Dad ramblings

Let's start with some uncommented and out-of-context kid pics!

Today I am at home sick. The doctor says it's some kind of opportunistic infection to which I was made vulnerable by allergies, or allergies to which I was made vulnerable by some kind of infection. Anyway, it sucks. I am coughing, snotty, and have a rotten sore throat. I can only croak intermittantly and I curl up into an unattractive Monty Burns posture when I cough, because the relevant muscles are so sore after four days of this.

Yeah I know, it's not childbirth, get over it. More to come as we all get older. A great opportunity to ponder the limitations of the flesh.

Anyway, it was cool to be able to see a local doctor for $5. He was a nice young guy, unhurried and competent. It's good to have insurance when you need it.

He gave me some drug samples, wrote a couple of prescriptions, and listed some OTC meds he thought I should buy. Guess how many different medications? If you guessed seven, you are correct. One bottle of prescription nose spray cost $77.

I tried some of the drug cocktail yesterday but I still wasn't feeling much better, just dried out and dissociated from the cough syrup. In the evening I started gargling with cayenne pepper. This is touted as a miracle cure on various websites -- I found it more effective and much less unpleasant than the $15 chloraseptic throat spray, but not an instant cure.

The $77 nose spray is supposed to start working after a week or so, but it seems to me that most illnesses are going to start feeling better after a week or so no matter what you use, right?

What has helped instantly with the sinus problems has been regular use of G's neti pot. This produces instant relief, lasting for some hours, for the approximate cost of a teaspoon of salt. It'll never catch on.

In family news (from the Dad's perspective) we've been having a wonderful time as spring unrolls across NJ. The leaves are out and the season is truly underway. We were delighted to see tulips in all colors appear in our back yard, and the sadness of seeing the blossoms drop off has been largely assuaged by the joy of seeing all the new green.

Much of the initial green was an agressive hegemonising weed swarm that tried to eat the back yard. I beat it back with a shower of harmful chemicals to maintain the sanctioned monoculture. At this point the insurgency is in its last throes but I remain prepared to deliver a surge of more 1,5,8-disbiphenoxypropylacetate if stability is not achieved in a couple weeks.

Now it's mostly grass back there, and probably even safe for the baby to sit in. Or it would be, if he did not have the impulse to grab and eat anything smaller than his head. Although we're cool with the idea that he is going to eat a certain amount of dirt and bugs, there was an incident with a stick last week that raised some choking concerns.

We planted some flowers and some herbs in the boxes by the side of the house and they seem to be thriving. We buried a bunch of other things in the dirt around the house and they are displaying a more varied set of behaviors. I've discovered I quite like yard work, once I get into the groove.

Home remedy update: I'm now sipping a cup of hot isotonic saline with a half-teaspoon of extra-hot chili powder steeped in it. It's effective on the sort throat and actually pretty tasty. Not at all like the yucky medicinal deadening of the Chloraseptic. Next time maybe I will try chicken broth instead of the salt water.

Well, wife and child are home from the Mommy and Me hike at Schiff so I better sign off. It's been nice blogging at you, hope I get to do it again soon. Now go update your own so I can read it!