Musings

Had a great weekend in Beantown with my daughter, son, daughter-in-law and my precious granddaughter who turned four last Monday.

They had a birthday party at a place called "My Gym". It's an indoor playground with lots of things to jump or slide on, room for running around, etc. The kids loved it.

When their energy flagged, they were served cake and juice. Sugar is AMAZING! In no time, they were running around like banshees!

Things are quiet here. Cathy felt lousy when we got home on Monday so she's been either working or in bed since. Well, she had to finish the budget so it could be presented at the board meeting Tuesday night and she had to do the payroll today.... But she's taking it easy now and I hope she'll feel better soon.

I did some computer work for a neighbor yesterday. Poor guy lives alone and is wheelchair bound (he has no legs, he told me and the fake ones fall off if he falls down), and I guess he's a little starved for company. Anyway, I got to hear about what he did as a top mechanical design engineer for a Fortune 500 company and how they keep bringing him back as a consultant even though he trained his replacement for 6 years -- she's a woman and they don't trust her. My friend says he depends on her to be his eyes and legs, and then he asks her opinion before he presents to manangement. He said he's never deviated from what she suggested but "if they want to pay me to say the words, I'm not going to complain!" Interesting guy. He apparently has more money than he knows what to do with, but he's clearly not a well person.

Are the Red Sox settling back to playing mediocre baseball? I hope not. They got a break today when their number 5 starting pitcher was rained out, but I keep holding my breath. They came back from 5-0 in the last of the 9th the other day and my son's friend asked why I wasn't cheering when it was over. I guess we don't want to tempt the fates when we get lucky!

I'm baaaaaack!

It's still hard for me to believe that I am as old as I am -- until I get sick. Not even really sick, just "off". Which I've been for nearly two weeks.

A couple-three weeks ago, I ran out of Zyrtek, an allergy med I take year around. I have this online, mail-order prescription plan that saves me a ton of money but I have to stay on top of when to reorder a new 3-month supply for any given drug -- and I was not diligent. If you feel younger than you are, you tend to forget drug management until you open the medicine cabinet twice a day to get toothpaste! (I guess I need a laptop in th bathroom so I don't forget.)

So I ordered some and waited. I noticed that when I played bridge that Friday and the following Monday that I didn't have to visit the men's room more than once in each 3-1/2 hour session. (I said I was old, right?) Hmmmm. And one night I noticed that I could lie comfortably in bed in any position. Previously, certain positions were completely untenable. Double-hmmm!

Now, with my wonderful engineering education, I immediately decided not to jump to conclusions and started taking Zyrtek again to see if the peeing and pain would come back -- NOT!! Are you kidding??? Man, I'm off Zyrtek!!

But about two weeks ago, I started a little cough. Just a little one. And then I got tired. And then my wife said, "Go to the doctor or sleep in the guest room!" (She didn't really say that!) But the master bedroom has the 42" HD TV and the guest room has no TV, so I called the doctor who examined me and said, "Looks like irritation caused by post-nasal drip. You have allergies, right?" Grrrr. However, he was sympathetic when I told him my Zyrtek experience and gave me some Singular samples. And I'm getting better! I did notice that there were two uncomfortable positions in bed last night, but the prostate is still happy and the cough is almost gone!!

We're going to Boston for our granddaughter's fourth birthday this weekend. The pit bull and rottweiler will stay home.