Never Thought of That Before. . .

Just read a narrative describing some “eastern Über-urban greenhorns'” first experience tacking up and riding horses. I had never before considered just how intimidating horses could be to someone from such sheltered backgrounds. *shrugs* It had just never occurred to me.

*heh* Further descriptive narrative from short “horse trek” event: “Watch that back leg so he can’t cock his guns and [‘cow’-] kick you, and mind yer back when you pull off the bridle so he can’t bite you. . .” Yeh, probably the second and third lessons taught me by one cantankerous old guy. The first one was memorable (and I still remember it when the weather changes): watch your feet–or better yet, the horse’s feet.

My Ever-Expanding World!

Left the house for the first time in nearly two weeks this morning. Went 10 yards. Installed new headlamp in Son&Heir’s car. Came back in. That’s enough for this week.

Checklist

Runny nose — Check
Headache — Check
Fatigue — Check
Sneezing — 60%.
Sore throat — Check (minor, from drainage; progressed to major, for a few hours until ameliorative effects too hold)
Persistent cough — Check (Well, intermittently persistent *heh*)
Hoarse voice — Check (But that’s pretty normal from time ti time nowadays; progressed to full-blown laryngitis, but that’s been a lifelong likelihood with such illesses)
Chills or shivers — Check
Fever — Check
Dizziness — Check
Brain fog — Check (Or is that Olde Pharte Syndrome?)
Muscle pains — Check
Loss of smell — Nope. (Just slightly dulled)
Chest pain — Check

So, pretty much a Winter cold. Fever was pretty bad last night, but broke this AM (somewhere between 0444 and 1038 — I got back to sleep between those times, so can’t pin down the time any better).

Is it Omicron? I do not care. Apparently, I’m going to survive a Winter cold. Who knew? Been doing that for 70+ years, so there was a decent chance I’d live through it.


Oh, earaches, but again, those are pretty much normal for me with colds. Lil warm olive oil, cotton balls. Worked a charm.


One week beyond the above: I see to have mostly seen the back of this checklist, apart from muscle aches and fatigue, which are still very much hanging on, but I understand from my primary care doc that I should expect a slow recovery from those symptoms. My blood oximeter readings are not all that encouraging, falling below both my own norms and what is considered a baseline optimum of 95. Deep breathing exercises seem to ameliorate this, though.

Fun Lil Bit of Dialog

From Ghost by John Ringo:

“I do odd jobs,” Mike replied, sitting in one of the forward seats.

“If you’ll pardon me, sir,” the pilot said, still curious. “You don’t get the money to charter a jet, much less have it sit around on call, by digging ditches with a shovel.”

“I’ve used a shovel in my time,” Mike said, smiling broadly. “But I usually prefer to find the local guy with a backhoe. Quicker and easier to hide the bodies. You ready to go?”

Sometimes — just sometimes — I’d not mind being “Mike’s” backhoe operator. . . Well, a guy can still dream, can’t he? 😉

*shrugs* Sometimes — OK, Rarely — BrE Just Makes More Sense

For example, the Standard British English pronunciation of “echidna” is much more mellifluous than the Standard American English pronunciation.

Offhand, that’s about all I can think of that makes more sense in BrE. *heh*

(OK, OK, I suppose one could argue that the BrE silliness of calling a kitchen oven a “cooker” makes at least some sort of sense. . . in a rather vulgar sense — and I do mean “vulgar” in the nontechnical linguistic sense of “language of a lower order,” not in the vulgar, actually degraded, and flat-out wrong contemporary sense of “profanity” — which is also most often used in a degraded, and flat-out wrong sense nowadays. *sigh*)

And then there was. . .

. . .the subliterate drunk who thought he wasn’t drunk if he could spell “sophisticated,” but was so drunk he forgot he couldn’t spell it when he was sober.