On being sick and tired!

I know the last thing you want to read is about how sick I have been, but that is what is on my mind right now, so here it comes.

Dad and I both have had a bad cold, followed by another week of coughing. Or maybe it only feels like a week. I feel like if it doesn't stop soon there will be a lung lying on the floor in front of my computer. Dad is doing about as well. Even though our rooms are separated by the bathroom I could hear him coughing off and on throughout the night. I think I must have slept through it the night before. We are both beyond exhaustion, and sick and tired of being "sick and tired." When I woke up this morning I told him I was so tired I felt like I needed at least a good four hours more sleep. He asked, "Four days?" I admitted he probably was closer to right than I was. He smiled and said, "Me, too." I actually have hope we are on the upswing. I think he is finally starting to cough some stuff up, so it is finally breaking up. I have been feeling marginally better since sometime yesterday afternoon. I still feel like sh*&%, just a better grade of sh*&% than a couple of days ago.

I am going to make a wonderful journey to Vancouver, WA, tomorrow to take my cousin Nick to a VA appt. Neither one of us has been to this clinic / hospital before. I know the general location, but not exactly where the parking structure will be, or where in the complex the office is located. The main thing I do know is how much I hate getting up early. I think I estimated the drive time to be 2-1/2 to 3 hours. So figuring we have to be there to check in at 10, and we might want to do a drive by on McDonalds on the way, we have to leave about 6:30 am. Have I mentioned I hate mornings? Well, I really hate getting up any time before 8 am. If we are leaving at 6:30 I have to be totally ready to go the night before and roll out of bed at 6 to be at his house by 6:30. On a good day I can make it there in about 15 minutes. When I am fighting sleep deprivation make it more like 25. I also have to figure out if I can leave dad in bed and hope Tess can get him up, or if I have to take care of him before I can roll out the door. He is getting stronger every day, and can go to the bathroom pretty much on his own now. He also got himself sitting up from bed this morning, and can walk a bit in his walker. I just don't want to leave him in the lurch, stuck in bed or stuck without some assistance. I know his bathing aid will be by around 11:45 tomorrow, so she could help with something if he needs it. My cousin Marty is supposed to be taking care of his lunch, and if all else fails driving Tess to her dentist appointment, too. She has some major work scheduled tomorrow and had to wait a month for the appt. so she can't miss it. This was the emergency appt. she got a month ago.

I am hoping to find a little time for some thing creative sometime this week. I need to paint and I need to make jewelry. I don't know when I will find time, but I am determined. I was hoping to do some of that last week, but felt so crappy I just didn't have the energy. Oh, and I had Jury duty, too. The art class I had intended to go to was on the day I had to go for jury selection. Of course I didn't get chosen, but it was interesting to sit there waiting for an hour and a half in the hallway while the judge took care of some "surprise, last minute, unexpected" business. Then we filed in for the selection process. The judge said, unfortunately the delay had turned what should have been a one day trial into a two day trial, so if anyone was unable to be there the next day they needed to tell his why they couldn't be there. There were at least 4-6 people who said they either couldn't get another day off, or it would be a hardship on them due to them owning their own business and it would put them behind. Then the selected 12 entered the jury box and after an hour of questioning they had eliminated five of them. That left 6 for jury and one alternate, who has to stay and listen to the trial along with the others in case they have to replace one later in the trial. It was interesting watching this process, made more so by watching David Ogden Stiers, seated right in front of me. It made me wonder if he was a bored by it all as I was, or if he was studying everything thinking of how he could use the experience in a future role he would be playing. He is so nonchalant about his being a "big star" that it makes it really easy for most folks to not even realize who he is. I have been around him so much I recognize him just from his posture and from the back. He has lived just south of Newport for a long time, and is one of the conductors of the Newport Symphany Orchestra. One of my best friends, Dan, was his personal assistant during the production and performance of "Love Letters," with Patty Duke, several years ago. It was really fun hearing about the various things that happened during the rehearsals and preparations. It was fun getting to talk with them both after the performance, and seeing them in person.

More soon. :)