A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

sick

Nothing better than a summer cold… or not

Just a quick one today.

Summer colds truly suck.

Thankfully, it was planned for my vacation to go through today. Originally, I wa going to come home today, instead going straight through yesterday. It’s a good thing, too. Last night I took a shot of NYQUIL and slept well all night.

Today is the cough day, it seems.

That’s usually a good sign. Hopefully, this is like normal and I’ll be on the mend tomorrow. I’m on vacation all next week (another baseball trip) and really don’t want to be feeling like crap the whole time.

I had been pretty solid with getting sick this year. I made it through the winter pretty healthy. I’m firmly convinced this was brought on by the air conditioner at the first hotel I stayed in on this past trip.

The AC wasn’t fully controllable in that I couldn’t select a temperature and it was basically “cold or hot.” So I put it as low as possible. The issue was it ran all night and the room was tiny — so everything was pretty compact and close to one another.

It also probably didn’t help that I was in an area where it was super hot and humid the whole time, thus needing air conditioning.

Thankfully, I made it through the trip. But today, not so good. I am working the next several days, so hopefully I can make it through and be healthy for this upcoming trip, which will, again, have some hot and humid weather.

But colds during the summer? Totally suck.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

It’s the most wonderf… cough, cough, hack…

This year is ending with a “blah,” that’s for sure.

Before I get into the Year in Blogging, allow me to say that I was supposed to have had a few other “Year in Review” posts already. Alas, I started feeling a little under the weather before Christmas. It was just a sore throat though and I figured it was from all the yelling I did at the final three 2CW shows.

Christmas night it seemed to really hit.

I don’t remember much of the 26th as I slept most of it away.

The 27th was shaky, though a bit better. I had originally been scheduled to go geocaching for the day with a few people, but the weather mixed with how I was feeling canned that.

I thought I was on the up on the 28th, but that was just a reprieve. The 29th was awful – so much so that I called to get a doctor’s appointment for the 30th.

And despite me back-dating this post for the 29th (I only like publishing one post per day), it’ll be up for a while on the 30th until I finish a Year in Review post.

I was all excited about this little break, too. There weren’t supposed to be a lot of bad weather days and I opted for some vacation time to give myself 11 straight days off.

I’ve taken advantage of none of it.

As it stands, I’ll be in today. And probably tomorrow. Maybe by the weekend I’ll actually be able to get out and do something.

This has been pretty crappy though. I feel like some of these coughs come with shards of glass in them. My normal winter colds usually take a pattern. This one hasn’t followed that pattern one bit. I’m sure once I visit the doctor today, I’ll be told it’s just a bad cold. Rest, fluids etc.

If it’s anything different, I’ll make sure to come back here and update this.

On the one hand, though, I didn’t really plan on doing much over this vacation besides relax, catch up on some sleep and things like that. So I’m getting to do that without a doubt, though I’d rather be doing it on my terms and not hacking my head off and feeling like I’m strapped to the couch.

Anyway, the reason for this post …

So I messed up many of the dates of my Year in Review. And with the 20 Days of Chill Writing Challenge coming up (I have no idea how many people will be participating), I am going to have to sprinkle in some of the Year in Review posts on weekends and such.

My Year in Photos was supposed to be earlier this week, but I need to remake the video as the songs I used – YouTube won’t allow it to be watched in most countries. So I had to find some generic music.

I hope all of you are having a much healthier holiday season!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle

What is it with this time of the year?

Yeah, I know, the seasons are changing. But as I write this at the end of a dreary weekend, it annoys me even more as I know by the time you read this, I’ll be in the office and probably not feeling all that great. And I know I’ve had this happen to me during this time of year in the past.

It started early Friday afternoon when I had a tickle in my throat. I knew that wasn’t a good sign. Later in the day, swallowing slightly hurt. I went to a baseball game and things seemingly were a tad better. That night, a little bit with the swallowing again, but water helped.

coughcough

I slept pretty well Saturday, though I didn’t get many hours as I was playing softball in the morning. It was a dreary day. By the time we were done, it was drizzling some. By the time I headed home, I felt decent but it was still lingering.

Saturday into Sunday – I slept well. I figured that would help, but it seems like it’s morphed into a small chest/head cold. Just what I don’t feel like dealing with. I’ve had a few coughs and the sniffles. I’m sure Monday will be a day of a stuffy head, so we’ll see how this whole thing grows or goes away.

It’s supposed to be rather dreary on Monday, so it’ll be a good day to jump into a bunch of things at work and kind of close myself in my office.

It’s good when there are a few things piled up and you know you need to get them done – and you have a bit of a cold. You know you can bury yourself in the work and hopefully make the day go faster.

My true hope is this dang thing only lingers for a day or so and doesn’t turn into a full-fledged cold as I don’t really feel like taking time from work and I don’t really feel like being sick, especially being the weather is supposed to be pretty nice later this week. We will see.

Hopefully your Monday is better than I am imagining mine will be!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

It’s time for you to go, Winter

I’m so over winter

This is something many people in the Northeast are saying in recent weeks, that’s for sure. But I look at it in a different way. It’s not just because of the mounds of snow that might not disappear until July. It’s not the arctic temperatures that are more suited for Antarctica or the North Pole than in the Northeast.

Nope.

Winter might be pretty, but it gets old.

Winter might be pretty, but it gets old.

Then, why, you may ask? Well, it’s simple — I’m sick of being sick.

Allow me to count the ways I’ve been sick since the start of winter, which in my area is usually well before the Dec. 21 “official” date.

  • Common cold (usual)
  • Flu (unusual, especially considering I get a flu shot)
  • 24-hour bug (unusual)
  • Stomach bug (unusual, and it piggybacked the 24-hour bug)

One thing to notice there — I usually only get since once a year or so, and it’s usually a doozy of a common cold. It’s something that will last about a full week and usually follows the same pattern. This year has been different.

The last two happened over the past weekend and forced me to burn a sick day. I’m actually writing this during that sick day, covered up on a recliner with my “writing” laptop. I’ve barely been on a computer since this past Friday night, so I’m trying to catch up on e-mails and other things.

Oh yeah, and it’s still bitterly cold out, though it’s been nice to peek outside and see sun and blue skies the past two days. I know better though — that’s just enough to pull you outside and then you freeze your tush off.

By the time this publishes, I’ll be back to work — thankfully.

For those who know me, I’m not much for taking sick days. At my previous job, I rarely took one, despite knowing I should at certain times. I felt guilty, even though me being there was probably worse than me not being there. Maybe it is how things were instilled in me.

Remember last year? That’s when I had the foot saga and had surgeries and such. I felt guilty taking sick days. I still do. But, with this week being a vacation week for the places I work (at least for students and teachers), I figured it wasn’t so bad if I called in sick when I actually needed that day. I’ve been exhausted!

What stinks about this whole bout is that I didn’t have the desire to be near a computer, let alone blog. That meant nothing up for the past few days, which is fine. Alas, it also broke a streak as I had posted something daily since late November. Now, it’s time to get back to the grind and get on another streak! Probably next week, though, as I might not be every day this week as I still get my “legs” back under me.

But, back to my original point — it’s time for winter to go. In my area, February traditionally seems to be our “harsh” month. Hopefully that holds true and March brings the upward trend of no snow and better temperatures. Allow this snow to slowly (we don’t need spring weather and rain or we’ll see some serious flooding in some areas) go away and the spring bloom to come to us… I think we’ve (and many parts of the Northeast) have earned it.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Gone fishin’

Gone fishin’.

Not really.

I’m not a fisherman. Though there are times I wonder if I should start doing so.

Either way… I’m using this more as a filler thing. The ol’ “Gone Fishin'” idea when a break is needed.

So, this is today’s post. I got whacked with a summertime cold and am congested as can be. And, to be honest, I’m not into trying to come up with a post for today.

The photo is from my trip to South Jersey last year. I sure would like to get back there this year at some point. We’ll see what happens.

So I’ll hopefully be back tomorrow with something new. If not, I’ll see you Friday!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!