a week of sick

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Been sick the past week.  I cancelled all my classes on Thursday and limped through the rest.  I’ve been coughing up all kinds of nastiness and went through dozens of tissues.  I think I’m finally on the mend, but I’ve still a long way to go.

It all started last week when I pushed onward, tearing up plaster and lath boards in the upper suite at 1403.  The dust that had accumulated over the past 115 years was something fierce.  But … to catch a cold from that?

I’ve since bought another (replacement) respirator, a 3M this time, with new filters.  I hope this will help next time I muster up enough courage to get back in there.

five and a half Ws and their answers

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We all know the five Ws – who, what, when, where, why – and their neglected cousin, how.

But when we use these words to create compound words in reply, this happens:

  • somewhat
  • somewhere
  • somehow

But that about the other ones?

  • somewho (we have to say someone)
  • somewhen (we have to say sometime)
  • somewhy (we have to say for some reason)

English is weird.

sore sinuses

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I’ve breathed in too much dust while renovating a rental house – plaster dust, airborne debris from scraping up flooring, and general dirt-dust that had seeped in through the walls over the past 113 years.  I had to leave before sundown as my sinuses were so sore.

In the shower this evening, I used NeilMed, a nasal wash, to clean things out.  It certainly helped.  But still, at 8:00pm, my sinuses are sore and I’m coughing.

green mystery

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This is weird, almost as weird as the hidden receptacle (see hidden power).  For the past several years, there was a green tinge of … well, a kind of goo, stuck to one of the receptacles in the kitchen.  I often wondered, “Where is this green coming from?”  I wracked my brain (but not much of a brain wrack – just a things-that-make-you-go-hmm kind of wrack), wondering what would cause it.

I finally figured it out.  My Mom must have dribbled a little green food colouring on the end of the cord to the mixer.  The mixer is about 45 or 50 years old – a Sunbeam, I think.  Every time I beat some whipping cream, I got some green on the outlet.  Duh.

The funny thing is, Mom hated the colour green.