Resurrection

The past few days I have been flattened by a terrible, terrible cold -- one of those that makes one question all sorts of things, like scientific research priorities. Seriously, figuring out how to whip the common cold virus(es?) would surely elevate the quality of human existence more than beating cancer. And that's not to denigrate the horror of cancer. Not at all. But these horrible colds hit more (all) of us over and over again and, without actually killing us, knock us down and out, make us question the value of life, turn us into grouchy fountains of virus reproduction, push us over the edge of sanity and self control into helpless, hysterical, inert, useless, whiny and self-absorbed meat packages -- or maybe that's just me. (Don't even get me started on flu.)

Grumpy drove last night, took Lady to dog park and even brought home nectarines and bananas. The first drive went well. Whew! What a relief. Maybe I'll get my life back. The hours I've spent this week (coughing, sneezing, dripping) sitting in VA hospital waiting rooms reading murder mysteries and playing spider solitaire on my iPhone have been a life-consuming drag. Upside, a doctor agreed that Grumpy should reduce his dosage of blood pressure medication by half. Hopefully this will mean the end of dizzy spells & end of worry about not being able to leave on my trip. So far, so good. No more scary spells.

Now that I'm upright again, though staggering a bit, it's time to try re-occupying the bedroom to learn whether our war against the vampire bugs has triumphed. But first, we will purchase bug-proof jackets for mattress and box springs and bug-proof pillows to replace all our pillows, even my cherished down pillows. They've been baked, and a couple of the pillows have little shadow impressions of (presumably) bed bugs baked to a crisp in their dying last escape attempts. Shudder. I cannot really lay down my head again on those pillows. Fresh start. Any bed bugs still alive (or newly hatched) inside the mattress will at least not be able to get out. I wish they were capable of intense psychic suffering during the 18 months it takes for one to die of starvation! None have been observed venturing out during the night to crawl over the mattress, so maybe we actually got them all. Nevertheless, bug jackets will cover all mattresses from now on.