When life gives you lemons, things turn sour....

It's been a while since my last update and as you might guess by the title of this post, things have not been going smoothly. After the last Apo gig, I got knocked back by a pretty serious upper respiratory infection. It lasted about 2 weeks, my thinking was that the gigs and the pace that I'd been keeping up finally caught up to me and knocked me on my butt. I was fine for a while then, the day before Memorial day, I started with a sore throat, I thought I'd hit the urgent care so that I could fend it off before it got really entrenched in my system. So much for that theory, I got really really sick with another upper respiratory infection. I was in bed for 3 days and then ended up with a lingering cough that lasted for the next 5 weeks. Then I got hit again, it was my 3 day weekend and I was really looking forward to it. I work up with a little bit of a sore throat but I just thought that it was allergies. Wrong....I got hit again. This was getting a little old. I kept coughing afterward but couldn't bring anything up and my energy level ways completely tapped out. Finally after much prompting from friends and co-workers, I went back to the doctor. I told him what was going on and he asked me some questions. Finally he said..."I think it's acid reflux". He must have seen the look on my face so he said "let me tell you why". His thinking is that because of the chronic irritation to my esophagus, I was having larynx and pharynx irritation that was turning in to a secondary infection, hence the repeated upper respiratory infections. He wrote me a script for some Pepcid and told me to watch what I ate and drank, especially late at night. I started on the Pepcid about 4 days ago and the coughing has subsided drastically and I feel a little more like my old self. I'm hoping that he's on the right track and so am I. All this an a minor surgical procedure at the end of June has really knocked me for a loop. I haven't felt like myself for a long time and I am more than ready to have my life back and my summer, what's left of it.

I actually had a real weekend this last weekend. On Saturday I went to the Wine and Wool fest at the Sandhill Crane Vineyard. It was a really hot day but the sun was shining and I was happy to see my knitter girls that I haven't seen in forever. We hung out, drank wine and looked at all the goodies that the vendors had to offer. I only bought two batts. I was really behaving myself. When it came to the wine I tried probably about 10 different kinds including an ice wine. I bought 3 different white wines and 2 bottles of mead. I was also feeling well enough to make my Saturday AM kettlebell and Monday AM pilates class. I don't think I've done that in a couple of months.

As for anything fibery related, I have been doing a little spinning both on my trindle and my wheel. I finished spinning the wool Samoyed mix and I'm ready to ply it at some point. I also spun up one of the batts that I got at last year's W&W fest and plied it with a really nice earthy brown BFL. It turned out really organic and slubby. Luckily I found just the right pattern for it, I think it'll turn out really cool. As for knitting I finished my really ugly "at work socks", the yarn that I used was really not my favorite. The colors were really great but the yarn was splitty and not very hand friendly. I think I'm going to "donate" whatever I have left over. I'm really sort of sick of looking at it. Besides I have more than enough of finger friendly sock yarn to keep me going for quite some time. Currently working on another pair of River Rapids socks using Knit Picks Risata. I have NO idea why they discontinued this yarn. I'm also still picking away at the never ending shrug and the Egyptian mittens.

As for anything personal, work is work. There have been some changes over the last year or so that have all of us sort of looking over our shoulder. It seems like there are things that are being put in place and we really have no idea as to what they are or where they are going to end up. I am just glad to be working in a field that I still enjoy with co-workers I still enjoy working with. Mr. Larj is status quo, he cancelled his War-crack account only to start up again. Meh...I'm not even going to try to compete with his pseudo-world. Maude is doing OK, her eyesight is getting worse but she still plugs away and is still pretty independent. Apparently Harry came in the mail to my sister and I'm going to have to try and get with her to get my "portion" of the ashes. She'd mentioned doing some other things with his ashes but I just want a little something for myself. Chief is getting old, really old for a Dal, he's 12. Like most old people he's having his fair share of health problems, his arthritis is getting pretty bad in his hips and he's having a hard time with holding his bowels. Usually at least once a week I'm awakened in the middle of the night to an "accident" that I have to deal with. It's stressful but...he's my boy.

Well that's about all new for now. There aren't any Apo concerts in the works but I see that Amon Armarth is going to be coming to St. Andrews Hall in a couple of weeks and Avenged Sevenfold will be at DTE in September. Might try to catch those. Everyone take care and stay healthy.