A Typical Sick Day (Getting Stir Crazy)

 

Song:  Nothing Else Matters Medley

YouTube Channel:  JoslinMusic

Although my illness isn't so severe...

it is just lingering.

If it doesn't substantially get better within two weeks...

I will go in to see a doctor and insist upon an x-ray to rule out pneumonia.

This deep cough and general malaise simply won't go away.

I have been just lying in bed all day long on most days...

merely heating up a quick meal and then going back to bed.

However...

every few days...

I just get stir crazy and I just drive into town to eat out...

to not only break up the monotony...

but to feed a craving for some other type of food.

As the temperature has been steadily dropping...

and it has been lightly snowing here...

the cold air exacerbates my deep cough whenever I take Bandi out to her forest bathroom.

It is so frustrating to have lingering symptoms...

it is maddening.

My symptoms are not so bad as to need immediate medical attention...

but they are enough of a bother as to keep me in bed so as to not worsen.

OMG...

I am going stir crazy.

I received my DVD collection of the complete series of the Game of Thrones.

Earlier in the day...

I baked some potato wedges...

...and I heated up a frozen dinner of chicken parmesan. 

I haven't been feeling energetic enough to cook anything more healthful lately...

so I have just been eating frozen dinners...

as they are easy to prepare.

But...

every so often...

just to get out of the house...

I will sometimes drive into town to eat out.

Yesterday morning...

after eating my frozen dinner...

I just lay in bed and watched Frazier reruns on my ipad.

Later that evening...

I just wanted to eat a pizza...

 so I drove into Woodland Park to my favorite pizza place...

AJ's.

I get to view Pikes Peak from the restaurant as I eat.

I had arrived shortly after the sun had set.

Their pizza is so good.

I usually eat but once a day...

but I have been losing too much weight recently...

so I decided to eat once again...

a more caloric dense food.

As I don't eat many fatty foods at home...

when I eat out...

I will eat things I don't usually eat at home...

and so...

I felt like eating a pizza

(I ran out of frozen pizzas :)

After eating...

I decided to take some photos of the Christmas Lights around town on my way home.

I didn't take my normal camera with me...

so I just used my iPhone camera...

which doesn't take low light photos well...

and so...

the following night shots will be out of focus

 as the electronic shutter stays open for 3 seconds...

and any movement blurs the shot.

I stopped at a small park which is filled with multi colored lights on its trees.

There was a herd of deer in the park.

I briefly stopped on the side of the road on the way home to take a couple of shots

of the lights at the Wolf Reserve.

Once arriving at home...

I again lay in bed and watched more Frazier reruns.

After some hours...

I decided to make hot buttered popcorn...

...and binge watch the Game of Thrones on my DVD player.

Bandi patiently waited for me to give her some of the popcorn.

I would eat a handful at a time...

and then give Bandi some...

over and over until it was gone.

She loves it.

After finishing off the popcorn...

I made myself one of my favorite desserts...

frozen blueberries covered in sweetened condensed milk.

I then brushed my teeth...

flossed...

and then settled in bed once again...

as I continued watching my DVDs...

until I fell asleep.

OMG...

I hate being ill.

Lying in bed all day and night is becoming such a bother.

Although I do have many entertainment options...

I am so tired of being tired  :)

I know I must sound spoiled...

but I have so many things I wish to do

that I simply don't have the energy for right now.

I don't even feel like reading.

I just watch movies or reruns on my iPad or DVD player as I attempt to get more sleep.

While I know sleep is the best medicine...

and I have been slowly getting better...

I hate passively lying in bed all day long.

But...

all I can do is to eat more...

sleep more...

and simply bear it.

------------

Oh...

poor baby!

Yes...

I know.

As a man...

I love being active...

and I do become somewhat of a baby when I get ill.

It is the frustration of having to lie in bed

in an attempt to get over this illness that is simply driving me nuts!

Luckily...

illness is something which rarely visits me.

I will often go years without ever getting the flu or even a cold.

And...

once again...

I only had this same illness once before in my life...

decades ago.

It had taken two months to get over it before.

In a couple of weeks...

if the symptoms don't get substantially better...

I will go in to see a doctor.

It is just that I know there is nothing they can do at this moment.

I will just go into the steam sauna later today...

and try to breathe in hot steam and raise my body temperature enough

to stimulate my immune system into defeating whatever is infecting me.

Whatever it is...

it has not been bad enough to even raise a fever in me...

and my body aches have disappeared.

Anyway...

I hope to soon resume my projects...

and I also soon wish to drive to some of the ski towns to see their Christmas Light displays.

 I will take my camera to ensure I can get better night shots.

There are more beautiful sights to see...

and more delicious food to eat...

so...

my current project is getting well so I may go out to experience them.

In the meantime...

at least I have a whole series of Games of Thrones to watch

 in bed to help keep me from going completely stir crazy.

----------

Perhaps I need to be even more stubborn than is this illness.

I think I will use the steam sauna everyday...

for as high in temperature...

 and for as long as I can bear it...

for each session...

until my illness is completely gone.

I will just think of my steam sauna sessions as a fire breathing dragon burning away my illness.

Yeah...

that was my inner child speaking  :)

Four Disappointments / One Rectification

 

Song:  Silksong

YouTube Channel:  InstrumentManiac

I am still ill...

and for quite some time now...

I have mostly just been lying in bed...

and so...

I have been not wanting to cook lately...

but to simply eat out.

I love food...

I love eating out...

but...

I hate being disappointed whenever I do so.

It had begun to lightly snow before going into town to eat some tacos

a few days ago.

I wanted to eat some tacos at Baja Billy's...

however...

they are still closed for renovations.

Okay...

it happens.

So...

I went to another cafe to try their food.

I had ordered a Chicken Quesadilla...

only to find that I make much better ones at home.

I had also ordered a Philly cheese sandwich...

and it was just so flavorless that I boxed it up for Bandi to eat

(she loved it though :)

I will never go there again.

Disappointment #1

I got in my car...

and just went home.

I later got my delivery of my second Osakazuki Japanese Maple...

however...

just by looking at the box size...

I knew it wasn't the three to four year old sapling that I had ordered.

Disappointment #2

It was a one year old sapling.

I e-mailed the company and awaited a reply.

That night...

I felt like eating Chinese food...

so I decided to try a new restaurant in Woodland Park.

The food was just okay...

nothing special.

I could tell the "cook" had not been formerly trained.

The only thing I had accomplished here was to mentally note it as another place 

to which I would never return.

Disappointment #3

I then drove home...

filled...

but not excited by the meal.

Earlier today...

I again drove into Woodland Park to go to their hardware store to pick up

an indoor planter for my undersized Osakazuki.

My normal taco truck was closed...

so I tried a newer Mexican restaurant for their tacos.

OMG...

the carnitas was dry...

as was their rice.

Another great disappointment...

and another place to which I will never return.

Disappointment #4

At least the mountains were beautiful near home.

I filled one of the planters with soil...

...and I planted the one year old sapling in it.

It is now too late in the season to plant it...

so I will just keep it indoors until Spring.

Now...

the company which had sent me the wrong order...

had answered my email.

This is how they rectified their incorrect order:

#1 - They sent me a gift card for the price of the original order.

#2 - I, of course, get to keep the incorrect order.

#3 - Although they have no more 3-4 year old saplings...

they will search for a replacement 3-4 year old sapling.

I had asked for a Japanese Bloodgood...

which is not only fast growing and has beautiful Fall colors...

but it is exceptionally large upon maturity...

 so I can plant it much farther from the house...

and then have a fully mature tree size of 30 - 50 feet tall and wide.

The owner said she would search for one...

but in the event she could not...

I told her I would wait until she could get a 3-4 year old sapling...

either Bloodgood or Osakazuki.

There are plentiful places to plant either one.

--------------

This is how people should always rectify their mistakes...

with interest.

She had done more than I had expected...

far more.

This is how people should act to rectify their wrongs upon others.

Of course...

I had also NOT been rude when I had emailed her.

One cannot vent anger and then expect others to make things up with interest.

I merely delineated the problem...

and I had then asked her to explain.

----------

I had long ago learned that 99% of our problems 

dealing with people come from not giving basic human respect to others...

from the beginning.

And NO...

I don't pretend that verbiage is our only means of communication.

It is in demeanor...

in intonation...

facial expressions and body language...

through implication of things said and not said...etc.

In short...

keep a pure heart...

and your sincerity will shine through in the vast majority of cases.

I also like making things up with interest...

as if I were wrong...

I had robbed them of their peace of mind...

at the very least.

This also lets them know that by making it a losing proposition

for yourself to easily make "mistakes"...

that you were sincere in your apology...

and that you would endeavor to not make mistakes in the future.

Too many people merely shoot off an insincere "sorry"...

without making anything up...

never mind with interest.

These types of people are far too easy on themselves...

and so...

make frequent "mistakes"...

because they don't hold themselves accountable.

----------

Anyway...

I am going to take more medicine and go to bed.

I have so many things I want to do...

but ignoring my initial symptoms of illness

is what had gotten me into this much longer illness in the first place.

I must not act like a child when ill...

so, in the future...

I will fully recover before doing any projects.

It will probably take me a few more weeks to fully recover...

but...

I ordered a DVD box set of the complete series of:

I had never seen it except on short outtakes on YouTube.

It should arrive in a few days.

I will just binge watch it every night until I get sleepy.

And so...

until I recover more...

my posts will be infrequent...

as not only do I not feel well...

but I will just be lying in bed most of the time...

and there will be nothing of significance of which to post.

However...

once I start feeling a little better...

I just know that I will start talking about the first things that pop into my mind :)

Pad Thai Refinements / Sealing Part Of Deck Today

 

Song:  September

Artist:  Alexander Motovilov

As I have been feeling better over the past couple of days...

I had started cooking myself some proper meals...

going out to eat again...

and I just went food shopping last night.

As the day is warming up...

in the middle of the late afternoon...

I plan to at least seal the outside first carpet section I had yet to do.

If I feel up to it...

I will cut and seal the second carpet on the last side of the 2nd deck as well.

I may just wait until tomorrow for that...

I will have to see.

However...

I need to get that first carpet layout on the last portion of the 2nd deck sealed...

as we are expecting snow on Saturday.

A couple of nights ago...

I started cooking meals again.

I felt like making Korean short ribs...

...and baked wedge potatoes

(I've been craving potatoes lately).

I had timed the baking of the potatoes and the pan frying of the meat just about right...

as they each had finished just a minute from each other.

I sat down to a delicious meal.

Last night...

I had a craving for Pizza...

along with the need to do some food shopping.

So...

I first went food shopping at Safeway...

and on the way back...

I stopped in at my favorite pizza place...

Aj's in Woodland Park.

(they still have some Halloween decorations up  :)

I had eaten everything but two slices of their large pizza

(I took the leftovers for Bandi).

I love Aj's Pizza...

and I like the fact that they stay open until 10 PM.

 Christmas lights are starting to appear in Woodland Park.

After getting home...

I just went to bed early to rest up as much as possible

as I still have some of the deep cough.

This morning...

as I started feeling better...

I decided to put on some music and begin cooking one of my favorite dishes...

Mountain Man Pad Thai.

This multi speaker setup fills the house with music as it has speakers facing different directions...

so some reflect off the rear and upper surfaces.

The fireplace mantle is a perfect location for this built in multi speaker system.

The lower frequencies reflect off of the canted ceiling and the rear of the mantle...

resulting in a felt low frequency reverberation.

I have found this particular brand of noodles and sauce to be good.

I just make the whole box at once.

I first laid out everything.

I began defrosting the frozen shrimp (2 lbs).

As I wanted to shortcut the process...

so, instead of steaming frozen chicken...

I used two rotisserie chicken breasts for my Pad Thai.

I then fed Bandi the legs and thighs of one of the chickens

(she knows I always feed her when I cook).

I then pulled the tails off of the shrimp.

I put in the noodles.

I added the shrimp and began to heat them up. 

The noodles take but a few minutes to cook.

I now give them a quick rinse before I strain the noodles...

as before they would sometimes clump together.

This way...

it washes off the extra starch...

to prevent them sticking to one another.

I would then stir in the noodles and let them cook some

while frequently turning them.

A quick look at some of the "sinful" treats I picked up the night before at Safeway.

I had a mad craving for chocolate...

and so I bought 10 Cadbury 'fruit and nut' bars...

and two bags of Raisinets.

I don't often eat sweets...

but when I do...

I just eat them until I am fully sated.

After cooking them for a while...

I added the included sauce packets...

however...

it is the next added sauce that makes all the difference in this dish.

You simply must get this particular brand of peanut sauce

(Lee Kum Kee).

It is what makes this dish so wonderfully delicious.

After the dish is plated...

you then drizzle the above peanut sauce over the Pad Thai...

and you will then have the most delectable high protein meal you have ever had.

After eating my fill of my meal...

I then put the rest away for later meals.

It feels good eating more healthful home cooked meals once again.

----------------

As it is still before noon...

I will wait for the air to warm some more before working more on the deck.

I certainly do not want my deep cough to get worse.

I now have a full belly...

so...

I will just rest in bed until about 3 PM...

whereupon I will at least seal the outer edge of the last portion of the second deck.

Once that is complete...

the most critical portions will have been completed.

Come rain or shine...

the decks will have been protected from the worst that the weather can throw at them.

The rest will all be improvements upon the basics.

I will continue at half speed on my projects...

probably for at least a month more...

or however long it takes me to completely get over my bronchitis...

plus a couple of weeks extra to be sure this time.

-----------

I have much planned for this Winter.

I have a multitude of indoor projects...

including music and writing projects.

During snowy days...

I will sit in my recliner...

sipping peppermint tea...

and reading and researching...

or going up to the loft to finally lay some of the many musical tracks 

I will need to lay for my next cover song.

I also wish to compose a song for the Donkeys of Cripple Creek

for when I visit them in their winter pasture.