What’s Been Going On

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I’m going to propagate this across my substacks. I keep meaning to post there, but haven’t for several months.

Of course, I haven’t been exactly well for several months. I realized yesterday that I still haven’t opened and read the Christmas cards people sent us. I’ve also only cleaned I think 4 times since October, not the normal weekly cleaning.

So, why?

Well, when we landed I was very ill with pneumonia. That took me to the beginning of October to beat.

And then my thyroid went sideways, partly because of the stress leading up to the illness and, doubtless, the illness itself.

So that took till January to start getting treated. I’m now on the lowest dose, and the hypothyroidism symptoms have resolved somewhat (yes, I had thyroid problems before, but this is a different and more obvious type) I was due for a follow up early March, but I was very ill and coughing a lot, so it’s been postponed till May.

Then I was okay by the end of March… And I got ill again, and that’s been the last three weeks. A little better, much worse, almost well and it does a u-turn.

Now, this might be ALL the thyroid, because hypothyroidism messes with your immune system, or it might be… who knows?

It’s probably not cancer, just to get that out of the way. My tests all came back clean. This is particularly important because my brother has lung cancer, so of course my parents are convinced I must too, because they think in narrativium.

However, the hypothyroidism does things like make my mouth very dry, which means I wake up several times in the night, which also leaves me susceptible.

Again, this is by way of explaining why you haven’t yet seen the book finished in October. (Okay, there’s another thing there, which is that HOW to revise it beyond minor tweaks, actually hit me only a month ago, and I did about 1/4 before I got sick. I’m probably just about well enough to resume that, and release e-arcs and put the first volume of that book (well, it’s too large to BIND) on pre-order.

The voice remains too wonky to do readings. I don’t know if it’s the cold or the thyroid or yes.

There have been other things, mostly under life disruption and work, but honestly, the recurring illness is mostly what’s messing me up.

Older son has suggested — not ordered, which is rare enough — that perhaps I need a vacation. Perhaps all the dislocations, extra work, etc. of the last three years have taken their toll, and I just need a week of not doing much.

Which in theory is an excellent idea, except it requires us to GO somewhere, because if I’m in the house, that’s half of my work, and my husband doesn’t have the vacation days he can take and… well…

Anyway. If you’re on my substacks, I am better, or at least in one of the upper plateaus of whatever the heck this is, and I’ll resume feeding them, I SWEAR. I might figure out an alternate to the fiction substack for next year. Like, a subscription on the blog, now that wordpress allows it. Let me investigate it. Just because I like the interaction here (or on discord, even) better than on substack. That would also make it easier, since it reduces the number of things I have to keep track of.

The decision hasn’t been made yet. And I might keep all of it. We’ll see.

Anyway, I’m giving myself to the end of April and trying to take things easy, but I promise posting on the substacks will resume and the edits will get done. Because enough is enough. And I feel like I’m letting all the subscribers and the people waiting for the book down.

And I’ll try to post like a normal human being on my blog, too, instead of letting things slip. A measure of how weird it’s gotten, my friend Charlie gives me a post a month for Mad Genius Club. Last week I cued his post up, made some edits, put an image up. Well, I thought I had. When he told me he couldn’t find it to link, I went to MGC….

Either I posted it on someone else’s blog (Look, who knows?) or I did all that and then closed the window without posting.

That’s how weird things have gotten. Particularly at night, when I am tired. Reminds me of the bad year in 2015 when I’d find myself waking up in bed without any memory of having come up from my (then) basement office. I’d go downstairs and find out that I’d left the computer on, or sometimes a manuscript on the stand, with changes to be entered (Which often meant the cats had spread it all over the floor.) I called it “the veil of darkness” in the sense that my mind blanked out, and my body went on and did things.

It’s not QUITE so bad. It’s mostly the things I don’t do that I thought I did. (Particularly annoying is when I DREAM of doing things, because then I have the work TWICE.)

I’ve also learned to stop and go to bed when I start feeling “fuzzy”. If you miss me at the aggregator blog, that’s why.

Oh, I should say I’m not losing my mind, in the sense that I’m not forgetting things, beyond the usual ADHD. It’s more that I have very little energy and am at least a little tired at all times. Which means that I do basic triage (which is why I haven’t managed to READ the Christmas cards, yet. ) When I’m well, I’m trying to overdue work. And when I’m not well, I’m trying to do the minimum to not have it all collapse on me. Stuff like doctor’s appointments, vets appointments (one of our cats is terminal and getting much worse, so that takes up a high priority bit of time, too. Not quite at the point of our helping him over the bridge, but he requires medicine and such.)

Also to be fair, this last cold-like-substance got both sons, healthy men in the prime of their lives, and they both still have residual cough. It even managed to get Dan sick for three days, and Dan NEVER gets sick. So this was some kind of serious illness. Not the flu, no. Not Covid, either. Just a cold, but a heck of a cold.

Look, this will resolve itself. I have an endocrinologist appointment first week of May. That should give us some answers.

I have an appointment with my regular doctor next week. I think what I have going (beyond stress and tiredness, which I admit might be part of it, since last year was awful) is a synergy between real viruses and my auto-immune. Like, my asthma gets spun up and that makes my colds much worse. So I might need new meds to keep the auto-immune under control. (I can’t take montelucast, it makes me suicidal. It’s a rare side effect, and it hit me. One of the daily inhalers makes me permanently hoarse to the point I can’t make myself heard. And the newest supposedly best one I can’t have because my insurance refuses to pay for it and it’s a ridiculous price.)

Anyway, let me have the rest of this week to be a bit of a flake, and I will do my best to be back in the saddle next Monday, okay?

UPDATE

I figure this warrants an update. I called my CPAP place and got an alarmed phone call back very quickly. They went and checked the stats it calls home. Apparently my tank is either warped or cracked because it’s gotten a leak so high it turns itself off twice an hour or so. They will get me a new tank tomorrow (since they’re closing soon.).
THAT should make a big difference. I’ll keep you updated. IF it works, I might take a couple of days to just sleep….

I mean, I still have a cold/allergies/autoimmune, but sleep makes things a million times worse.

143 thoughts on “What’s Been Going On”

  1. Please do whatever it takes to get yourself to get healthier. [Pleading Look Directed Toward Sarah]

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      1. Get Colonel Kratman to giver her his trademark “not happy with this” look, and his encouragement to Mend Your Ways.

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  2. If you overdue this and kill yourself by overwork, you’ll annoy me. I may have to arrange constant seances to ensure you get no peace in the afterlife, but be forced to keep writing new stuff.

    I have heard of some people trying this for Mark Twain, but I haven’t heard if they’ve been successful.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. I think my beloved had the same stuff. It was the first time since he upped his vitamin D during Covid that he was sick for more than two days. Dry, nasty cough that went on and on for two weeks before beginning to subside. And of course it got worse at night, so getting sleep was rough for both of us. I was really glad when the cough subsided. (Of course then the allergies kicked in for me, but that’s not nearly as bad as the crud).

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      1. Have you both tried the carnivore diet? The YT channel No Carb Life has lots of interviews with people who have healed themselves of various things including autoimmune issues.

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        1. No. I have considered it.
          Weirdly, Dan did really well in low carb. I gained weight and didn’t feel very well. So I went back on carbs. It’s a problem, because honestly he might do better without them.

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            1. I was told the Air Force spent serious megabucks studying pilot hands, determining the average size for gloves, so they could revise sizing standards for better fit.

              As it turns out, almost no Air Force pilots are close to “average” hands. Gloves based on that standard/average didn’t fit anyone, nor did the seemingly logical steps above and below.

              A classic object lesson in military sizes being just two – too big and too small. (and sometimes an item can be “both”)

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        2. I got undeniable results by just dropping “treyf” animals–the ones Leviticus 11 calls “unclean”–from my diet some 30 years ago. (The only one I really miss is bacon. I figure Satan musta snuck into the lab and poured Essence of Yumminess into the Pig recipe.)

          I got 2 or 3 butt-kicker colds per year before; ever since, every 2-3 years I get an inkling that I might be coming down with something, and the next day… “Hmm. Guess not.” The ‘rona passed over my house.

          The usual pushback cites Peter’s dream, as if those dietary laws were just hoops He wanted the Hebrew Children to jump through, which His Son rendered obsolete. I wonder if there’s resistance to the idea that any of G-d’s thou-shalt-not’s are practical pro-tips from the Manufacturer–as if people are reluctant to give any seeming-support to the “cunningly devised fables” argument.

          Anyway, YYMV; all usual disclaimers apply; pork chops won’t make you go to hell; and I’ll scarf down a cheeseburger whenever one wanders into reach.

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            1. Wags hands.

              The whole unclean thing is theorized to be related to parasites. There is a reason why pork and other unclean meat cannot be raw, ever. You couldn’t pay me to eat wild pork, or bear, it is so bad. Most unclean meat is that of omnivores, like pigs and bear, and natures garbage cleaners.

              I like bacon. But it really doesn’t like me these days. We also like a good barbecue, especially pork ribs. Again, it is starting to not like me.

              Have been locations where ribs aren’t pork, but beef. I really miss the lamb (er, mutton) barbecues uncle used to do. (Cubed, then “cold marinated” well in lemon, lime, onion, and spices for a few days, before cooked. It could be eaten raw, not by me, because it had all but been “cooked” in the acidic liquid and spices. Tender when cooked over coals.)

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              1. Pigs and people do easily share parasites and germs. There’s an old idea still current that medieval Europeans kept their livestock inside with the family for security and mutual warmth during the winter nights, which led to Europeans being naturally selected for robust immune systems, and to European zoonoses being selected for easily passing from animals to people. Guns, Germs, and Steel gets much mileage from this idea.

                Still, “my thinking has evolved” away from rationalizations about “why it’s OK now” to do things that He thou-shalt-notted then. It sure wouldn’t have hurt Kilmar the Maryland Father to have taken Leviticus 19:28 a bit more seriously. ;)

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            2. I love BBQ too, and I resent having to double-double check what critter it’s made from–somebody’s always trying to slip me the pig! What’s sauce for a ham is sauce for a lamb, say I. Or Bossie or Bambi or Bullwinkle.

              I do miss my bacon sandwiches, though. Half a pound of bacon fried almost to the point of crispy cremation, on wheat toast, slathered with butter and mayo… Drat! Thirty-plus years since, and I STILL dream about bacon now and then!

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      2. Get your house tested for mold. Have the vents given the full anti-mold treatment. I had one of those lingering respiratory illnesses, and, because my husband received a mailer with a coupon, it finally cleared up.

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    2. That thing knocked the Reader flat for the first three weeks in March, and the cough still lingers a bit now. The Reader has not recovered his strength or his mental focus from it.

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              1. *Hugs!* I’ve got the image – one you came up with, is Very Cool – and as soon as I finish the edits and formatting I’ll be able to get the template.

                …So probably not this week, recovering from crud and now dentist. Aooouch.

                (Did get good news at dentist, though. Just a bone spur! Nothing more serious! Whew.)

                Liked by 1 person

                1. What I’ve been doing, when I can’t work, is do covers. I recovered Sword and Blood. In the process I found the almost finished abandoned sequel and figured out what made me balk hard.
                  It’s going Libertarian. A Libertarian dark vampire fantasy. At the time still writing for trad I knew they’d lose their minds, so I took fright. Head>desk. I’ll finish it.

                  Liked by 1 person

        2. The Reader broke a crown a week into said crud. When the dentist asked me why I took so long to make an appointment to get it fixed (actually replaced), I coughed gently and smiled.

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          3. I broke a lower incisor the Saturday before major knee surgery. The good news was the little thread hanging from the busted piece; it was an auto-endo. Had to wait until I recovered enough to drive myself, then went for a partial. Naturally, when getting the precision mold for the partial, the tooth next to the missing one decided to stay with the mold. Again, auto-endo, so no pain after the Crack-o-Doom.

            All four lower incisors needed to be removed. For various reasons, I have really poor tooth-roots and have had a tooth decay between the tooth and the gum. People joke about bad English teeth. I’m 3/4s, so simply shrug.

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            1. We had heavily calcified water where I lived as a child, also lot of iron. Mom provided fluoride supplements. Surprised I don’t trip magnetometers. No cavities since quitting that garbage FrostedSugarJunkWhatevs “breakfast cereal”. (that crap has got to go. Better we sell beer to kids than that stuff.)

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              1. I developed gum disease*, and between surgery and a somewhat overenthusiastic post-op brushing routine, I have tooth roots that aren’t well embedded in gums. Haven’t had a problem in 4 years, despite wearing partials (where getting rid of gunk that got around the partials is a must).

                ((dot–WPDE and its ASSterisk handling)) Things I learned that needed to be done (and how to do them properly) for proper tooth care came a bit late in my life. That and smoking a pipe for a dozen years…

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            2. I had to cancel my crown prep this week because last Thursday I had an “episode”. Tried to get high score on the heart monitor so I got to ride the Loud Bus to the worst place possible to spend the night

              Still picking glue off my torso this morning. It’s just a rumor that I was abducted by aliens and forced into a nude jello wrestling match with an octopoid.

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              1. I got pretty gooey when I went in for “it only hurts when I breathe”. Have had a couple of trips in the back of the ambulance (for a very brief time, I was on a crew, but the head EMT didn’t like my tentative driving, and there wasn’t time for me to get used to the beast. I’m better in small cars than a box truck…), but both times were code I. The loud bit was in the first ride when they transfered me from the gurney to a wheelchair. The loud was me. Pegged my pain meter with a busted quadriceps tendon. (They ran a blood sugar test and got about 180 mg/dl, about 2.5X my fasting readings. Paramedic said that was normal for trauma. Didn’t know that.)

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                1. type 2 is annoying, because it isn’t just WHAT I eat, or how much, but the ORDER I eat it.

                  hint: restaurants bring bread or chips before the meal. It’s a trap. Eat the salad first

                  Actually, eat celery sticks and drink a glass of water before you leave the house.

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        1. I’ve wondered if we picked it up at ConFinement. First thought was it came from the restaurant, because our son got sick, then my beloved, then me. But the timing would be good for the con as well.

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            3. I have a different crud. Stuff from sinuses (whatever the plural is) goes down my throat and frequently into the lungs. Morning coughing is wet, once I have enough liquid to thin the stuff.

              I think some went deep and caused February’s bronchitis/pleurisy, but the antibiotic/steroid for the lungs didn’t help the sinus issue. Not ruling out allergy, but I’m not eager to get the relevant immunotherapy shots. A neighbor did that, and got talked into a clotshot and several boosters. My Hell-nope is pretty strong, but paranoia can be a survival trait.

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                    1. I did that for years. It helps SOME. But honestly, it is amazing what swiping it on a cotton ball (really, just part of one) and stuffing it in your ears can do.

                      and regarding Montelukast; considering one of the side effects is to hallucinate / hear voices– I’m amazed it didn’t make you pass the Chandrasakhar limit and create a singularity. 😬

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                    2. I don’t actually HEAR voices for writing. It’s just…. The thoughts are not quite mine? I figure Pratchett had the same issue. He was obsessed with “remember which voice is yours.”
                      But APPARENTLY suicidal is usually a side effect in KIDS. A known one. there is a lawsuit from parents who lost teens. They weren’t warned.
                      I’m not a kid, so it’s a VERY rare side effect.
                      I just spiraled further and further, and if I hadn’t had training watching my brain go funky for years I might not be here. But I realized I was responding to stimulus that didn’t exist. So I started going through meds and such. And Montelukast “can cause this after x years of taking” ( I think two.) I was RIGHT on it.
                      Anyway my brain is WEIRD. Adderal makes me paranoid and aggressive so I can’t use it. ETC.
                      But the Montelukast is a problem, because heck it really worked for the asthma.

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                    3. Montelukast was actually prescribed to me a few months back for allergies, without a run-down of the possible side-effects. I ran those down myself, stopped right there, and tossed the pills like they were on fire.

                      Long story short: I had a very narrow scrape once just because I inhaled wheat allergens. (Walked into a Panera Bread to get something for a friend, a mistake I will never make again.) If I had’t been chatting with someone online a few hours later when I started spiralling down and realized I needed to take a massive dose of antihistamines right the heck now–

                      Yeah. No. Anything that might do the wacky to my brain is too big a risk.

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  5. I know “thoughts and prayers” are often met with snorts of derision, but that’s literally the best I can offer from such a distance.

    …Well. That, and a promise that if you don’t get this firmly in hand, I will start a rumor online that you pick your nose, bite your toenails (or worse, that you bite Dan’s) and that you have yet to EVER put your shopping cart back in the corral. And that you occasionally derive glee from clotheslining elderly nuns. That’s right.

    Don’t test me, ma’am.

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  6. Virtual hugs.

    Take care of yourself like you take care of your sons, their wives, and Dan.

    Sorry you are sick.

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  8. The vodka is strong but the caviar is off, as the punch line goes; sorry for all your health troubles.

    (the fuzzy tired feeling I actually do get that too- I was thinking it’s a by product of AdHD but who knows)

    re the hypothyroidism- ask the endo on his thoughts about getting T3 med (cytomel) in addition to T4 med (levoxy)

    the coughing – ivermectin works surprisingly well on respiratory stuff

    most of all, prayers for you. May St Raphael the Archangel, heavenly doctor, bring you hea.

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  12. Hope you are able to get some rest, even if it means you skip long posts here.

    Are you using a vaporizer at night? Even in spring it can be helpful, if the air is still dry. I’m in the Deep South, and was using mine until a few days ago.

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    1. Vaporizers (Humidifiers? Is there a difference?) are great. I’ve had mine on constantly since I got sick in February, and it’s the thing that makes the most difference in whether I wake up coughing with a dry throat or not.

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        1. Yes, they designed the emitter with a shallow cup just in front of the steam opening that you were supposed to fill with Vick Vaporub.

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      1. My CPAP doesn’t phone home (and I got it through my regular doc and Bank of RCPete), but I use OSCAR to read the memory card to tell me what’s going on. I have “clear airway apnea”, which supposedly is supposed to have something to do with heart failure, but my cardiologist says no.

        If you have a burning desire to know this info, and have a removable data card, see this https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/ to download. PC supported directly. I built a Linux copy several years ago.

        [Note: I haven’t looked at newer program revisions. The only machines I knew about that phoned home still had data cards.]

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  13. Thanks for valuing our opinion enough to keep us updated. I noticed you only did two items on Instapundit for last night and wondered if you were okay.

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      1. Have you been tested for Whooping Cough? It is going around. You can get *Whooping Cough even if you have been vaccinated, or rather “are current” (where “current” is < 10 years). Especially with your autoimmune issues.

        (*) Reason to know. I cringe when it is endemic in our area because son & I both seem to be susceptible.

        Coughing fit is an accurate description and it hurts to cough. Some people cough only lasts a few days.

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          1. So, I was preaching to the choir, so to speak. Sorry.

            Then, not whooping cough.

            “You’d think I was immune?“

            –

            Can relate to that one.

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      1. My favorite lines from that:

        “But it wasn’t a fair fight!”

        “They are dead and Cerberus is alive. It doesn’t get any fairer than that.”

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      2. Nah. Our reasonably friendly local aardvark. Who serves bonbons. (He keeps the ant ones for himself.)

        I think Fluffy may be preparing a BBQ. (Look, when the dragon wants to be named Fluffy, he’s named Fluffy.)

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  16. I also got the bad cold last month, which is very rare for me. The fuzzy head persisted for weeks until I tried taking a Creatine pill, then things popped into focus.

    I hope you feel better!

    ps Are you planning on making the trip to Son of Silvercon this year?

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  18. I presume you are tested regularly, but overnight oximetry to screen or monitor obstructive sleep apnea would be wise. Hypoxia fucks with thyroid, among other things, and clouds the mind.

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    1. I have a CPAP. I found out last night it’s REALLY malfunctioning. (Like randomly stopping.) It’s six months old. I need to call the people. COULD be the whole problem, honestly. New CPAP and problems coincided.

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      1. While it is Chinese, the Wellue Finger ring oximeter can be worn overnight easily and will give you a nice report on oxygen levels. It’s pricier than a finger tip oximeter, but it won’t fall off. If you are on CPAP or anyone with respiratory issues should be able to monitor their oxygen levels at home to catch these things earlier rather than later.

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        1. Yeah, we found out because I woke up in the middle of the night with a coughing fit, and it was completely stopped, with blue lights flashing and said something about a fatal error. I couldn’t read the manual in the middle of the night, so I just unplugged and plugged back in. It has sometimes not started automatically, and if I have any humidity at all it fills the line with water, so I’ve been on no humidity which is probably a problem. I’m Mediterranean. We’re practically fish.

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              1. Been 28 years but still remember getting off the plane in Orlando and being smacked in the face with the humidity, in February. In addition, it had just rained and “cleared out the worst”. Could see the ground steaming. We’d come in on the red eye from Portland (raining and chill factor) though Arizona (very hot, but a “dry heat”) to Orlando.

                We can have humidity in Oregon. Honest. Two clarifications however:

                1. Usually called “rain”.
                2. If rain isn’t involved, then we can have heat index of say 70 …. actual temp 60, “feels like” 70 … then it rains.

                In Oregon we don’t usually breath water in the air. Even if it is raining.

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                1. I lived far west Clatsop County. Where the local stations broadcast repeated warnings of Heat Emergency if temp above 79 F which happened once or twice every few years. Where you power wash your siding for moss and algae 3 times a year until you give up and paint house dull green. Where it is only a semantic trifle to describe rain without wind as fog, mist or drizzle. And where your sure as heck do breath the rain when its windy if you are facing the right direction.

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                  1. Cowlitz county wasn’t quite that bad. Although being on the river (Longview) interesting:

                    • Watch that thunder & lightening go up the river (east to south) in the AM.
                    • Oh, look here it comes back down river (north & west), in the PM. Reason for knowing? Weyerhouser docks & yard shutdown as soon as the storms could be heard. Hunker down & wait, or call it and go home (log scaling).
                    • Then while I wasn’t working any longer (thank you spotted owl and mountain, seriously “thank you”) watch it from on top of the hill. (Top of Columbia Heights.)

                    Regarding breathing rain and if there is sand, sand? Yes, ran into that a few times on beaches at Florence, Reedsport, and along the highway north of Florence over looking the basalt cliffs.

                    FYI. Hubby hates the Oregon coast. I’ve related the story before. Hubby is from San Diego. He came up to Oregon State for college. When he moved into the dorm, before school started, his roommate and others on the floor said “let’s go to the coast”. He wore his usual beach attire. You know – shorts, short sleeve shirt, sandals – and …. proceeded to both freeze, and abraded by the sand. You know, a normal September coastal day when it is hot and little to no wind in the valley. Doesn’t take far to get off the beach, most coastal towns, like Reedsport, Florence, Camp Baker, where hwy 101 is, to get where it is a lot warmer, exception are the towns that ARE right on the beach/ocean shoals or bay, then there is no relief.

                    FWIW. Raised Lane county, Willamette valley.

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                2. Try Missouri in late June. I wanted to install a machete on the front fender of my motorcycle to cut through the air. Muggy don’t begin to convey the reality.

                  Then there’s the desert in Nevada and California. One July afternoon I stopped at every rest stop between St. George and Barstow, drank gallons of water and sweated it all right back out. There are places where light-colored banks on both sides concentrate sunlight on the road. Like riding through a parabolic mirror.

                  “But it’s a DRY heat!” — logo on a T-shirt showing two skeletons in lawn chairs. :-D

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                  1. Oh, yes. Elevation doesn’t help either … Montana/Wyoming. Every time we visit I am applying hand cream and lip balm like it is going out of style. I rarely use either at home (it can happen, but usually when it is dry and cold).

                    Humidity. Florida was my first experience. Second and third were National Jamboree 2001 and 2005. 2001 it was difficult to handle, but I managed. 2005? I failed to handle it at all. Did better than some, if only because I was too stubborn to collapse. 2001 got to the hotel in Washington DC, immediately hit the mall monuments. 2005 I stayed in, did laundry. 2005 I only walked to the museums and toured those (again). I did NOT sign up to staff a 3rd time (there are those that made/make a career out of staffing). These days, with the venue change, I wouldn’t be allowed to staff as I wouldn’t meet the physical requirements (not tall enough for my weight).

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                    1. My visit to Epcot in June led to an attraction I could do without, the infirmary. Disney keeps a giant tub full of water and ice for heat prostration. Dip, a towel in, slap it around your head and neck…

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                    2. There is a reason we went in February. We were able to use the water parks. But froze during our Atlantic portion, Cape Canaveral. It rained, hard. Were not dressed for it. The bus driver joked even the gaters and manatees were hiding (did see one of each, eventually).

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                3. Once, it was in the 90s here. Then it dropped to 70s and humid. I’m dying here, I’m dying. . . .

                  I know a woman who moved from Arizona to Pennsylvania. She had been afraid of the winters. It was the summers that shocked her.

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  19. Dear Sarah,

    I want to read your stories. I vastly enjoy them, especially the Dyce Dare ones.

    But you have to be healthy to write — believe me, I KNOW this!

    So, from a purely mercenary position, please get better. I promise I’ll wait.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Hang in there!!! You say you should be getting better but then it goes boom again. Maybe you do need something.

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  21. Oh I do hope you feel better. Our family came down with this very odd cold and we’re all convinced it’s an engineered virus. If the Dark Ones had won the election, we’d be back in lockdowns and forced masking and a new round of killer injections because of the “pandemic.”

    Instead, we’ve been subjected to this mysterious bad cold and cough that lingers. But it does go away. I am amazed that I get up in the morning now and I’m energized and ready to roar. After a solid month of feeling awful, I thought I’d never feel great again. But I do, and I know you will too. Take care of yourself. I’m sending many prayers your way.

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  23. “I called it “the veil of darkness” in the sense that my mind blanked out, and my body went on and did things.

    It’s not QUITE so bad. It’s mostly the things I don’t do that I thought I did. (Particularly annoying is when I DREAM of doing things, because then I have the work TWICE.)”

    I do that, and thought I was the only one. My head stuck in a story, or planning things out, and then realize I’m halfway through something. Or thought I did something already, or dreamed it, and find out it ain’t done yet. Annoying is right.

    Take your time. Do at least one little thing every day that helps, even if it’s sort clothes or wash dishes or something. That seems to help, even when I’m three quarters dead.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. I hope you get the health situation sorted – and I can wait for you to feel better enough to tackle all sorts of projects!

    Jamie and the Misoites send their affection and good wishes!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Miz Kitty wont do “lapcat”. She will, however, jam herself against me on an office chair or couch, and loves to sleep on my hip or chest if I am in bed. She gets extra clingy when I am sick. If I have a fever, she is stuck to me like a magnet on a fridge. I will wake up surrounded by 2-8 cat toys.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Popcorn the Hateful does not snuggle and if anybody says they’ve ever seen her snuggle my wife it’s a damned lie. However, especially since we got Demon Puppy, she is now basically living in my home office and so when I am working there, she will climb up on the improvised cat bed next to me (cat bed stretched across two Styrofoam coolers used to ship insulin) and zonk out, with an occasional trip to my lap to be worshipped and petted. But she isn’t snuggling.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. If I have a fever, she is stuck to me like a magnet on a fridge.

          Of course; the cat will automatically find the warmest pillow available… 😸😸😸

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Which is especially funny as she also likes the “MyPillow” cool to the touch pillows.

            She is one Odd kitty.

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  27. Week 3 of my cold. not ill feeling but exhausted, bit of cough, and brown/yellow snotworks, but not enough to plug. Just a sniffle here and there and a cough from time to time.
    Go away already!

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  28. Please take of yourself fellow odds, don’t burnout and crash.

    (Get off the cross, we need you and the wood!)

    No one in the immediate family that hasn’t been vaxxed, follows the IMA or similar protocols in a timely manner, and gets proper rest, has any lingering crud that last beyond a few days since “Covid” was unleased. Last major episode was the spouse getting “something” in the Fall of 2019. Now we are prepped.

    We have a large linen closet with two shelves full of supplements, OTC, the good stuff like Ivermectin, and other treatments. Any symptom or possible exposure triggers a partial or full protocol treatment response. Having Ivermectin on hand has also prevented a stay in the hospital for an infection unrelated to Covid or flu.

    Plus we have switched to an anti-inflammatory diet, mostly Keto based, avoiding almost all US flour and processed foods, etc… Greatest fear is Big Ag and Big Food slipping mRNA in the food supply. Currently shopping another freezer and generator so we can source beef, pork, and chicken in bulk directly from responsible farms instead of Big Meat.

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  29. If you’ve been given antibiotics, your gut biome is probably all messed up. That can result in a lot of the symptoms you are describing. Hit up YouTube for info on “sibo yogurt” and “L. reuteri” for details. Best thing about it is that it can’t hurt, and it may very well help!

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  30. yup, the older we get the more stuff we get to deal with, everybody has some issue or another,

    i get in a good doom loop with decongestants and sinus sprays this time of year, all the blooming stuff pushes me over the edge, then its the if i use my sinus spray i can breathe at night and maybe sleep, but then i get to where i used it for too long so go to claratin D but then i feel like im in the clouds somewhere and then i cant sleep. 🙄

    seems never ending, and that all along with faithfully using the inhaler and crossing the fingers that the asthma doesnt kick in cause thats a whole nother kinda fun.

    Like

    1. The sinus spray works great until it suddenly doesn’t. Or worse, you have to use it to be as bad off as you were before. I save it for actual illness so I can keep ONE nostril unclogged.

      Frequent Saline flushes help.

      And a tip from my friend: Vicks doesn’t just go on your chest. Sinuses clogged? Rub it on your face. Put it in your ears.

      Liked by 1 person

  32. I’m in the middle of revising stuff from months ago, too. Fixed the big plot hole, derailed a subplot, fixed that, minor typos (ohhh, the typos), and now stuck on the beginning of the next arc (book 2, if it was print, because it’s almost 600pages deep now).

    I know WHAT is going to happen. Lots of that. The swing of the arc, the character growth, the growing depth and complexity. But the how in the next section is the kicker. My gut says this should be a pause chapter. Something to build on before the next action sequence. But the writer brain just wants to throw a wench in the mix and pedal to the effing metal, and it’s throwing a tantrum.

    I need to check out another writer brain, this one’s defective. Along with that, throw in some new knees, a new back, and heck, new joints that aren’t half busted. I want my sci-fi medicine, not authoritarian dystopia that we just trashed almost a half a year ago! Or magic. Magic would do.

    How the readers haven’t hung me from the rafters to use as a piñata yet, I’ll never know.

    Like

      1. Same. I’ve rewritten the chapter (mumblety) times. Doofus is giving me the evil eye. Getting up and pacing while trying to get the damned words to just link up like they should is moving his napping spot, and he’s peeved.

        Liked by 1 person

  33. Thyroid issues, ugh. Been there, done that, have the full collectors edition extended hardbound 12 part series. It amazes me how much an itty bitty thing being off can have such and impact, with such weirdly different results. To low, to high, woah dude its doing what? and the treatment seems to be almost always the same. To low, have some Lexathy*. To high, have some Lexathy* Oh it’s growing from overwork? Take a chunk out! And have some more Lexathy* . I have stories, 30plus years worth. Which I just did the math on. Uh, how did I get old?

    Take care, get better.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Neighbor’s adult daughter (mid/late 20’s?) just had surgery to remove one thyroid due to cancer. At that time supposedly only on the one side. FWIW the daughter is a nurse locally. There has been a lot of cancer scares in her co-workers. Mostly breast cancer. One died leaving behind a family, husband and two small children (3 years and 6 month).

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  34. I know for myself that as long as I am in the house I am inundated with need to dos subconsciously.

    I once took a four day vacation to a state park one hour away. (Alabama was a genius about their state parks and made them all resorts, with hotels, cabins, and golf courses, and they generate their own revenue.)

    Is there a nearby resort sort of place you could go to fully relax?

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Sarrah, is there an inexpensive hotel or B&B where you can take a local vacation close enough for your husband to join you evenings? Leave phone and computer at home. Have husband call the place with anything real important. Then enjoy doing nothing and unstress yourself.

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  36. Sarah, as my coworkers from India might say, “Do the needful“.

    We’ll be here waiting with fistfuls of cash to buy the new stuff when it is available.

    Please just make as certain as possible that YOU are available.

    No more stress is authorized.

    You’ve exceeded the maximum allowance for the 2020s.

    And now I need to tell a bad medical joke:

    “Dogs cannot give you a MRI; but CATscan.”

    …

    I’ll show myself out. https://i.makeagif.com/media/2-15-2018/TAC6BJ.mp4

    Liked by 1 person

  38. Dear Democrats;
    I’ll tell you exactly when you lost the people in America, when you decreed from up high that Biden was done and replaced him with Kamalaladingdong. You ruled like a King, no input from the people, no input from the voters, this way or die. And it exposed your hypocrisy in such a blatant way that even your brain did voters couldn’t ignore it. You didn’t remove Biden from office, but he couldn’t run for re-election right? And your f*cking whores in the media covered it all up, that is why the media and lying traitorous whore Democrats are being treated as they should.

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    1. Plus quadrupling down on DTS/Orangemanmustdie pre, post, and ongoing. Or why donks are at, (something like) 21% approval rating, and dropping. I think the only reason it is that high is because they are only counting themselves and dead voters for approval rating.

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