managed to wake up for the third time a little before noon I got outside to enjoy it a bit. I was too beat to do much save move some plants around on the balcony, re-potting some and generally giving those that survived the winter a better base to thrive now that spring is here. It was great just to be outside and enjoy the combination of fresh air with general peace and quiet, broken only by the occasional loud golfer or passing motorcycle in the distance. I'd have surfed the net outside, but my old Compaq laptop's screen is just too dim to use easily even in the shade outdoors. In the evening I gamed for a few hours on NWN, again with some old friends I'd not seen in some time... there's just something special about that game and playing it with friends that brings back memories of tabletop sessions of decades ago. Only with actual visual representations of magic - sweet!

As I finished the blog tonight, word that Osama Bin Laden had been killed reached me. I wasn't sure how to react: relief that the hand behind Sept. 11th was dead, or dread that a new round of martyr-fed violence was going to start? We shall have to see and hope that humanity can move towards betterment...

Also, I seem to have gained a Follower on this blog - welcome to you, ballroomdiva_15~!