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sick...snow...sick of snow...
March 15, 2017

I think I got a bad beef. Spouse decided late Saturday afternoon that he couldn't live without having an Italian beef from Portillo's so we ran down to Gurnee for an early supper. That is the worst Portillo's I've ever been in. It's not any busier than any other location, but somehow all the other ones manage to keep the trash emptied and the tables wiped and the floors mopped. And, incidentally, the food good. At this one, my beef was bland, barely warm, and tasted 'off'. The fries were hot, but absolutely dredged in salt. Spouse disagreed, but whatever. It was unpleasant.

And about to get moreso. From the middle of Saturday night until about 10:00 am Monday, I was a sick cookie. I stayed home, needless to say. Stayed home Tuesday, too, because even though the puke & diarrhea had stopped, the nausea was still in full swing.

And to top it off, we had a nasty snowstorm that hit us intermittently from Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon, and left, all told, about a foot and a half of white hell on the ground.

Spouse was having kittens about snow removal when he left for work Monday, and because I felt guilty about staying home (yes, I had ample good reason to do so, and no, that doesn't shut up the voices in my head that tell me I'm a worthless gold-bricker. I had a shitty upbringing, and oh-effing-well) I cleared all the sidewalks, car, & driveway of snow on Monday, after I stopped having to run to the potty every 20 minutes.

Spouse was relieved, needless to say. Didn't make much of a difference, though--we woke up to even worse conditions on Tuesday. I got up at my usual time, notified work that I was staying home again, and then while Spouse was getting ready for work, I cleared everything all over again. I figured I'd get it done and go back to bed.

Well, you can only get it done if it STOPS SNOWING. I had to do it all over again at lunch time. Plus clearing the awnings, because by this time, they were starting to creak from the load of snow they were carrying.

And even though I went out into bright sunshine and a clear sky to do it--for the third damned time--by the time I'd cleared the porch steps, it was snowing like a sunuvabiatch AGAIN. Fortunately, that was the last gasp of the lake-effect snow, and it didn't last long. It was getting hard to find places to put the snow, so I am rather glad it stopped when it did. But then the skies cleared again, the sun came out, the temp went up, and by the time Spouse came home, the walks were dry. So Mr. Whineypants, who bitched and moaned and carried on about all the snow, actually didn't have to clean anything off but his own car.

And today was clear, fortunately, since I pretty much had to go to work, or get a doctor's excuse. I woke up at 2 am (or as I like to call it--ONE FREAKING AM, and fug you, time change!) but lack of sleep is no excuse. I put some of that time to good use, though. I plugged into my meditation/hypnosis recording and listened to it. The persistent insomnia wasn't overpowered by it, but I got in an extra session--and I actually got to hear it all the way through. Plus, it stopped the damned maelstrom of work stress and anxiety overdrive that was swirling around my brain. I did get some rest, if not sleep.

At least it is good exercise. You would think, with all that strenuous activity and a violent stomach bug, I would have lost some weight! But this week, according to my weigh-in, I lost nothing--and possibly re-gained! I think that scale in the locker room at work is terminally effed up from the way they drag it around when they clean, and never calibrate it.





Reading: Just finished Dr. Ellen (1908), by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins. I didn't like it, although I liked parts of it a lot, and I really wanted to like it. The title character was too hard to get a handle on. She wasn't the main character, which was annoying to me for some reason. Plus, it really kind of petered out at the end. The big reveal of something that was a secret was both a surprise and a let-down (I thought the character in question was going to turn out to be mentally challenged, actually.) I was more interested in the peripheral characters than it the main ones, actually. The itinerant preacher, the local horse whisperer, and the grieving father who had just lost his little girl were all more interesting to me. And some casual sexism that nagged at me: even when a character seemed to accept the fact that Ellen was a doctor, she was still frequently referred to as"Mrs." Roderick, and not called her due title of DOCTOR Roderick. Not my favorite JWT novel, anyway.
Now I'm starting Mothers and Fathers (1910), also by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins. Described (by a bookseller) as a "Collection of short stories dealing with mothers, fathers and children, flashing with humor and touched by genuine pathos."

Listening: Nothing. I was going to listen to the radio this morning, but my least favorite DJ is subbing for my most favorite DJ. Somehow the off button got really appealing all of a sudden.

Inked Up: No changes. I've barely had time to uncap a pen lately--even my notes are hurried ballpoint scribbling. Savage. But it is hard to write them dry when you don't get to write with them at all!

recede - proceed

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