Where oh where have I been?

I'd love to say I've been MIA here the last couple of months because I was on a trip to Singapore and Australia like Maddie Griggs at The World From My Window.

I should be so lucky. Those places are warm now.

(Does anybody in the Midwest or on the East Coast remember warm, or what the world looks like without ice or snow?)

Alas, I only got as far as Oklahoma (twice), trips I intended to post about if the mother of all colds hadn't got hold of me.

Instead of going away after a week or so like a "normal" cold would, this one hung on...and on...and on. For a month and a half.

According to a friend in New Jersey, everyone she knows there had the same thing. Forever. Regardless of age or life style.

And what a sneaky germ it was. After a few days, I'd feel better and think I was getting over it, then wham!...it'd knock me on my keister again.

Cold medicine and doubling up on vitamins didn't help. Cough syrup only helped a little and only intermittently. Kleenex became my constant companion.

Personally, I think I caught it at the hospital where my grandson was born on the 6th of January.

I always wash my hands thoroughly after using a public toilet. But others may not, so I'm very careful about not touching communal surfaces like door handles and such in public places without a paper towel (or in a pinch, the cuff of my coat) between my fingers and any germs the less fastidious may've left behind.

That leaves airborne germs, which I may've inhaled in the elevator going up or coming down from my daughter-in-law's room, or even in the small, enclosed waiting room. Who knows.

At any rate, by the following Tuesday I was sneezing and coughing so much that I stayed completely away from the new grandbaby. A total bummer since Son, D-I-L and Grandbaby would shortly be moving to Oklahoma.

After 4 days, I felt better. Not 100%, but better. I was certain I'd live after all...until it hit me again.

And that's how it went for the next six weeks. Get a little better, then worse, then better, then worse again.

I forgot what it was like to swallow without pain. Even when the coughing spells got to be few and far between, my throat muscles were still sore from coughing practically non-stop at the beginning, so any coughing was agony until I began taking two aspirins every four hours.

The worst part was having no energy for anything not absolutely necessary.

The trips to Oklahoma were necessary, the first to help Son and Family move, the second to deliver items they'd left behind. Didn't help that it was dry but cold the first time, and wet and cold the second.

The part of my brain that composes witty or informative (or witty and informative) blog posts ceased to function. Total mush. But I did get rather good at Spider Solitaire thanks to the laptop I could take to bed.

Or I read. Managed to finish Max (Mr. Agatha Christie) Mallowan's memoirs and Volume One of Jennie. When I didn't have the energy to read, I watched TV, mostly PBS and mostly travel and cooking programs I didn't know existed BMC (before monster cold) because they air when I'd normally be blogging.

Once, I thought I was well enough to help a friend change the template on her blog. Instead, I somehow screwed up the code for Sat's Child, then didn't have enough functioning brain cells to figure out how to fix it until a week later.

Apologies to any of you who came here during that time and noticed things "weren't quite right". They weren't.

I began to wish I'd caught the dreaded H1N1 flu instead. Seriously.

Yes, I would've been at death's door for a week or two, but at the end of that time I would've been well or dead. Either way, done with it, not wandering around for weeks not really sick sick, but not my normal peppy self either.

For as long as I can remember, my mother was a prescription drug junkie, so it takes an Act of Congress to get me to take anything stronger than aspirin. But when rest and being nice to myself didn't shake this thing, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and visit the nearest walk-in clinic for antibiotics.

Maybe deciding to seek medical help was enough to kick my immune system into overdrive. Or maybe Monster Cold had finally run out of steam.

The very next morning, instead of dragging myself to the clinic, I popped right out of bed and did the dishes. Then the laundry. Then I vacuumed. All before my second cup of coffee. Like I used to do before Monster Cold took over. (Okay, the vacuuming was only on Saturday mornings...)

At any rate, I didn't just feel "better", I felt normal. Never dreamed I'd ever be thrilled to do housework, but I was! Hallelujah!

So I'm back, with a HUGE THANKS! to all of you who didn't un-follow me while I was MIA.


Have a GREAT day!