Chicken Soup, Hot Tea, and LOTS of Tissues

Yeah... it's that time of year.  The weather takes a sudden nose dive, temperature wise, and every last soul in the house is sick.  Fevers, aches, snotty noses, the works.  We're shuffling around looking like extras from Night of the Living Dead.  Hot tea, lemons, honey, and whiskey.  It worked for my Gramma, and it'll do for me.  But, it doesn't do much for my concentration, unfortunately.  I was making excellent time on the most recent job M sent my way, then BAM!  The cosmic Emeril threw some cootie bugs into the soup pot of my life to season it up.  Ugh.  We're all so fuzzy and muzzy that we barely can string sentences together.  Of course it doesn't help that we sound like we've got lemons stuffed up our noses.

On the bright side, B's new unit seems to be buckled down more tightly than the last one.  It's seemingly more organized and disciplined.  That makes me happy.  Granted, the new hours suck, lol.  One night he had to report at 0200, the next morning was 0400, and I have no idea what's going to happen next week.  He'll be going to some training courses around spring.  I guess that means we'll still be here at Hood, but if the unit is better, maybe B will be happier here than he has been.  Me, I can be happy anywhere.  I'm like one of the air plants they used to sell in the 80's.  I've got no roots to tear up, and I don't have to take time to put down new ones.  I just hope they don't keep us here for years on end.  I get so restless.  But, anyway, there's no sense borrowing tomorrow's troubles today.  I try to tell myself that a lot, but I don't listen too well.

I've been trying to stay away from people who aren't already down with this bug.  Fin came over yesterday evening with her midget.  Midget kept wanting me to hold her, but I didn't want to get my face any closer to hers than necessary.  The night before this mess decided to tackle me, Fin made some really yummy crock pot chicken stew and invited us over for dinner.  I pitched in some rice, and she filled my tupperware with stew and sent it back with me.  It sounded like a good idea at the time.  In retrospect it was a friggin AWESOME idea, because everyone knows chicken soup is good for colds, and I don't have to cook it.  Because, I don't even feel like cooking.  That's just plain sorriness, right there.

We had our first community clean up day the day before the cold got a hold of me, too.  It was kinda fun, though extremely disorganized, poorly executed, and poorly communicated.  Really, would it have killed them to give folks a little more information?  Or to be punctual about the community "formation"?  But, it was fun once everyone that was going to participate got out and got moving.  Housing didn't provide nearly the equipment that was necessary for the type of landscaping they wanted done, but we did what we could with what we had and called it good.  Supposedly a Sgt Major was inspecting later, but as far as I know (s)he never showed.

I think they ought to do the neighborhood cleanup more than twice a year.  Right now it's fall and spring.  Once a month, or once a week would be better.  It would maintain a higher level of neatness at all times. It would provide a more regular and frequent medium of introduction and interaction in the community.  We're so mobile, twice a year really doesn't instill any sense of community other than the meeting and greeting we do on our own.  And, it would be less of a chore, I think.  Less of an out of the norm ordeal.  I felt sprung on, really.  I had no notice, no chance to alter my normal routine to accommodate for it, and was more disgruntled by that than by the work itself.  Something more regularly scheduled would also become a part of a regular routine, and less ... I dunno what word I'm looking for, but I think you know what I'm getting at.

Anyway, really exciting news, I know.  Not much really exciting happens in my hermitage, but there you have it.