Reality bites, Yoda's chocolate

[elfs]

As wrapped up in my own tired little world as I was yesterday, I barely remembered to record the interesting parts of my life. It all started pretty well, though: up at 6:30 and out the door at 7, driving through the thin fog down 509 was okay until we came over the hill and headed down into the light industrial valley on the south side of Seattle. The city was socked in, the fog was as thick as a politician, and rising over the Greenlake district I saw a thick column of mist ascending into the clouds to pierce a disc-shaped mass of clouds; it looked exactly like someone had nuked the Northside. Just to the left of it, steam rose out of the cement processing plant. Overall, it had the look of a city both in the process of being devastated and its eerie aftermath, all at the same time.

Work was okay. I ripped through quite a number of minor bugs, as that's what the schedule, and then headed over to resuce Omaha's laptop, Leda, from the repair people. Her backlight had been fading for a while, so they replaced it. Then I headed up to shemayazi's place, for dinner and conversation. That's about all we had the energy for; we were both dead to the world after only half a grueling week.

I got home in time to realize that I didn't have my laptop's power supply with me. That sucked, but it was late anyway and I didn't let it bother me.

At four in the morning, Kouryou-chan wakes us up with a terrible cough. It's that deep, raspy cough she seems to get every winter, only this time the humidifier is dead and we can't get it working. Hoping that the cough medicine would kick in soon, Omaha and I went back to bed. Omaha finally relented and tried to clear up the cough a little by taking Kouryou-chan outside, and that seemed to help a little. We were able to get back to bed by about 4:30 or so.

This morning, I headed out again in my car, this time only to hit the brakes again on the same downward track that heads into the industrial district. It was stop-and-go for an hour. A tractor-trailer had slammed into a power pole, blocking all three lanes of traffic and creating a nightmare downtown. Still, there is a silver lining to it: I was in my car long enough to finish lesson 48 of my Japanese conversational course.

For lunch, I went over to the supermarket to grab a sandwich. It was okay; it's kinda hit-or-miss with the Larry's Deli. On the other hand, I did find Dagoba Chocolate which is really good as chocolates go. Now who can pass up a confection made on Yoda's homeworld?

Comments

Humidification...

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Poor kid. What kind of heat do you have in the house? Anything that you could put a pie plate of water or a wet towel on (like a radiator)? That's what I had to do when I was younger, when we couldn't use the humidifier because of airborne molds, and in college, when we had too much heat and no humidity to speak of.

Hot shower is good humidifier

[(Anonymous)]

You can also turn on the shower as hot as possible, leave the shower curtain open and fill the bathroom with hot moist air. Sit with the child tell she breathes better.

Totally unasked for interjection.

[amberleewriter.livejournal.com]

Elf, I'm hoping out of my normal lurk space because of what you posted with regard to Kouryou-chan. You may have mentioned this in a post I missed, but has she seen allergist? I used to get a deep "smokers cough" that starts in fall and lasts until mid-spring. It usually shows up with my first cold of the season. They did tons of tests on my lungs when I was small because they thought it might be asthma. No go. What they figured out, when I was in my early twenties, is that I am allergic to dust and dust mites! In spring, summer, and early fall I spend most of my time outside and the humidity is low. Result - little exposure to the allergen. However, in colder months I would be indoors and in old school buildings - full of dust particles! Plus, mites can only breed if the humidity level is above 40%. All the years of my mother using a humidifier actually exacerbated the problem. Today I only get the cough when I am very sick. I manage my exposure by not having carpet, cleaning frequently, having HEPA filters in my home, etc. It's kind of a pain, but it keeps me from having to use inhalers during the winter months to control the irritation of my lungs.

Sorry for so much personal information there. It's just that it took fleets of doctors 23 years to figure out my problem so I when I hear of a small person that has similar symptoms I always mention what happened to me. It's helped a ton of kids now.

Hope she's feeling better!

My daughter has it

[flying-pegasus.livejournal.com]

My daughter has a slight cough,

Hot cup of water, add peppermint oil, I let her breathe it in.
Night time – popery candle holder, small candle with water peppermint oil.

Eucalyptus works will

Lavender oil helps my daughter sleep will. I sprinkle that on her pillow or in her tub.

Nutmeg does help with sore throats, some. Eggnog is in season.

I crush up Spirulina in my soups for my daughter. It will make her hyper, she downs it....ask for seconds.