I didn't escape the cooties.  I have spent a few days feeling very cold but without a fever along with a general lethargy and very heavy/tired eyes.  Last night I was literally crawling into bed at 7:30 and I enjoyed every minute of sleep.

The most annoying part is that there is crud draining which has my cough /sore throat firing up again.  While most of my cough went away at the start of February (after torturing me for the full month of January) I periodically had a hack.  I guess I'm to the point where I should consider a trip to the doctor for the cough, but I see the sinus drainage correlation, so maybe it isn't worth it.  It also isn't in my lungs, it's truly in my throat, but I do worry about any type of lung issues.

I've been trying to power through two shows on Netflix.  It's been a while since I found something there worth watching - go figure my favorite egg plans on canceling his subscription the second I find things to watch  The first, Resident Alien, came recommended from one of my Starbucks friends.  The second is Six Feet Under which I found my happenstance.  They aren't earth shattering, but I'm enjoying them.

Girl seemed to be doing well mid-day yesterday but then her eyes started to tear again and looked red.  Looking online for guidance I pulled out the lubricating eye drops I had in our emergency medical supplies and gave her a warm compress.  I called her pediatrician late in the afternoon to see if I should take her in somewhere (concerned about pink eye) and learned that this is basically what has been going around and that it is likely to come and go in waves.  I also learned that I took the right action on the eyes, so that's reassuring.  They also advocated for ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen (tylenol), which was fortunately available via the nearest Walgreens.  I guess since the fever was low enough I needed to let it ride.  I also snagged some ear drops as I noticed this gap in my emergency supplies after a neighbor highlighted this symptom as an issue she was having in her household.

I post all of this to spread the word in some capacity.  Either way, she was 110% herself at bed time last night and seemed a-ok this morning, so off to school she went.  I'm hoping we don't ride the roller coaster the pediatrician's office warned me of, but I guess we'll see.

As for me, I have a dentist appointment today.  Wish me luck.

This is a first - kiddo stayed home from school today.  She just wasn't herself all day yesterday.  Then she became very tired late in the afternoon and was reading a fever.  She went to bed super early (at her request).  This also means she was up super early today.  I came down (about 15 minutes before her alarm was set for) to find her fully dressed for school and watching TV.  Given the fever late in the day yesterday, I had her stay home.  Hopefully this is just a quick thing and I don't get this gift.  I've heard so many people going back and forth with the sick that's been going around - I admit, I'm a bit nervous.  I guess that's my reminder to go give her more vitamins and emergen-c.

Flooring update - I'm exasperated.  I had a second location measure.  They indicated that I would need to do glue-down (due to spotting a bowing in the floor in my hallway).  This, of course, reduces the options I have significantly.  It wiped out all but one flooring option I had liked the look of at that location.  The one that remains?  Yep, it's one of their most expensive flooring options.  While I didn't have an idea of a $ amount, I am in complete sticker shock.  It would wipe out my entire slush fund and a bit more.  They offer 0% financing, but I was really hoping to not need to go in such directions.

The first place that measured didn't notice any issue with the floor.  Because I haven't picked something they haven't given me any pricing, which is a bit frustrating.  I've been back and forth from there bringing home samples to look at.  I am just not finding something I like that looks ok (in my opinion) with both my cabinets and counter tops.  Too gray, too beige, too busy, too plain.  I am officially the flooring Goldilocks.

I've been in this house for 8 years (and four days).  Time really flies.  I had this epiphany last night right before bed -- because I realized I hadn't gotten a bill for my home owners insurance (which should have needed to be re-issued on Feb 8).  Now, I did pay off the house, so you're probably thinking "well, you didn't contact them" to which I'll note that I got the pre-bill mailing that says "THIS IS NOT A BILL.  A SEPARATE BILL WILL FOLLOW." -- but it didn't.

Needless to say this stressed me out a bit, but I did manage to leave a message so my insurance office would call me this morning and allowed it to roll off my back enough that I slept ok.  Today they called and noted that a bill wasn't sent out yet and it isn't due until early March (which is odd since my mortgage paid it in February last year, but ok).  They made sure records indicated the bill needed to come to me.  Crisis averted.  Premiums are up yet another $100 this year.  I can't believe I'm going to phrase this in a positive light, but I've heard of people having premiums double, so I'll take it.

I found adapter plugs that eliminate my previous frustration.  Let's be honest, for $4, even w/ a working arm I might have taken this lazy route.  Those should arrive on Thursday, but the replacement detector won't be here until the 20th or so.  I bought a two-pack thinking that I should also swap out the basic smoke detector in the basement (near the furnace) for smoke/carbon monoxide.  In theory it should all work, and if it doesn't or causes too many false positives I can always swap it back out.

Friday I got my registration for the car.  They've raised that price too.  2023 $39.00, 2024 $39.50, 2025 $45.00 - seriously you email me something I have to print myself.  How does that cost another $5.00?  Based on the stories swirling about perhaps it will slush a legal fund for our Governor.

I also had the first individual here to measure as I prepare to replace flooring.  Of course I didn't get any numbers and I need to go back up to their store when I can spend more time looking through the options.  The kick in the nards there is that they don't move certain things -- like adjustable beds (which I have) -- and they have to be fully vacated.  Um... I can barely move that thing to clean behind it.  That might be a deal breaker.

The last of the body tenderness is finally leaving.  I have 10 days until my next massage.  Hopefully we can deal with any lingering tightness then.  There is major flu floating around (several variants).  I'm really hoping my house can escape that mess - I put in my time throughout January.  Reminder to take your vitamins.

I thought I had won my own personal lottery.  The smoke/carbon monoxide detector started beeping a week and a half ago -- but not at 2am.  It was a relatively reasonable hour with the exception that it was the only day I get to lay in bed longer.  By the time I had the dog out and came back upstairs to figure out which one it was it had stopped.  A couple of days later it started again -- this time at 9am on a work day, even better.  I changed out the batteries, counted my blessings that it wasn't beeping in the middle of the night and went about my day.

Here we are on Friday after this started and it's beeping again.  The batteries are good, I know it.  So I look it up.  Every 30 seconds beep means that it is nearing end of life (rather than 1 beep every 60 seconds).  Lesson learned.  But in the mean time, it won't stop beeping - and while I keep plenty of batteries here to avoid this annoyance I do not keep extra smoke detectors.

I certainly hope that the same brand still uses the same connectors and should be an easy swap, but until I see it I'm not going to expect it.  My first thought was, should one just replace all of them at once?  I mean they're all 10 years old.  Then I saw the price of one.  Ouch.  It's discontinued hence the high price.  The replacement they point you to?  It has a different connection, so I'd need to swap out the connector to the hardwires.  Keep in mind I still have one arm that doesn't go up, hence I haven't change the light fixture over the sink in the basement yet.  Good times.

95%.  Still just a wee bit.  My whole chest cavity remains sore, the feeling like after you had an extreme workout when out of shape.  I'm pulling out the massager today to try and loosen things up.

Since my last post I have stopped in to several more flooring places including another that seems on the 'higher' end, the place that did my upstairs bathrooms/laundry room a year ago, and home depot to review what they carry.  I'm still not blown away by anything.  There really is very little variety out there in carpet colors, just gradients or beige or gray, or beige and gray.

I feel like I'm doomed to pick something that "will do" rather than finding something that I immediately fall in love with if I want to do this relatively near term.  Heck, the quotes may come in so outrageous that doing this near term isn't even an option -- and that's based in part on my guestimates.  Here's my guess based on some of the numbers I've seen - carpet w/ the upgraded padding 8-9k; lvp 6-7k or ceramic around 10k.  If that's where things start to land that definitely doesn't leave me wanting to do everything all at once and it nixes some of the other upgrades that I'd want to do at the same time.  Dear lottery (or wealthy benefactors on their deathbed that I am not aware of), a girl could use a hand.  Thanks.

I'm at 90% - periodic coughs, particularly when I over extend myself.  I'll take it.  I truly lost the whole month of January.  Yesterday I finally took the really large bin of Christmas stuff back to the basement and only suffered a minor coughing fit.

Saturday was brisk but the sun was out, so Avery and I spent most of the day outside with her neighbor friends.  I needed the fresh air and companionship.  I came in a bit windburned and frozen to the core which had me taking a super hot shower and sitting on the couch in layers of clothes and blankets.  Maybe that's what dislodged the last bit of ick?  I'm left with just a little bit of rib cage soreness.

Friday I popped into one flooring store that I expect to be a bit overpriced.  They didn't quite have what I'm looking for instore, and didn't have some of the options I saw on the website.  While the lady that helped me mentally took me back to my youth, and not for a good reason, I still have her coming to measure and give me general estimates.  I figure it will give me the higher number so I can start to figure out my path forward.

I say take me back to my youth because... when I started looking at one section of carpet she tried to nudge me away from it to the other side of the store and basically told me that carpet was the very expensive/high end stuff.  Granted, I went in there dressed a bit like a bum... but even I learned when I was 16 waiting tables to not take a look at someone and make a financial assessment.  I remember this happening to me distinctly once when I was younger and it was a running joke w/ the ex and I.  I went to ?Market Basket in Johnstown, we had friends coming (one of which I know reads this blog).  I wanted to buy filet mignon and asked to have 4 cut to whatever thickness (I don't remember).  The butcher said "you know this is X $ a lb, right?"  The ex had bought me jewelry periodically.  He was good like that.  Looking as he (we) did, he would go into a store and he (we) would get ignored.  The place could have been empty and they would ignore the young 20-somethings in the dark clothes.  Eventually he found the gal that was our go to for jewelry shopping because she treated him like anyone else.  I'm sure her coworkers were pretty pissed about the commissions they lost.