Well, halfway through the day yesterday, I came down with Don’s cold. Thanks a lot, Don. I felt increasingly miserable as the day went on and I spent my time on the bus masked (as always) breathing with my mouth open because I was so congested. By the time I got home, it was all I could do to function. I kept falling asleep in the evening.
Today, I feel truly miserable.
Having a cold and a work commitment that requires all my energy is not a good combination. I could just throttle Don, but of course, it’s not his fault. I haven’t had a cold in four years. Don said he shook a guy’s hand last week and wonders if that’s where it came from. But whenever we’re out, we’re masked, so who knows how he got it? And I have shaken a few hands this week as well. Fortunately, I worked yesterday with a mask on, so I wasn’t breathing any germs on the actors. I hope no one catches it.
And even more fortunately, I wasn’t called today so I don’t have to be at rehearsal. I’m sure I’ll be called tomorrow.
If I was completely transparent with you, I’d be adding many cuss words to this post.
Egg cups.
• On the left, my most recent purchase. I got it last year on eBay. An exquisite vintage egg cup from Spode in England. It is simply gorgeous. On the inside of the cup is a bird and a bee and some sort of bug. The name of the pattern is Chelsea Bird.
• A lovely little egg cup that I saw on Etsy and kept an eye on for a long time. I finally bought it. It’s from Chambéry, France and those are two groundhogs looking at a house and the mountains. I mean, groundhogs, for goodness sakes! I had to have it.
• A cottageware egg cup from England. It has a luster glaze. On the other side is a door.
• An egg cup that I purchased at the flea market in Paris. It has a mark on the bottom, but I can’t read it. This one has the little dish attached for a spoon.
It’s such fun really seeing these beauties again.
The other side of Spode cup.
That’s all I have energy for today.
I’ll try to answer today’s comments. Sorry I haven’t had time to answer your previous comments; there’s just no time. But I’ve read them. Chris, I’m happy to hear your physical therapy is ending! Congratulations!
Also, I haven’t heard anything from reader Deb from Phoenix in a long time and now I’m worried about her. Deb, if you read this and you’re okay, will you let us know? Thank you.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
Sorry you’re not feeling well, Claudia. Hopefully you won’t be called tomorrow and you will have a few days to recover. Really cute egg cups. You don’t see groundhogs on egg cups every day, that’s for sure. Stay safe. Feel better soon. Hugs, Elaine
Too bad about the cold. Hope you get some days to rest up when you need to, Claudia!
Thanks, Ellen.
Stay safe.
I hope resting today will help you get better. I haven’t had a cold in ages either. Masks! Love the Spode egg cup. What a beauty. Hugs!
That’s the mystery! We always are masked.
Stay safe, Linda.
Hi Claudia, your American groundhogs are officially called Marmota monax, I think. The eggcup most likely shows Alpine marmots (Marmota marmota).
Nice eggcups… I wish I could send you some, but from here the postage is about $ 22 (regardless of the weight) and even more if you want Track & Trace.
Petra.
Thank you, Petra! We also call them woodchucks, but I always say ‘groundhogs.’ I love them and we always have some living under our shed every year. My favorite was an old guy we named Henry, but he passed away a few years ago. I miss him.
Thanks so much for your kind words.
Stay safe.
Hoping your day off will help for a speedy recovery. Take care
drats! sorry that you now also are sick. hope you and don test (just to be sure) and, most importantly, feel better soon! glad you have today at home as that should help a lot.
those egg cups are fun to see. the one with groundhogs, a home and a mountain is perfect for you and your setting. that’s my favorite of today’s group.
i’ve also been wondering and worrying about deb in phoenix, and a couple others. hope you are all safe, well and happy. you are missed and cared about!
and yay to chris getting through physical therapy! congratulations! stay safe and well and happy. have fun with your family, including your granddaughter (doesn’t seem possible that she is three years old)! i care about you, too! and everyone else here.
happy thursday to everyone.
kathy
Don tested yesterday – I insisted on it, and this was before I knew I was sick. It isn’t Covid.
Thank goodness for that!
Stay safe, Kathy.
that is good news! keep healing, both of you. everyone else, too.
kathy
xoxo
I hope this day of rest will help. I’d forgotten how truly miserable and energy-sapping a cold can be.
Oh my heavens, that’s so true!
Stay safe, Linda.
I’m so sorry you and Don are both sick. I see in a comment that Don did test negative for covid. There is also influenza going around our area. My son’s family all had it. It was much worse than when they had covid. I would imagine you and Don both had flu shots though so it’s probably not that…just a rotten cold.
I’m glad you get a day of rest anyway. Hope you feel better tomorrow.
Take care
Yes, we’ve had flu shots. It’s just a terrible cold!
Stay safe, Marilyn.
I am sorry you have a cold. I got one this winter too. It is especially hard when you have to work. Poor Don. He must feel bad. Hopefully it will be gone soon. Get well.
Thank you, Kay.
Stay safe.
I know the thoughts and the prayers I received from your readers helped me!! You have a wonderful community here. I hope you hear from Deb in Phoenix.
Sorry about the cold. I think so many of us stayed relatively symptom and sickness free when more people were masked. It is becoming less and less frequent to see people wearing them. We still do. Hope you get some good rest today! Take care.
We still do, too, but somehow, some germs got through! Could have been from touching something. I know we aren’t as vigilant about washing our hands as we used to be.
Stay safe, Chris.
Yeah, I try to remind my husband every time he punches the ATM outside the bank, or when he grabs the gas pump and keys in; when he exchanges paper money somewhere with a clerk; a million places to transfer germs; what they say about hand to mouth, if the hands are ‘contaminated’ and then you touch your face/mouth, just normal movements; but that becomes the transfer-route of the sicky bugs (my husband thinks I use ‘way too much hand sanitizer when we’re out in the car with all these types of errands where we’re both touching a lot of stuff, like even drink cups if we stop at a drive-thru; but hubs also thinks too much germaphobia isn’t good either, so…).
I never watch daytime TV except for maybe Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC which comes on here in SoCalif at 1pm PST (if, say, I’m eating a late lunch); but, this morning, I was scrolling for weather info on the TV channels (much rain last night, much rain this morning, much rain this afternoon; has now stopped for the evening) and I watched about five minutes of the Rachael Ray show and it was noticeable to me when the camera would flash to the audience, each audience member was masked, all the same masks, clearly given to them probably when they took their seats for the show; I checked the date and it wasn’t a rerun show; it was a first date shown as today, March 30. I looked her up and it says her 2023 show is filmed in NYC.
I feel like I’m seeing quite a few masks (still) in my part of Calif; even with people outside, walking (surprisingly); however, I believe the state will be dropping a lot of Covid restrictions as we begin April (L.A. County will delay dropping mandates til fall, or so I understand).
My husband and I are always masked in public. A difference after three years, though, for instance, is that for the first time, this week, I had my husband go to the postal counter at the post office during the public hours since I just HAD to have a big mailing packet weighed and posted by a postal clerk (expensive[!!]; cost me $11 for just plain ‘ol first-class mail, no insurance, no return receipt; basic stuff; gee whiz). Since March of 2020, start of pandemic, we never go to the post office since except to pick up our P.O. Box mail in the early-morning hours once a week when the lobby is closed but we can still get access to the part of the building where the postal boxes are located, avoiding most foot traffic and other humans. So, that’s one thing we’re starting to relax on. Also, my husband now goes in stores any time of day. But, again, always masked. If I had any worker inside my home right now, I’d still require them to mask up.
I’d be glad to have the excuse now (in the world!) to wear a mask just to prevent myself from getting plain ‘ol flu since we’re getting into spring but it’s still around us; one of the worst colds/fever/flu (whatever it was) my husband and I ever shared was during hot August days of a previous year. (I guess our flu shots had worn off although of course there are tons of diff kinds of flu.)
I sure hope you get over this darned cold fast, Claudia; best healing wishes to you and Don. Gosh, it’s hard to work and commute to a job when you’re not feeling well, so the timing for you isn’t great. Praying you get a decent night’s sleep tonight!
Sorry to hear you are not feeling better….good you could have today to rest a bit! I especially love the Spode Egg cup… it’s beautiful!
Feel better!
Thank you, Barrie.
Stay safe.
So sorry to hear about the cold. I hope that you can power through the next couple of days then recover! Love those egg cups. Take care of yourself.
Oh Claudia, that’s bad news indeed. I’m glad you didn’t have to go in today and hope that by tomorrow the worst is over.
That Spode cup — wow. Yes, that would definitely be a favorite. I love that!
Take care and sleep tight!
“F#@*%@!#$%^” (There, I said it for you.)
Get well soon!
Oh, the cups are delightful; the groundhog one, to me, is very unique and I kinda wish I had a close-up of it but I’m not asking you to do one more thing than you’re already doing when it’s hard enough to do these posts when not feeling up to par.
Somebody in my life isn’t up to par tonight either although he’ll be okay. Husband came thru three hours of major surgery today where one surgeon handed off to another, each doing separate procedures. I’m so impressed with both of those guys and also all the nurses at this marvelous hospital (every bed is a private room) in another town about a half-hour from where we live. They’ve all kept in good communication with me all day.
I talked to my husband an hour ago and he’s miserable. Hooked up to a zillion ‘wires’/tubes per him; not allowed out of bed; physical therapist will do some assessments in the morning in terms of walking and I don’t know all what (it’s an abdominal/esophageal ‘operation’). He is ‘allergic’ to general anesthesia so had to have careful monitoring, which is part of why he probably can’t come home til Day 3 or Day 4. The last thing they want, with this type of surgery, is for him to start hurling. He has no ability right now to swallow a pill, like a pain pill, so everything is being fed to him via an ‘IV’; the drip; his regular meds, pain meds, anti-nausea meds, other fluids.
We’d (he’d!) decided I wouldn’t go; went against everything in me; we had a lot of ‘discussions’ (arguments!) about it. I want to be by his side but he kept arguing with me about staying away; he doesn’t want me near a hospital with, yep, GERMS; my immune system is pretty bad. My sis-in-law says he just copes by reducing emotional attachments when he’s feeling sick and vulnerable. I guess she knows her own brother.
Anyway, I told him to put his stupid phone down, quit texting, let himself nod off, take his nourishment of jello and clear broth (slowly), watch a little TV but let that ‘throat’ and tummy heal; save the voice.
April and May will be very different months for us. Sticking closer to home. On the mend. He can’t even eat a scrambled egg til Week 5. For the next two weeks, he has to allow 20 minutes to get down one-half cup of clear liquid. (Nothing else.) He can’t lift anything for two weeks. After three weeks, he can lift 5-10 lbs only/maybe. At Week 7, he can go back to work and lift normally with doctor’s consent. Can’t be climbing stairs for ‘several’ weeks. Can start pureed food at Week 3. Soft foods by Week 5-6. He can be expected to lose a dozen pounds if he’s not careful; he’s already slim, doesn’t need to lose any weight.
This is so NOT my husband with the way he’ll be required to live from now til June. He’s active. Won’t even be able to walk the dog on the long walks they do three times per day; not for awhile anyway. His job is all physical (part-time job in retirement). He is also so NOT a non-carbonated/clear-liquid (or smoothie [or protein shake]) kind of dude (not a fruit person; blending a banana with almond milk …?… unheard of, to him).
Will be interesting, that’s for sure. All I can do is watch in awe or horror, dependent upon how he handles this (my husband isn’t the world’s best medical patient).
Just gotta take each day as it comes.
At least for the moment here at 8pm-ish in Southern Calif, we’re finally NOT raining. Maybe we’ll get a week to dry out. Saw my first legit wild-poppy sighting yesterday; on the coastal cliffs; really a beautiful bright orange amid those greened-up slopes. (Couldn’t quite believe that’s what he wanted to do, but I guess it was to reduce some unspoken anxiety; my husband wanted to spend the entire afternoon and part of the evening at the beach, 12 hrs before he had to get up for surgery-morning; sometimes all I can do is go along with these things and not ‘opine’.)
wow, vicki … lots for you two to deal with. :(
i am happy and so relieved for you both that your husband’s surgery is done. i will be thanking God for that. and now your husband’s recovery can begin. i will be praying for you both.
take good care of yourself, too, like you do for your husband and pup.
sending a hug (if okay),
kathy
kathy, thanx for your nice comment; you’re always nice; my husband’s physical therapy session didn’t go well this morning; walking down the hall to the nurse’s station and back was too much for him (he has five abdominal incisions); got very queasy which we all knew could crop up as a problem from post-anesthesia complications; can’t be throwing up after ‘throat’ surgery; so, he’s staying another day/night (at least) in the hospital where he can be on drip for the meds he can’t otherwise swallow, and he is resigned to it but very cranky (NOT a happy camper!) because he feels like crap!
I fear Claudia’s cold might have gotten worse; no March 31 post; she’s allowed; I’m just worried; of course, Claudia, you’re also very busy; but we all wish you well!
i’m hoping claudia went into the city to work today and didn’t have time to write and schedule something to be posted for when she was on her way to nyc.
and that she and don feel better soon.
same wishes and prayers for your husband … quick healing, pain relief, ease … glad for you both if he can go home tomorrow.
remember to take care of yourself!
kathy
I feel your pain!!! I haven’t written because 3 weeks ago came down with my husband’s cold. And I, too, haven’t had one in years! I called my daughters to ask what otc meds worked because I had no idea! (Robitussin or mucinex). I felt just awful and wasn’t recovering. Dr said I developed a throat and ear infection which resulted in prednisone and antibiotics. Ugh!
But today I finally felt well enough to lunch with friends, so hooray!
So I think this nasty upper respiratory thing going around is particularly nasty. Please take care and feel better!