Hello? Lord? What Am I Supposed To Learn From This?

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

One or my favorite scenes in any movie is in Lady Hawk when the thief, having done something that’s morally bad and it works, starts yelling at the sky, “Lord? What am I supposed to learn from this?”

I’d be yelling that, if my throat didn’t feel like it was on fire, and if I had even a little bit of energy.

For a week now, I’ve been having this cold. It’s not the world’s worst cold, except it came in with really high fevers. How high? Well, I don’t have a thermometer (This is a lie. I do, but it’s in a box, somewhere) but it’s that level of fever where you feel like this:

You feel like you’re roasting to the level it’s near-painful, your eyeballs feel like they’re sweating, and if you self-combusted it wouldn’t even surprise you a bit.

And then I got a little cough, and I was okay. ….. maybe. I mean my throat hurt like hell, and the cough kept getting worse and worse.

Yesterday was like “Am I getting better or worse?”

Today answered it. The day has defeated me with one hour of being awake. The throat pain has diminished some, or at least is responding to pain killers. I’m just SO tired I can barely carry a thought.

It’s been almost a week. What the heck? I don’t take this long to kick colds.

And the worst part? This is the second time.

First time? 2020, last week, I made a plan for what to write/when. I was all set for my most productive year yet, and then I caught what was probably the Wuflu first week of the year. And it flattened me for a month. I got nothing done. Just as I was getting ready to work the world went insane.

Lord? I know I have a plan for what to write. Look, I’m only mortal. I need these things.

But that’s no reason to visit Son of 2020 This Time It’s Annoying on me.

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO LEARN FROM THIS?

276 thoughts on “Hello? Lord? What Am I Supposed To Learn From This?”

  2. Ugh, feel better soon. As I have gotten older, I have found that what really bugs me about being sick is that I can’t DO anything. Just have to lie there and be sick. Rest and fluids – lots fluids.

      1. Very naughty boy is being beyond kind. How about a planet wide criminal who should be up before a Nurembery type tribunal?

            1. Nah. No more than a baronet.
              The scary thing is if he’s sincerely trying to do the right thing, but being chivvied by his own demons.

      4. Anti-prophet who needs to be sent à l’hélicoptère, per the Gospel of San Augusto.

        1. He’s a False Prophet.

          And the Lord God told us what to do with False Prophets. 😈

            1. Eh, he may have just figured explaining helicopters would cause his (then) audience’s eyes to glaze over. It got the point across and he figured we were bright enough to adapt to new methodology. Probably just another case of “Let me explain… no, is too much. Let me sum up.”

      5. Much too charitable. Fauci is simply a fraud. He along with the rest of the so-called “health authorities.”

  5. Any possibility that it is Covid? Sounds like a possibility, but care may be nothing more than treating it like the flu or a cold.

      1. I can say that IVM works wonders for the common cold. Probably does for Ermigerd as well.

          1. You can’t even get it for the things that it was approved for use in humans for; the Feds are so afraid that doctors will prescribe it off-label for the CCP Virus, they decided that it should not be available at all, thereby depriving people of what it is approved for of the ability to get it. The desire of Democrats to have government totally control the healthcare system has nothing to do with improving people’s health and everything to do with grabbing more and more totalitarian power over people’s lives.

            1. Feds: “Because we Know Better™ and we want credit for solving your problems for you, so we’re not going to let you find solutions for yourselves … even if they work better for you.”

              Let us not attribute to conspiracy, what can be accounted for by the arrogant, virtue-signaling hubris of full-tilt divas on pedestals.

            3. They even floated proposals to make vitamin D a controlled substance, available only by prescription. Couldn’t be because vitamin D deficiency is one of the biggest risk factors for severe COVID19 symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths, could it? Naw, that’s crazy talk! Conspiracy Theories! It’s All For Your Own Good!
              ———————————
              There is no shortage of people convinced they can create the perfect world. They just have to eliminate all those imperfect people who don’t fit in it.

              1. And “convinced” Amazon they shouldn’t carry and sell NAC….

                It’s still available elsewhere.

              2. The proposal is broad enough to cover all vitamin supplements, not just vitamin D. Which of course will make supplements more expensive and drive up the cost of healthcare. Their “solution” will be to impose dietary mandates. After all, if they courts allow them to impose a vaccine mandate through declaring an “emergency” and issuing a decree, there is limitation on their power (other than what people often do in response to tyranny).

              1. Ugh. I’d heard something like that from my more pastoral neighbors. I’ll have to look next time I’m in town.

          3. Something not widely reported: the conflict between observational studies that said Iv-mect is helpful against COVID and controlled studies that say it isn’t has been resolved.  Someone went through the data and found that the studies that showed it to be effective came from from places like north Africa where worm infection is common, even endemic.

            To survive in the human body, worms must depress the human immune system.  Getting rid of them allows the immune system to spring back, maybe even above normal, which will help in clearing a disease like COVID.

            Lesson: When controlled studies and observational studies disagree, FIND OUT WHY.  Physicists understand this, and spend much of their effort teasing out the conditions that make ‘odd’ things happen.  They comb old data for evidence in outliers, and we ger things like fractional electron charge as a result.

            1. actually, as much fun as this is, we do have examples of it helping in the US. Yeah, not controlled studies. And?
              Also for the record, if you look at the studies that say it’s not helpful, you’ll notice some jiggering and pockering.

              1. Ah yes, like the “studies” saying HCQ was ineffective… when given when the patient was already DND (Damn Near Dead) and with the zinc, etc. NOT when symptom onset occurred and WITH the zinc… if the ‘study’/’studies’ were NOT designed to fail…. why do they SCREAM “designed to fail”?

          4. I got some from Amazon from a pet supply store back in November. Working on the 2 is 1 and 1 is none theory, I just ordered it again. Get the injectable kind and some syringes. Mix 150ml with a shot of your choice of alcohol and drink it down. (We have a bottle of Polish honey brandy that we weren’t drinking that is just fine for this.)

      2. Flu is really bad this year, and apparently the flu vaccines pretty much missed the flu variety going around. The initial onset high fever is typical of seasonal flu.

        Feel better.

        1. I suspect a good many folks will be seeing how well quercetin (zinc ionophore, but more PREVENTATIVE than CURATIVE… as HCQ/IVMCTN) zinc & D3 (& Acetyl Cystine),… are. I can’t say for sure they do this or that, but I know in December 2020 damned near everyone around me was getting COVID-sick and I didn’t (then sans QC & AC). When did get the ‘vaccine’ it hit me (TIRED!!!) both times. Supposedly a sign of earlier infection… yet I was aymptomatic. $HOUSEMATE got the ‘vaccine’ (eins, zwei, UND drie) and had no reaction at all. “If you had it, why didn’t I get it?” See: ASYMPTOMATIC.

          1. Haven’t had the vax. Haven’t contracted the dreaded covid. Actually haven’t added any new supplements since I was taking them all before. Increased the amounts of some.

            But most credit for not contracting the dreaded covid I give to daily nasal irrigation including xylitol and erythritol in the mix. I added the erythritol during the covidiocy. IIRC- it was a commenter here who suggested it.

            I have to get my weekly Waste, Fraud, and Abuse government test to show I don’t have it at that moment in time. Told the testing tech of my daily rinse. He said I won’t test positive even if I do have it… I’ve killed everything in the nose.

      3. If you don’t get better from it after a week or so … might be the Commie Corona Crud. My daughter and I both had it in September, and our clue that something was seriously out of whack was that … we didn’t get better after a week.
        Turned out that we had Covid pneumonia. After the pneumonia was knocked out by antibiotics — we got swiftly better.
        Of course, the Wee Grandson caught it from us – he had the sniffles and a temperature for about a day…Ah, the sweet resilience of youth…

  6. People usually don’t have fevers with colds. Sounds like my unvaccinated neighbor’s case of WuFlu only he spent 2 weeks on O2. Or it could be just the regular flu, which is going around too.

      1. That’s what I’m worried about. Not particularly concerned about either one by itself, but I read somewhere that a large percentage of people who’ve been hospitalized and/or died of/with covid probably had that AND the flu. Getting both at once would be…not good.

        1. Would not surprise me if the CCP Virus presence is low/trace amounts and it is the flu driving the negative outcomes. It is a very nasty flu variety this year and the vaccine pretty much missed on it. Know a lot of people getting it and it is hitting them really hard.

          2. Got same symptoms just before Christmas, Exhausted from 6 and 7 day work weeks. Put me down, high fever 2 days felt it break in the middle of the night. But dragged out and exhausted. No appetite. Lost 17 pounds. Now using to my advantage to work to keep them off. Now more energy than for years.

            Had the Wuflu in December 2019, lost all taste and smell for months. Been exposed running a couple of different stores everyday for last couple of years and nary a sniffle until this.

            You will recover fast from it and do not let it deter from the wonderful stories you get to channel.

              2. I haven’t heard it mentioned, but try B12 (or, even better, B Complex) supplements. That’s the vitamins that get drained down when you have major illness or stress. Cheap, OTC, and effective.

  7. That your body is saying “Oh, good! You’re not dying! NOW we can get sick and actually deal with all that maintenance that has deferred.

    Return power to life support systems, we’re parking, put the body in drydock!

    1. (How do I recognize this? There’s a reason why I say your son’s “make sure you rest at least once a week” advice is good, and I doubt I’m alone in casting my mind back over the last few months and noting a lot of “K, if I just get this done, THEN I can rest… Wait, I need this so I can do that, get it done and THEN I can rest…” Sounds like your body said “screw this, REST!”)

      2. If we had a family room — we don’t yet — I’d just sit on the sofa and watch mindless stuff. Only our tv died a week before we left CO (it’s a large monitor.) It’s been ordered, but not arrived yet.

        2. My beloved discovered the Tube of You, and now watches space stuff on his tablet. And other things.

          1. Oh, lordy, so do I. Love a couple of series like Red Poppy Ranch, and Luke Towan’s videos about building railway dioramas. There’s a couple of Russian, German and Italian builders of miniatures and dioramas whose stuff I like as well.

            1. If you like painting miniatures, I can recommend Marco Frissoni. He’s really excellent.

              For miniatures, Chandwell Model Railway is doing the most amazing things with paper and cardboard.

            2. The Europeans do amazing things in really small spaces. They’re the Faberge eggs of model railways. Comes from having no space to work in. American model railways tend to be relatively grand affairs–they’re different enough to be a completely different art form.

          2. If you’re looking for a rabbit hole to go down, this guy has got a whole lot of restoration videos like this one.

            After you watch a few, Tube of U will start tossing up some other restoration channels. You can waste be diverted for days on end.

  8. “Man plans, God laughs”?

    Hope you get well soon, and that this is just all the usual cold weather crap that we all get and normally isn’t so bad because we’ve had all of the more minor herd immunity infections.

    1. That is part of my email signature at work.

      A consilia hominis et Deus cachinnus.

  9. “Daughter, take more vitamin D. And keep taking it.”

    Seriously, though. Vitamin D does help your immune system work better. Rest, fluids (hot lemon tea with honey helps sore throats a lot–lemon-ginger tea with honey helps sore throats and helps clear sinuses), Tylenol and/or aspirin (if you can tolerate it) to help pull fever down so you can sleep. And sleep a LOT, because your body’s burning a lot of resources and energy fighting this, and will need a lot of rest to help replenish the energy.

    There’s a throat spray that’s an antiseptic and numbing agent, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called…

      2. Two cautions with that kind of stuff (throat lozenges or sprays to numb the throat)
        1) If you use it and then push you can damage your voice (potentially permanently)
        2) If the throat inflamation is bad enough you can end up with a VERY constricted and numb throat and choking hazard goes WAY up

        Dear Hostess, I know the medicos are a bit panicked about Omicron variant, but what you describe is also the symptoms of severe strep. Unlike Omicron that crap really is quite deadly (c.f. scarlet fever) if let go on and is truly quite transmissible. Instant strep test and some antibiotics if its strep and you’ll be right as rain, but you need the docs for either.

        1. My brother had scarlet fever as a child. We had to boil his eating utensils and Mom and I got strep anyway.

          1. We went through that with my brother. After he bit the sanitation engineer, we had to take him out back and shoot him.

            Eh. Extermination of a pest.

          2. I had scarlet fever, twice they tell me. We were in Ireland for the summer without my father and my mother, who was Irish, wouldn’t pay the guinea (21 shillings) to the doctor until my father, who was American, arrived for his holiday and went wild. There was no phone so the first he knew of it was when he got there. Evidently it was one of three occasions in their 50+ Year marriage where my father raised his voice to my mother.

          1. Last time I got a very serious bad case of strep it wiped me out for 6 weeks. Seriously not fun is an understatement.

        3. Our family kept getting strep until one sister and one brother got their tonsils out. Haven’t had strep since.

      3. Have to be careful you don’t overuse Chloraseptic. I find using a good strong mouthwash 3 times a day, painful gross and disgusting as they taste, does a decent job of keeping the throat inflammation down, when used with other anti-inflammatories, even just plain old aspirin.

        1. not with this mess. i’m having similar symptoms to sarah, and the mouthwash trick ain’t working, and neither is gargling warm salt water.

          1. For gargling- add xylitol and/or erythritol to the warm sat water. More soothing- and both have antiviral and antibacterial properties.

      1. Strep is NASTY. At least get tested for that. It is prevalent locally.

        Son was tested for Strep, Flu, and Covid, 12/26 … First two ruled out quickly. Honestly I could have ruled out Strep, no sore throat, without the test. Covid came back positive. But even with “longer” not quick tests, those are wildly inaccurate. Sigh. His symptoms were mild. But persistent low grade fever. Husband caught it. Also mild symptoms, done and gone two/three days max. Now I’ve got whatever, not so mild, but not the horrible sore throat. Very bad sore throat isn’t something I mess with. I’m susceptible to Strep. (Very. Will not repeat what happened when I was 19, ever. Never. Never. Ever again.)

        Now do I have Covid? Or did I have a horrible reaction to the 3rd booster (almost a year after the first 2), plus Flu and Pneumonia vaccines, all at the same time? WTHK? IDK. I’ve been down and out since late Monday night. Low grade fever. Aches (fever related). Sore shoulders, both. Flu and Pneumonia side way worse sore. Devolving into cough and stuffy head as it breaks up.

        I hope you start feeling better soon.

        Rest. Take in fluids. Rest. Please get checked at least for Strep. Even if they give test for flu and covid. Get tested for Strep. That they can rule out easily.

        Rest and get better.

          3. Strep is a bit different in adults (at least by comparing the strep I had as a kid and the time I got it as an adult). I would try to get tested for it to make sure.

    5. I’ve been using a gargle of 1 part cider vinegar and four parts water for decades now for sore throats. You have to do it over a sink or course, as it’s a hard thing to tolerate. But the vinegar is actually antiseptic and kills whatever bacteria and virii it can get to, and tends to numb your throat as well.

      PH changes can be your friend.

    6. Probably Chloraseptic which is nothing chloro, but IS (I think) dilute phenol… benzyl alcohol.. literally a benzene ring with a hydroxyl hung from it. Once/sometimes called “carbolic acid” though it’s not really an acid.

  10. OBviously, the second PRC release of a bioweapon, at least the one that made it over here, was a virus, not the bacteria I was predicting.

    Fun take one: We all gonna DIE, Steve was right, we shoulda boogalooed, AND we should have blown up the airports.

    Fun take two: Still not worth the lockdown bullshit.

    1. I think an early boogaloo /might/ have had some lower costs. I’m not sure I can know anything at this point.

      1. Did you know that for over 99.99999999% of the history of this universe that I’m NOT alive?

        Goal One: Move the decimal point one position.
        Goal Two: Move the decimal point two positions.
        Goal Three: Who am I kidding here?

    3. Do not blow up airports or any other useful infrastructure. At this point in the process, that will buy you a few friends but more enemies. Targeted assassinations of the corprolites* giving the orders would, I think, be more effective. Like Mike Vanderboegh (I think) once said: Kill all they send then kill the man who sent them.

      * corprolite: A portmanteau of corporate and coprolite.

      1. “Targeted assassinations of the corprolites* giving the orders would, I think, be more effective. Like Mike Vanderboegh (I think) once said: Kill all they send then kill the man who sent them.”

        This ^^^^^

      2. “Engage in coprophagy and expire!” is line that amuse as means “ESAD” but the targets are likely to be more bewildered than offended… which only makes it even MORE amusing.

      3. Yeah.

        I was joking, and thought it obvious from that.

        Good to have it said explicitly, anyway.

        Thanks.

  11. I think it’s the Almighty giving you the rest and maintenance your body needs–Foxfier has it just right.
    Fevers do happen with bad colds, just your body repairing itself and making you sit still while it does its work.
    Try not to be discouraged–that’s what can happen to me when I make great plans and wake up with a migraine or some such ugly.

    Take good care, Sarah.

  12. Sarah, the Reader has to admit that when he saw the title of this post, he was expecting a rant on yesterday’s insurrection theater. My comment to it elsewhere is that we should be grateful that Left in this country doesn’t have a propagandist of the class of Leni Riefenstahl or even Frank Capra.

    If the Reader has learned anything about getting older (and he has a decade or so on you) is that the success of the ‘power through it strategy’ of illness declines first slowly and than quickly with age. Rest and be well. We need you healthy.

    1. Heck, I was half expecting a post ranting about the muon.
      I should know better, but…. “Who ordered this?” (I. I. Rabi asked…) came to mind.

      1. My favorite is a likely apocryphal statement by Fermi as the particle zoo got out of control “If I’d wanted to memorize a bunch of ridiculous unrelated names I’d have been a Biologist not a Physicist”.

  13. Sweats, chills, sensitive skin, aching limbs, exhausted by simple tasks, sleep for hours and wake up tired . . . any of this sounding familiar? Maybe you caught the flu. People did that, in the olden days, before The Deadliest Virus Ever Known.

    Rest in bed, drink plenty of fluids, take everything in the medicine cabinet just in case any of it does any good, complain a lot. That’s how I do it. Works every time. Takes about a week.

        1. Oooh my little stuffy one, stuffy one
          when you gonna give me some AIR, FLURONA!
          Oooh you make my nose to run, nose to run
          I’M HACKING UP ANOTHER LUNG, FLURONA!

          1. Aye. How genius shows as I can hear the original and then be *disappointed* that it’s the original rather than the (almost universally infinitely better) Weird Al parody.

            1. Indeed Even quite good songs Like Don Macleans “American Pie” Make me long For Weird Al’s version “The Saga Begins”

  15. What you should learn is to go to bed sooner. What you will learn? Probably nothing, humans are like that.

  16. Justice Sotomayer just validated your statements that the left sees people as widgets: “Why is a human not like a machine if it’s spewing virus?”

    1. She likes the idea of a wise Latina justice. Maybe she should resign to leave the slot open for her.

    2. That’s not even the most damning statement she made, at least if this comment at Althouse’s blog is accurate:

      > “I don’t understand why the states would have power but the federal government wouldn’t.”

      If Sotomayor really said that and she isn’t just being misquoted, that statement alone is grounds for having her impeached. If she doesn’t understand the 10th Amendment, she is manifestly unfit for the job she holds.

      1. I read a summary of that and shook my head. Because the executive branch agencies only have the power Congress gives to them, and Congress has to pass a law. Which it has not done, because . . . Oooooohhhh, the sales of popcorn alone would pay off the national debt. Assuming anyone would touch a “Federal Forced Vaccine Law” other than the hard-core Progs and a few loons.

        Ain’t no way most people are going to buy either “necessary and proper” or Commerce Clause as a justification for forced vaccination requirements.

      2. Let’s be blunt.

        Impeachment, nothing.

        There’s grounds for /hanging/ a lot of folks.

        Because the law faculty were much to clever for their own good, and have raised the possibility that lawyers and judges are conspiring to deny folks actual representation in the formal legal system.

        Impeachment is a tool for when recourse exists within the formal legal system. Recourse may well still exist within the formal legal system.

        Raising the possibility that recourse does not exist within the formal legal system was hugely irresponsible of those lawyers.

        /If/ recourse does not exist, those lawyers have established themselves party to the criminal conspiracy to defraud the public on various items for which they were agents to the public’s principle. When there is a widespread criminal conspiracy, and when recourse to the formal legal system is not an option, vigilante hangings can be defended as just and lawful.

        Impeachment is a tool for when the formal legal system is still a viable option, /and/ you are not going to be replacing the formal legal system with a different formal legal system, with entirely different people appointed.

        So you are understating things greatly, but that is far far better than going Full Bob. Never go Full Bob. I, Bob the Fool, try to avoid Full Bob, because Full Bob is a position that is not soundly and carefully conservative.

  17. Back in 2008 every time I prayed, I would get the unction to rest in the Lord. Very perplexed, I would reply that I do, I don’t understand. March 10, 2009 I found out: suddenly I was laid off work. Been chased by headhunters for years and thought a month or two unemployed at the most. It was 2 years. Not even local gas stations would hire me. Interviews would go great, be told I was definitely moving on in the process, and then nothing…repeatedly. It seemed certain we would lose our house and much more, but we didn’t. God took care of us again and again.

    I learned the meaning of Romans 8:28–all things work together for good. I learned to thank God for all things, even pain is a gift from God: it lets us know something is wrong and will harm us if we don’t address the underlying issue. My prayer became ‘God I hope today is the last day of this, but don’t end it until I’ve learned exactly what you want me to’.

    I learned and am still learning to rest in Him, to simply trust because He loves me. And that never ceases to amaze me.

    May the Lord strengthen you, heal you, and fill you with fierce love and joy Sarah!

  18. I had three flus in the last three week. Or maybe it is one flu. I’m not sure. I get sick and then I feel better in two to three days. Then I go out to get something done– and then I get sick again in hours. I have a persistent cough that gets worse at night. I think its getting better. I think we are getting hit because people stayed pretty healthy … and the herd immunity is now down. *sigh Sending you good vibes.

    1. When I was young and foolish, I got the flu and went back to work just as soon as I felt a little better. After the second relapse I took several days until I really felt better.
      May be what you’ve got, but in any case, rest up, it can’t hurt. Prayers up for you and Sarah.

  19. It sounds like Coronavirus. Fevers, sore throat and exceptional tiredness are symptoms. You can test for this with a home test, or ask your doctor to test. I don’t recommend standing for hours out in the cold with a fever, fatigue and sore throat, but there are testing sites, I assume.

    You can get Coronavirus twice.

    Get well soon.

    1. Fevers, sore throat, and exceptional tiredness are also symptoms of the flu, strep throat, and most other upper respiratory infections.

          1. It is January. Even Boris Johnson in the UK admitted that the hospitals collapse every year about this time in the Northern hemisphere.

      2. It’s also possible to literally work yourself sick– that’s part of where the “rest to heal” thing comes from, you can still have inflammation and thus a fever without any virus at all.

        Given the time of year, “sore throat” can be irritation from the cold and fires.

        1. yup.

          On a completely unrelated side note. I’m not sure whether to blame you or thank you for introducing me to Sabaton. *shifty eyes*

                    1. What Sergeant York achieved that day
                      Echoes from France to the USA
                      It’s 82nd All the way
                      Death from above, what they now say

                    1. You’re a cat. I would be worried if you approached normal. (side note…. I have been introducing every history teacher I meet to Sabaton if they are not already familiar… especially if they happen to lament in my hearing about getting the kids interested in it.)

            2. I also find that soundwise they are very much a live band; the studio recordings really don’t fully capture their sound as well as live performances do.

  20. Given that you are ill and asking God I take it that like me you have noticed and share the concern that God is developing a doctor complex? Perhaps Dr. God would point out that he (she? it? whatever?) has provided some broad spectrum anti-virals that have recently come from under the wraps of the medical cartel i.e, ivermectin and HCQ. Used with zinc either of these should do a number on most viruses, providing they are started early in the illness. Given that the powers that be have made it difficult to obtain these substances you might try a draft of tonic water (insert gin joke here) with zinc. Cheers.

  21. Oops my wifes name got pasted into a reply Aubrey Sebastian should be john Sebastian

    1. tsk. Pasting your better half like that. You should crawl to her and beg her forgiveness. And watch her crack up while you do the Poor Poor Pussy imitation.

  22. Fun. I’ve picked up something fun too. Not sure what or how it’s going to progress, but absolutely looking forward to it.

    Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s the coof, since we’ve been in and out of hospitals for the last several weeks, but we will see.

  23. Thanks Lord for getting Sarah to and the commenters to write about the bad non-china bad cold!

    Mine started around two weeks ago with sniffles sneezing through a whole roll of Alaska tissues (AKA toilet paper) in 24 hours, recovery, more sneezing stuffed nose a few days later, feeling fine, then achoo and more fine. Day before yesterday, sneezing for a few hours. I was going to plow some snow yesterday while it was warm, -10°F., talked myself out of it but awoke feeling rather guilty this -36°F. morn.

    Sometimes we need remind each other it’s OK to kick back, relax, take a different track and just let our bodies and souls recuperate.

    & OK, not just OK, but absolutely necessary we do so.

    So thanks Lord, that’s what I learned from this!

    1. Helpful hint: Do NOT use toilet paper that’s been sitting or hanging next to the toilet to blow your nose with. It’s unfortunate, but flushing the toilet aerosolizes quite a bit of the contents, and those aerosols get deposited on exposed surfaces in the bathroom. Great way to shove e. Coli and other intestinal pathogens up your nose to complicate colds and the flu. Note: this includes contaminating your toothbrush. So if you’re prone to gum infections, that might be your problem right there.

      3. No worries. For a stylish Alaska Kleenex dispenser; take an empty coffee can, paint the outside of the can to taste, or not, punch an inch or so diameter hole in the center of the plastic lid, a fresh roll of paper, fold and pull out the cardboard core, put the roll in the can, paper from the center where you pulled out the cardboard pull a few inches up through the hole, tear off as needed and your nose will be right and coli free, mate! 😉

  25. Hope you get better soon. It sounds worse than what we have had.
    A really nasty cough, thick congestion high in our throats, not lungs, thank G_d, no fever, no loss of smell or taste.
    Treating with tea, soup, antibiotics, decongestants, etc. 4 days so far, no energy to speak of yet.

  26. You probably don’t need to learn this from what I know of your history, but i think this is more learning that control is an illusion.

    Feel better, we need you.

  27. You’re describing the latest incarnation of covid: seems like an unusually lingering and exhausting cold, except for the fever spikes and the astonishingly severe throat pain.

    Get well, hear?

  28. *Ladyhawke

    Also, i found some NyQuil, it ends up places around here are just out of Robitussin. Also acquires some numbing throat lozenges that are helping, for about 2h at a time.

    1. Loved Matthew Broadrick in that. And Rutger Hauer too.

      Limits.
      You have limits, dear lady.
      Sounds like the flu to me, but could be shading into strep throat on top of it.
      Hit the Urgent Care center for a check and or meds, then go home, drink water, eat chicken soup, crawl into bed, and turn off the brain.

    2. Cepacol !!! Couldn’t remember the lozenges. Man they taste Awful, but they work. Like the Chloraseptic spray use with caution you can get into trouble with them.

  29. “I told the truth, Lord. How am I supposed to learn any moral lessons if you keep confusing me?”

    Why, yes, as a matter of fact Ladyhawke is one of my favorite movies that I’ve rewatched many times. Why do you ask? 😉

      1. She’s got stories to write, a house to sell, a country to save, and Guilder to blame for it. She’s swamped.

        2. Ahem. My grandfather took over as treasurer when he stepped down from being Grandmaster of the NYS Masons. He kept putting off going to the doctors because it was too important for him to get their books and finances straightened out. Long story short, it killed him just a few short weeks after he got that mess cleaned up.

      1. I had (heaven help me) a Betamax of LadyHawke. Never did replace it sadly. Awesome cast, Ruger Hauer, Matthew Broderick, Leo McKern, and Michele Pfieffer. What was there Not to like?

        1. I love all things shapechanger-ish. I am also a red-blooded American woman. Between wolves, hawks, Matthew Broderick AND Rutger Hauer, I think I about wore out my VHS tape at the tender age of 13.

        2. The score was very good too. Critics hated it. I actually like Alan Parson Project releases, but then I’m a weird product of between times.

      2. I have the double CD soundtrack. And the novelization. Not the DVD, though. It really is a great, underrated, film.

        “What? It’s Lent again already?” I laugh so hard, too hard, at that line. Always.

        1. “Open in the name of the Bishop of Aquila!”

          “I’ve met the Bishop, you blasphemous lout, and you look nothing like him!”
          ———————————
          “And remember…”

          [Crack, crash, splash]

          “Walk. On the left. Side.”

  30. A teaspoon of honey and a drop of kerosene; I seem to think that’s what my dad said his momma gave them.

      1. My mom swore by paregoric for stomach upsets. Every time I’d get the crud it was one dose of Pepto-Bismoll, followed by a dose of paregoric. Man, that stuff was awful. After it came back, it was just soda for the rest of the night.

        1. Once upon a time I wanted to mix some drink, but didn’t have the right ingredients to do it properly. I knew substitutes, and used them. Now, one substitution is generally no big deal. Two might be pushing it. I broke right on through. $HOUSEMATE’s comment on the result was “It smells and tastes like paregoric!” I did not record just went into that drink. You’re welcome.

            2. My mistake. $HOUSEMATE figure anything black licorice flavored is like unto paregoric. The screwy over-substituted drink I mixed, I was told, tasted like (old school) kaopectate.

                1. I am reminded of a column in Byte (I forget which, alas, perhaps Ciarcia’s Circuity Cellar?) wherein the author explained that in his opinion, Victor. Frankenstein got bad press…

                  1. Of course he did. The man was a genius. A front runner for anatomy and physiology studies, surgery, organ transplants, resuscitation, suspended animation, and life extension. However, he didn’t work in sterile fields, and his post operative care sucked. Nursing care, recovery, and physical and mental therapy? Completely non-existent.

          2. Reminds of the time in college when someone couldn’t get the right booze to make kamikazes with and substituted Everclear (190 proof grain alcohol) in its place. Luckily I didn’t like kamikazes made the usual way and thus had no interest in the Everclear ones. Others were not so lucky.

    2. My grandmother’s was coat the bottom of a mug with honey, cover with scotch, and pour boiling water in that to fill it, drink as soon as you could.

      So roughly the same.

      [grin]

      1. Honey has at least a mild anti-crud function, as I recall the chapter on making mead. Yeast takes a while to get going. My batch was better in theory than in practice.

        1. My father had the same basic recipe – honey, whiskey and marmalade and orange juice. Drink enough of that, you didn’t care how rotten you felt…

          2. Also works for colic. One for parent, smaller one for afflicted child. Both feel better. Or so I’ve been assured. [Dear CPS, the child is now in her 50s, so don’t bother.]

        2. I think it took ten years for the mead we tried to make to become drinkable.

          We tested it every Christmas.

          1. Do you mean it took you ten years to make drinkable mead, or the first batch had to be aged for ten years before you could stand it? 😀

      2. One night in college I had a nagging cough so my roomates decided to concoct some “cough medicine.” They took every bottle of booze with an inch or less of fluid, poured all of it into a single glass and gave it to me. Yes, I was dumb enough to drink it. I quit coughing, but I started talking instead about whatever entered my addled mind. They wound up leaving me in bed and turning out the light so I could talk to the wall. And I did.

  31. I had a similar experience years ago. I came down with the crud the day after Thanksgiving, and it was an up and down escapade of feeling sick until after the first of the year. An old security guard suggested eating a raw mustard green leaf, which I did that evening. Over the next few days, the symptoms disappeared, and I was soon running on eight cylinders.

    I learned some of the old remedies have roots in fact. All the modern pharmaceuticals only relieved the symptoms. The mustard green leaf caused the cure.

  32. You’re probably supposed to learn not to piss off the Lord, or some reasonable variant. Rest assured, it’s either that or something else.

    I got sick on 12/26/2021. Yesterday I marked myself 90% recovered, and so had a martini at cocktail hour.

    My solution was to treat the symptoms (nausea, fever, congestion, muscle pain from the soles of my feet to the top of my head, and fatigue). I recovered nicely, and am still on the mend.

    I’m sorry you’re sick and having a bad time of it. The vitamin regimen should help, as will drinking plenty of fluids and all the other things you’re already doing. I’ll pray for you, which will help.

    Feel better. Please.

  33. My sister the nun told me that my relationship with God should be just like Gaston in LadyHawke. Gaston doesn’t pray by bowing his head and folding his hands. He converses with God constantly. God is always with him, always ready to lend a listening ear, always right by Gaston’s side. I’ve tried (not always successfully) to behave the same, ever since.

    So: Hey God, how about a little help for Sarah, here? She’s got a lot to do and doesn’t need this flu dragging her down. K? Thanks!

    1. “I talk to God all the time.”

      “You’re crazy! You can’t talk to something that doesn’t exist.”

      “Really? And you’re calling ME crazy?”

      1. The craziness starts when HE answers.
        You want me to do WHAT?! Get out of the boat? Come. Go to a widow with nothing? Go to Nineveh? Go to Nashville?

          1. Haha! Load up the truck and hit the road without a house to park it at, at the other end? Are you sure?

            Sister, been there.

            2. Me this past week. ‘Um, Sir, this makes three. You’re Hinting again, aren’t You? Please don’t answer, and I won’t ask when I’m supposed to find time, because I don’t want to know what You might come up with.”

        2. Presbypoet you ain’t whistlin’ dixie. When You ask the Lord something and you get an answer the world is about to get interesting. Like “May You Live in interesting times” Interesting. I’ve had it happen twice in 60 years and thank you Lord that was plenty… It’s not bad per se just incredibly complex.

          1. four times. Once without asking. First time I saw Dan “This is your future husband.”
            I fought it for FOUR years, just because I’m defiant. (Also, I thought he hated me.)

    2. I argue with Him all the time. And joke with Him “If you don’t let me get some traction in writing soon, I swear I’m going into politics, and you know better than to want that!” Etc.
      It’s just who I am.

      1. The go to Nashville is one of my many times hearing Him. Followed later by “I told you what to do. Now get out of the boat.”
        At first hearing, my immediate response was to ask for a sign, to make sure this was a divine message, not just my idea. It came. I told my wife”if I didn’t go, he was next going to drop a billboard on our front lawn flashing “Go to Nashville. Go to Nashville””

        He does not promise easy. My favorite story is Elijah as the brook dries up. “Lord the brook has dried up. What do you want me to do. Which rock should I hit?” We don’t know Elijah’s exact prayer, only God’s instructions.
        “Go to a widow with nothing. She will take care of you.” My quotes not exact, but true expression of his condition.

        When I am tempted to attend a pity party, I ask myself if I am better off than either the widow, about to go gather sticks for her last meal, or Elijah come to demand her last cake. A good reminder for our current time of peril.

  34. Sarah, have you located a new doctor in the area you’ve moved to? Perhaps this case is meant as a reminder to take care of that if you haven’t already done so. Also, if the fever lingers, it’s time to see that new doctor. A lingering “very high” fever is not something to try to power through on your own particularly when you already have a rather delicate or challenged immune system. Please take care.

      1. For your amusemement: when I was young and dumb, I was rocking a high fever that was probably ER-worthy. But, as I said, young and dumb. So I piled another quilt on, curled up with my haul from the library, and read until I fell asleep. This might have worked had the haul not included the first three Sandman trade paperbacks…as it is, I have never been so glad to see the sun rise.

        1. I was 6 and had a bad fever and bilateral ear infection. Cost me 50% hearing in one ear and 25% in the other. Amplification does nothing for dead nerves, and frequency shifting seriously screws up hearing everything else.

          1. Frequency shifting… ouch.. like a mis-tuned BFO for sideband. It has long amazed me that some folks put put with an offset that makes things obvious too low or obviously too high. It’s not a matter of frequency resolution, either. 5 or 10 Hertz would be no big deal. This was…. more.

            1. No kidding. It’s why I put up with 50% and 75%, along with the tinnitus and lack of bar hopping. That kind of loss means it’s nearly impossible to pick out individual conversations in a noisy environment. What is interesting is the tinnitus is apparently at the range of the loss; meaning the hearing centers in the brain are intact. If they ever have a means of regeneration, or get bugs out of cochlear implants (and there are a bunch) I might be able to get the full hearing back.

      2. That really makes it sound like the flu. With flu, even when fever breaks, one can still feel wiped out for a week or two after.

  35. I’d bet you get immuno diminished when stressed and the lack of sunlight of the winter months leaves you vulnerable …

  36. As others have said…D, C, and definitely add the zinc back in. And rest! I know you have deadlines with other people now, but getting sick through deadlines won’t help anything at all.

  39. I remember the one time I had a fever that made my bones ache. That was fun.

    The current generation of 24? Oz Gatorade bottles turn out to have the perfect curvature for laying behind your neck, so they are really great to use as ice packs.

  40. Ladyhawk! One of our favorites!
    I confess to using the image of Rutger Hauer in that movie to visualize the appearance of the first hero, Carl Becker, in my Adelsverein series. It works for me, to have someone in mind, when formulating the appearance of a character. Weirdly, I don’t seem to need this visual crutch for female characters … make of that what you will.

    1. I freely confess for using Rutger Hauer as the physical model for the protagonist in _Blackbird_. (And Peter O’Toole as Henry II in _The Lion in Winter_ for the older protagonist in the current Merchant work-in-progress.)

    2. Interesting! I imagined him as the “William Cody” character from “The Young Riders” TV show.

  41. Hope you feel better soon. My wife and daughter spent most of November and December sick. Which meant I spent as much time caring for them as they did for me after my surgery.

    1. Ouch. Even the weekend after I got my wisdom teeth out and everyone else had the flu was no fun.

      Then I got the flu Monday.

  42. What am I supposed to learn from this?

    But, you’ve also bested my Spaniard, which means you must have studied, and in studying you must have learned that man is mortal,

    Um… Do not get into a land war in Asia?

    Adding you to the God blesses.

  44. Last night, Tucker Carlson did a segment about the sad state of National Public Radio, one of the ‘services’ the government spends our tax money on. Part of it concerned NPR’s promotion of one Sabrina Springs from UC Irvine and a book called ‘The Black Body: The Racial Origins Of Fat Phobia’. Among the gems of Public Wisdom presented on NPR:

    “Her extensive research shows that the fat phobia so prevalent in today’s society was largely a product of two elements working together to anoint Europeans as superior to all others.”

    “The thing is, the BMI was never meant to measure individual health and, again, was based purely on studies of white men.”

    “We might consider basic accommodations like doorways or seat belts as value-neutral, but that only shows us how much diet culture has influenced the design of our world.”

    So, the demonstrated medical facts that being too fat is unhealthy are racist. It’s all just ‘fat phobia’ promulgated by ‘diet culture’.

    Hey, NPR, here’s a free tip: If you have a hard time fitting through a door that’s wide enough to haul a refrigerator through, don’t blame the door.

    Most doors in America are wide enough for a refrigerator.

    That’s not all. A Twitter message from a Crystal Marie Fleming @alwaystheself states that “The problem at NPR is white supremacy. That so few are saying this explicitly is telling, indeed.”

    So, the fact that few people are obsessing over White Supremacy at NPR proves that ‘the problem’ is White Supremacy. What problem might that be, exactly? Nobody ever explains. It’s just ‘the problem’.

    Sounds like the lesson to be learned here is, Do not go to National Public Radio. It is a silly place.

    1. Meanwhile Google has made itself the arbiter of what is valid information not only for medicine but climate as well, as they demonitize and aim to shut down a site that publishes accurate satellite data on climate:

      https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/01/google-makes-war-on-climate-science.php

      A reminder that we know by the admissions of high level members of the Team HarrisBiden regime that they actively communicate with the tech oligarchs as to stuff they want censored because the GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS decide that it is “misinformation”, i.e. goes against Democratic Party narrative.

      Google of course has a monopoly on advertising on websites (over 80% of the market) and thus has the power to effectively shut down any online/business.site that depends on ad revenue (as they have already threatened The Federalist and Breitbart with).

      1. Gee, remember when Gurgle’s motto was “Don’t be evil”? Seems they’ve lost something over the years…
        ———————————
        Only idiots believe they know how other people should live their lives. The stupider they are, the more blindly they believe it.

    2. Thing is… part of that is true.

      The BMI isn’t designed to diagnose anything, and it’s been scientifically shown to be inaccurate when used for that purpose.

      The healthiest weight category, by BMI, is “overweight.” Both “over weight” and the proper weight are tied for health outcomes, while “under weight” and “morbidly obese” are likewise tied.

      This has been repeatedly shown when they looked at health outcomes and did not break groups into only “healthy weight” and all of the overweight categories– or better yet, they will only compare 18.5 to 24.9 BMI with 30+ BMI, completely removing the “over weight” category.

      It’s just crazy when it’s tied into race.

      1. No, I wrote that wrong– over weight is best, obese/normal are tied, and morbidly obese is tied with under weight.

        Probably part of why so few charts still HAVE morbidly obese– that’s 35+.

      2. I remember when I first heard about BMI in the late 80s/90s and thinking it didn’t reflect reality. Some of the best athletes of the day ranked obese. Lawrence Taylor (6’3” 235, BMI ~29.5), Mark McGwire (6’5” 225, ~27). It made little sense.
        When I was at my healthiest (asked by the college football coach across the street to walk on) my BMI was 24.4. And had I done so, my BMI would have been significantly higher.

        BMI makes no sense to me

        1. It does actually have a use– it’s a very quick, easy filtering tool to remove people who had next to zero chance of having whatever-is-being-screened-for, which is can let you avoid waste and (worse) annoying the folks you are treating. If I remember the chatter from the make-it-easier-to-calculate change, it’s very popular in the third world with aid groups.

          It’s the same way that only something like one in a hundred women who fail their gestational diabetes screening will fail even *one* measurement on the three hour test. A screening tool can’t diagnose, but it *can* save you a great deal of time, money and effort.

          The issue comes when some ascientific thus-and-suches decided to use the screening test as a diagnostic test, probably because it is very easy to get. Weight and height are very seldom treated as sensitive, after all, you can get those off of driver’s licenses.

          …
          Of course, the quality of the data is about what you’d expect from driver’s license weight and height. I can’t remember the last time a doctor’s office even attempted to correct for clothing weight, much less keep consistency in having eaten or where women are in their cycle.

          I got curious, so I weighed myself first thing in the morning, not dressed; then after getting dressed, including shoes but with empty pockets (+7lb) and then after my usually morning routine (+2lb, coffee and water).

          That is a full point on BMI for the (statistically) average woman of 5’4.
          A man of average height would, of course, have clothing rather heavier than mine, and that fully dressed was tennis shoes instead of boots, and nobody seems to empty their pockets….

          From the health angle, I am “supposed to” be under 140.
          I was that, in the Navy– and looking back at pictures, and at the health indicators, I was not healthy. My weight was low enough to be inducing hormonal problems– but my BMI was fine!

          1. when they were fussing about my BMI in the army, one of the crustier NCOs (E-6 , ex Pershing missile specialist) pointed out to me that when Arnold was Mr Universe, BMI said he was obese.

            1. :sympathy:
              Constant response to the point your E-6 made:
              “You’re not Arnold!”
              Sane counter response:
              “I’m not a desk jockey who struggles to lift a fifteen pound bag of flour, or gets out of breath walking up a flight of stairs, either!”

              1. well, i was failing bmi but passsing tape tests, at that point i had been on crutches for 3 months and my shoulders were bulky as heck.

        2. My internist always tells me I need to lose weight, but stopped leaning on it when I mentioned my bench-squat-dead lift weights and cardio routine. Not so much on the shoulder press, but as a female with a history of back and shoulder problems, easy does it.

        3. Yeah, BMI is stupid. It has to have been calculated using a very homogenous and small population (in number and in physical size). Doesn’t even remotely account for normal variations in body type, let alone additional muscle mass.

          As a child and teen, my BMI would probably have been “ideal.” I was tall, but mostly skin and bones. In my mid to late 20s, I bulked out a lot, and I mean a lot — gained 100 lbs, almost all of it muscle, and not because I tried to build it. Very active, aerobically fit, reasonably lean…and somehow still an “unhealthy” weight? I mean, how can *anybody* take that chart seriously?

          It’s just a different body type, is all. People on both sides of the family have large frames, and I also have the short legs/long torso thing from my dad’s side, where we all run heavy for our height. That’s our normal.

          I can carry a lot of weight without it spilling over. It’s spilling over a bit now (smile), as I’ve hit my 50s and gone sedentary, and you could accurately call me obese (I prefer OFWG)…but my 300 lbs. is not a small man’s 300. Heck, you want to see somebody that *really* pegs the BMI chart, my son runs 6’5″/350. 🙂

          1. When I was at the best weight of my life, bicycling 8-10 hours a week (training for racing) and thin enough that my sister, on a visit back from college asked my mother “what is he doing to himself?”, I had a BMI that put me in the “overweight” category.

            Now, ice skating 6-8 hours a week–intensive skating, actual training and working elements not jut casual recreational skating–and my BMI says “obese”.

            Yeah, color me skeptical. (To engage in a bit of understatement.)

          2. yeah, its meant for a runner’s physique, which they discovered circa 2005 is not actually what the Army needs….

            1. The problem with BMI and weight studies is sure; you can starve a rat at 60% of its normal caloric intake, and it will live for 50% longer and with fewer cancers. And some preliminary voluntary studies by human researchers is supporting that finding. What they don’t tell you is that said researchers are miserable excuses for human beings, deriving their only joy from their personal research. The purpose of life is to grow and reproduce. Starving yourself for longer life is antithetical to that purpose.

              However, proper weight for me is the point where my back and joints don’t hurt, I don’t run out of breath going up and down stairs, and my doctor doesn’t keep raising my BP meds.

    3. The problem isn’t White Supremacy. The problem is how the Left defines White Supremacy, and then accepts that definition. The Left defines White Supremacy as anything having to deal with Western Culture; that being epitomized by the average culture of the United States of America from approximately 1860 through 1960.

      Health, technology, personal wealth, national infrastructure grew due to the cultural and socio-political-economic environment of that time in the U.S., faster and higher than any nation in history. Racial equality went from slavery to middle class or better for those willing and able to work, save, and plan for the future. What didn’t work was the “corrective programs” implemented in conjunction with civil rights laws.

      Those “corrections” were designed to encourage dependence on the government, not independence of self. Creeping totalitarianism, aided and abetted by socialist distortion of Christian values, is what drives that vehicle. And White Supremacy is just another buzz word used by the Left to disenfranchise even more of those exercising what little freedom they have left.

      What angers me is the core dishonesty of those promoting it who know it’s a lie. And the anger mixed with pity at those who buy into those lies because they are too ignorant, lazy, or stupid to see them.

      1. If we take the Left’s definitions of ‘racism’ or ‘white supremacy’ at face value, the objective reality is that left defined racism and white supremacy are good things.

        It is only using definitions of racism and white supremacy that are from outside the left that the objective reality is clearly that racism and white supremacy are bad things.

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