Not With It

Still not feeling all the well. I'm better today then I was, but still not great.  I'm not sure the last time I really felt great.  That isn't something I think I've felt since long before I was +.  The night was better but the morning has been a drag with a lot of coughing & throat clearing.

We have several cats & this morning they were in full out pissy fest.   I hate the noise of a growling cat, it's like a really obnoxious alarm clock.   There was growling, hissing & in a lot of cat style hell-raising.  I could've gladly sacrificed them all to some god of health or quiet this morning.

Needless to say, my mood is questionable. So I'll stroke my inner Virgo today & make a list. This a list of thing that I am tired of this morning.

1. Squalling cats
2. Post Nasal Drip
3. Endless coughing
4. Sore ribs that came from the endless coughing
5. Local news people who like extras from a George Romero movie
6. Endless reruns due to sports shows
7. Sports shows
8. Big businesses complaining how bad they have it
9. Aflac for hiring Gilbert Gottfried & Alflac for firing Gottfried
10. Politicians of any breed, flavor or variety

There are only ten & believe I could on, but I won't.  I feel a little better.  Virgos do love their lists.  Maybe you should make a list today.  It could be things you hate, things you love, things that make you wonder WTF, or whatever you want it to be about.

PND

For a few days now I have been dealing the problems brought my allergens in my area.  Now I can take my allergy pills & they help quite a bit.  I can even use allergy eye drops.  Still there is one thing that these medicines do little for & that is post nasal drip. 

Take all the meds you want & drink water to you overfloweth & it still won't get rid of PND.  You're stuck drinking hot tea & sucking on cough drops or hard candies trying to get this crap out of your throat.

You can cough & hack but nothing budges.  You feel like you're about to drown in these nasal secretions.  You can't swallow or breathe very well.  Some people use nettie pots, I'm not that brave & I hate nasal sprays.  They do horrible things to my nose & throat.

So what's left?  Not much, except to tough it out & to try control your allergies.  Good luck with that.  I'm not alone in this either.  My roomie has allergy issues & so do our cats.  

Neither cats nor people with allergies are pretty.  The cats are prone to eye drainage & successions of rapid fire sneezes & utter blahs notable even for a cat.

So, here is to all those hateful little spores & pollen particles that cause allergies, going straight to hell where they can spread there specific kind of misery.  I know the pollen is needed to make plants grow.   But you'd think the plants could be a little more considerate & make their pollen hypoallergenic.

Two Months In

Somehow I have managed to keep this thing going for two whole months.  For someone usually as noncommittal as myself, that's fairly astounding.  So what will I ramble on about today?

I could talk about the fact that today is the anniversary of the start of the second opium war, or the day AT&T was incorporated, when the United States decided to start censoring the mail or when Carmen first played.   But none of that, besides the At&T thing, really has any direct bearing on my blog today.  What does have bearing?

Writing this blog is becoming part of my Virgoan ritual and it is an interesting way for me express whatever I'm feeling at the time to whoever might happen upon these pages.  I wondered who would read this blog in the beginning, maybe no one.  At first, that bothered me.  Then I thought that this blog is more for myself & my own outlet than anything else.  If you like my writing, then thank you for reading it.  Not to be snide, but if you don't like it, there is a next blog link at the top of the page.  Try it sometime, I do & I've found some interesting blogs.

I can't tell you what this month will bring for me, if I'm lucky the bad things will be limited. My March third won't be as exciting as being the day that Time magazine first published, a new Turkey emerged or Rodney King getting beaten by the L.A. cops.  However, in this little part of the world, this March third will be mine.   My beginning of the third month of my blog.  My beginning of Spring.  My time with my roomie & cats.  Maybe I'll win a million or go write a novel.  Maybe I'll do nothing at all.  Whatever it is that I will or won't do, it will be mine.

Maybe that sounds a little selfish, but from time to time, you just have to be.  You have to look after yourself & make sure you're getting what you need.  Today, I'll take a cue from a duck.

Cats...

I like cats.  We have permanent indoor felines & some outdoor ones.  I am a Cat Person (CP) not a Cat Lover (CL).  CP's realize that cats are just that, cats.  They can be wonderful & fun to have in your life, but they can also be annoying, exasperating balls of puking destruction.  CP's treat their felines as pets, companions in their home.  They realize that cats scratch & sometimes bite.  They are not offended if the cat deigns not to lavish you with its furry attention for hours or days at a time.  CP's realize that if you have a cat & play with it, there will be a price to pay, the proverbial pound of flesh scraped away under the cat's claws.

Cat Lovers on the other hand, are of questionable sanity.  They want to dress their felines up in cute little suits.  CL's only buy the bestest-bestest food for their little babies.  They see their cats as their babies, the equals or worse their betters.  CL's fail to realize cats are just cats.  They are not replacements for human companionship, they are your offspring, & they most certainly do not wish to be dressed up like Jack Sparrow, a mushroom, or any other outlandish outfit you might have found for them.  Cats do not care about going to cats shows or how many articles you've submitted to Cat Fancy.  They might care about being on Youtube videos, cats are fairly vain after all.

The biggest difference between a Cat Person & a Cat Lover is that a CP can let the cat be, while the CL can not.  CL's have their feelings hurt if the kitty doesn't want to come play with them or nestle down with on command.  CP's know that when the cat gets hungry enough, cold enough or just plain bored it will come out & demand attention.  CP's have lives, while CL's lives are their cats.  CP's may have a few cats, but CL's can become the crazy cat person down the road with thirty some felines howling in the night.  The bad thing is that often cats aren't overly fond of Cat Lovers.

I may be rambling now, but to wrap this up, remember a Beatles song, Let It Be...

Little Things, Take Two...

I started today with a cup of tea & petting a cat.  With no signs of unwanted cat offerings, I smiled.  It is the little things that start the morning off right.  

It's funny that something that some people see as fussy as a cup of tea, or simple as the warmth of a cat's fur or niceness of their not leaving any unwanted deposits (from either end) can make your day start off smother.  Three little things helped my day start off well, so the rest of the day see's me in a better mood.

What are you're little things?  What can point your day one way or another?  Is there anything you can do to influence which way the wind blows on the matter?  That first bit of waking time is important.  It sets the stage.  If you go out into the world in a better personal place, then you'll probably do better that day.  I'm not really into Norman Vincent Peale's thing on the Power of Positive Thinking.  But, not carrying the weight of a pissy morning with you can't hurt how you day goes.

Do as Schultz tells you & celebrate the little things.  The problem here for many people is that it means paying enough attention to figure out what the little things are in your life making it better or worse.  What makes you smile? What makes you cringe?  Figure it out.  Celebrate what causes you to smirk or lightly grin even more than what makes burst out into laughter.  Remember that the things that frustrate you or annoy you should be given as much caution as those things that outright hurt you.

This is a war of attrition, it will not be outright won by any one means or another.  It is a day in, day out maneuver. The little things in your life need recognition & tending like a plant or child or they may wilt away.  The negative things demand vigilant weeding or they may take over that beautifully manicured thing you call your life. Just remember that the biggest tree came from a tiny seed.