Corks 'a Poppin', Nose 'a Plugged!


I’ve extended my days off from work by a couple of days due to a nasty cold – seems I’ve had some kind of cold since September, whereas I didn’t get sick once last year. I don’t seem to be the only one. Perhaps the absurdly mild winter we’ve been experiencing is at the root of it all. Anyway, like it or not, I hum my Buddhist mantra: “I am of the nature to become sick. There’s nothing I can do to stop from being sick. Acceptance.”

That being said, I have really impressed myself over the past few days, with a watershed being surpassed today in spite of my sizzling throat and globbed sinuses – literally. I have taken on doing a few plumbing repairs about our house. To give you some background, my handymanishness is limited to stacking wood – for god’s sake don’t give me an axe! Last home repair task I took on beyond the changing of a light bulb was replacing an old ceiling fan in our bathroom, resulting in a massive hole in the ceiling and a three inch gash on my forehead. What can I say, I am the product of a fatherless childhood. Actually, I also did a good job sanding and staining a coffee table in the Fall as well, but that’s pretty hard to mess up!

So, we had a leaking faucet in the bathtub for a few months. I dreaded calling in a plumber. Then our kitchen faucet went, so I decided ENOUGH! I hiked down to Home Depot and followed my first instinct which was to reach for a book on plumbing. Long story short, after six returns to the Home Depot (seriously!) and adding somewhat to my tool collection, I completed both tasks SUCCESSFULLY! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m waiting for the water to come rushing through the walls at any time, but fear aside, this feels great!

Snowballing forward from this, I spent the majority of my day sat by the fire reading the first book of Harry Turtledove’s “The Great War” series (it’s an alternative-nee-fictional account of the First World War where the U.S. Civil War ended differently and thus it’s the British-French-Confederacy-Canadian alliance against the Austro-Hungarian-German-U.S.A. alliance), soothing my throat with copious amounts of tea and talking to the dogs and cat. I then decided to play a game of Chess against the computer I purchased a few days ago. I had lost on the basic level 1 yesterday in my first attempt, and again with my second kick at the cat today. Then, after being decimated in my second game (and only utilising the “hint” option 5-6 times) I DEFEATED THE COMPUTER! Who cares if it was on level 1 out of 79 levels, I WON!

With momentum as my ally, I next pulled out my Sudoku book. BINGO! Again, in record time, in spite of Lucretius’ nagging in my sickly nose and head, I completed the puzzle without error at my first go (still on a pretty basic level there too: 3 stars). I felt great in spite of how bad I feel!

I’m a bit bummed because I had tix to see Bob Mould play in town here tomorrow, giving it away knowing that I still wouldn’t be up for a night of distorted guitars and hammering percussions of drums and bass. Anyway, this gave me the lift I needed through the inevitable sniffles one must endure throughout life, bearing in mind there are folks far less fortunate pertaining to their health. Carpe diem!