Where I Once Had a Head Full of Thoughts of Happiness and Daily Things, There is Only Strange Darkness Now and in the Darkness This Bird Sings

Ok, I haven’t posted in awhile so I figured I better check in. Life’s been pretty crazy around here lately. First, the mrs. has had pneumonia. It started a couple of weeks ago with what seemed like a typical cold. Then that cold turned into a bad cough and chest congestion that didn’t go away. So, she went to the doctor and it turned out that she had bronchitis caused by a bacterial infection. No problem, just take this antibiotic and you’ll be fine in a few days. In a few days she was even worse and was completely bed-stricken. The cough was uncontrollable and she was in all out pain and misery. Over the weekend she decided that the antibiotics obviously weren’t doing their job, so she went into urgent care to see if she could get a different kind. Well, they did some blood tests, took some x-rays and sure enough that bacterial bronchitis had turned into pneumonia. They gave her a breathing treatment, a new antibiotic, an inhaler, and a cough medicine chock full of codeine and told her to go home and rest. And rest she did. The good news is that yesterday she went back to the doctor and the diagnosis looks good. Even though she was not “out of the woods” yet, she got the green light to get out of quarantine and return to work (half days). She still has a bad cough, but that will probably linger for a little while longer. I’m just happy that after two weeks this thing is finally turning around for her. That pneumonia thing is pretty scary stuff. People die from that, you know.

The girls also started back to school this week. So, on top of being Dr. John (no, not that Dr. John) I was also getting the young’uns ready for their 9-month complacentcy and socialization indoctrination program. My youngest is just starting kindergarten this year. I’m so proud of her. Just think, in just twelve years she will be docile, disillusioned, beat down by the system, and completely devoid of any individuality. Ahh… to be young again…

Anyway, since the mrs. was pretty much in bed and out of commission, I was taking the girls to school, picking them up, making sure they were fed, dressed, and bathed, helping with homework and all that other stuff you have to do when you have kids in the house. Who knew they would be more than just a nice tax deduction?

Just kidding, actually I’m pretty domesticated. I cook, clean, wash dishes, do the laundry, and fix the girls’ lunches on a regular basis. If you don’t believe me you can ask my wife. You may want to wait a while though, because attempting to talk might induce a coughing fit…

So, I guess what I’m saying is that I haven’t been blogging much lately because of all of this stuff going on. Of course, my posts have been erratic for months now, but at least this time I have an excuse. I’m going away this weekend so I should have another post next week if you want to check back in then. There should be pictures and everything (wow!).

What? Why would I be going on a trip when my wife is just getting over pneumonia? Am I some kind of insensitive, brainless idiot? Well, yes, but here’s the deal: we booked the hotel back in May on one of those super-low internet rates. The catch was that you had to pay in advance and it was non-refundable. So… basically, if we don’t use those rooms then we are out 3 days of hotel rates. Plus we had big plans to meet up with the mrs.’s mom and her husband while we were there. They usually come out here every year on Labor Day, but this time we thought it would be cool if we met somewhere in the middle and see something new and different. So we picked South Dakota. We will drive north and they will be driving west from Minnesota. We planned to hang out in the Black Hills (like Rocky Raccoon) and do all kinds of touristy things like seeing Mount Rushmore and stuff. We were going to just scrap the whole plan and have the mrs.’s mom come out here instead, but the mrs. feels that she is up for the journey and the doctor said it was ok, so we’re going. We are going to try to take it easy, though, and not do anything too strenuous or crazy. Just a relaxing weekend out of town with the in-laws.

Don’t laugh, it’s possible…

So, that’s what’s going on. Thanks faithful readers for hanging in there. Thanks again, Sass, for those music recommendations. I had some other ones passed along to me as well, but I’ll be honest with everything going on I haven’t had much of a chance to check them out. I did see an interview with the guy from The National in The Onion AV Club that you might want to check out, SLG. Have a good Labor Day everyone. It’s my favorite holiday.