Creeping Crud, Having Crept, Creeps On

Our family has become a sort of plaque ship as one person after another comes down with the crud. Steve has succumbed to its siren song, my daughter who just returned to work is down for the count, grandchildren, and even the other grandmother, have been overtaken by illness. I'm on Day 6. I think I'm feeling better then I develop a new symptom. However, I  found the energy to send out a half-baked four pages to my writing group last night, fulfilling my obligation to submit, even if it did come up a little short. I'd written 9 pages but found the last five pages to be sorely lacking in development and held onto them. I'm sick but I still have my pride vanity. Today, I wrote four pages for a memoir contest that's coming up. If chosen, a professional actor will read your pages on stage. Worth a try and I only have to come up with 1500 words. This is actually a challenge since writing any type of concise story takes more work than you might think. On top of all this exhausting work, I made beef stroganoff for dinner, and briefly babysat my granddaughter who slept most of the time. I am woman. Hear me cough.

A buzzard who is just biding his time.

The Creeping Crud Strikes Again

My daughter was the first to come down with the flu. A trip to the doctor confirmed that, despite the flu shot, she had become sick. The good news is that she would have been much, much sicker and for longer, if she hadn't had the preventative shot. Then her daughter got sick with the same symptoms, and she also had been inoculated.

On Monday, I thought I just hadn't slept well the night before, but now I have the same creeping crud. I'm babysitting my granddaughter, if you can call lying on the couch while watching a succession of Tinkerbell movies babysitting.  I can't watch my little 3-month old grandson either, so the inconvenience of the illness spreads out like the ripples in a little plastic cup of Nyquil.

The weather has been sunny and beautiful, if you don't count the strong winds blasting through Colorado lately. I tottered out into the yard yesterday, just long enough to fill the bird feeder and the bird bath. Then I came inside and recovered from the exertion for two hours.

On the plus side, I can read some of the time, and I finished reading a friend's manuscript that  I volunteered to read as a first reader. It is a very good story, and a true one, so I may have stimulated a few brain cells while feeling like a truck just ran over me. (a truck as opposed to a Prius...big difference)

We watched the movie All is Lost last night. It was an excellent movie that totally confirmed my belief that it's madness to sail across the ocean, particularly all alone. Still, there was great beauty to balance out the hours of terror.

To make matters worse, I have a submission due for my writing group on Friday. I have pages written but, at this exact moment, I'd call them the Pages of Shame.

So, while you're out there in the world having a pretty good day, I'll be in my sunroom coughing and hacking and blowing my nose. You're the lucky one, so celebrate by warming your face in the sunshine, have a latte and a muffin, and think of me.

Cheers.

A display of toothbrushes. Be sure to floss, too.

AutoSocks?

I always feels so out of the loop. I can see how information-junkies get hooked on the internet with all the tantalizing subjects available with a stroke on the keyboard. So, this morning, I'm watching the news about the hours-long traffic jams on I-70, Colorado's main artery into the mountains and most of those ski resorts. CDOT is now going to sell AutoSocks at the chain-up stations alongside the freeway. I ask myself, "What are Autosocks"? Am I the only person who doesn't know about the existence of these "textile covers" that provide traction for your tires, en lieu of chains? You can own a pair of these safety wonders for $109.95. They're legal to use instead of chains in California, Washington, and Colorado. This is the limit of my information about AutoSocks because I'm a busy woman and have to head out the door to begin my crazy day. (They are all crazy, one way or another) I do want to point out that AutoSocks do not come in argyle.

Mountains, Ruts, and Writing

Life is a mountainous, rutted road. I bitch a lot about all the change and turmoil in my life but, I freely admit, that a garden path leading to a safe, uneventful life would bore me out of existence.

For years, my default excuse for not writing and submitting was all the stuff I have to do on almost a daily basis. I'd point at my calendar and think about how terribly busy I was and then I'd probably look sad or frustrated. But the truth is that you can find the time to write if you really feel the pull. A little here and a little there isn't ideal but it's doable. (Doable is one of those words that looks worse in print than it sounds) I have been trying to send in two stories for a local anthology the library is putting out. It has the double-attraction of being a local publication as well as being a part of the community I am trying to become established in, preferably as a writer. The more I tried to get the stories rewritten (an unfortunate compulsion), the more I found to fix. But I worked a little bit at a time on the pages, and stayed up late last night, and got the blasted stories sent in today. I feel like I just drove a Honda 50 over Independence Pass naked in a snowstorm. (translation: tired and burned out)

My new muse. 

Two Days in Seattle

I managed to miss a weekend of frigid, inconvenient weather when I went to Seattle a week ago. I missed helping someone move into their new home, but had a good visit with a branch of the family I seldom see. I'm going to try to perfect the two-day visit this year, but how I do hate flying.

It was my misfortune to be in Seattle during the Superbowl. Boy Howdy..... did they ever win.

The Fremont Troll.

Wolves roam one area of Seattle.

Love those ravens.

This is an interesting old photo, but I'm not sure what the beast is about to do.

Stuck in a Deep Freeze

I got a respite from our unusually frigid weather by going to Seattle for the weekend.  It was mostly overcast there but the hazards were from road construction instead of Colorado's ice and snow. When I made my reservations a while back, I wasn't thinking about the Superbowl. The airports were both packed with people in transit. Many Broncos fans were in evidence at DIA on Friday but I didn't see any blue and orange jerseys on my way home.

After a very enjoyable weekend with family in Seattle, I came home to a house that had undergone a huge transition in my absence. My daughter and her family found a lovely apartment here in Longmont and began moving out then in last Saturday in the snow. It has been very strange to wake up to a quiet, almost solemn, house without E's high energy ricocheting around the rooms. I came home on Monday in the late afternoon and began babysitting our 2-month old grandson the following morning.

The weather has been in a freeze-thaw cycle, more common in Minnesota than in Colorado. Tuesday was terribly cold with icy roads. Today, Wednesday, is even colder, but the main roads are good. The wind chill was between -16 and -24 this morning. The high today might be six, but it stands at 2 degrees right now.  We're short one car on top of the new living arrangements and additional babysitting duties. So this is turning out to be a crazy week.

I have a baby next to me, a 3-year-old doing yoga on the other side, Elmo telling a story on the CD player, my email is down, and I am going to do this all again tomorrow.