Went to the doctor. He said that the cough didn’t sound bacterial (not wet enough), my O2 levels were fine, BP 113/73, temperature a little bit subnormal, and there was only the barest touch of a wheeze in my breathing.

Okay, so I’m not having heart troubles, pulmonary embolisms, pneumonia, or anything else serious

“Malaise.” That’s his diagnosis. More rest, lots of fluids, and vitamins.

I’m not a guy who WANTS to be sick, nor do I WANT to have a pile of antibiotics or other otics/istamines/oids/whatevers packed into me. I just want to not get light-headed after a flight of stairs, and to sleep through the night. “Malaise” sounds WAAAY too much like “hypochondria” for my tastes.

*sigh*

I’ll go to bed on time. I’ll drink lots of fluids. I’ll take my vitamins. And at 8:40am I’m flying to Chicago for a day-trip presentation (6.5 hours in the air, .9 hours in taxis, 1.6 hours commuting to the airport, all for 90 minutes of my “schtick”) and by gum, I’m going to FEEL GOOD DOING IT.

–Howard

I don’t know WHAT is wrong with me today, but I’m loopy.

A year or so ago I had a mild anaphylactic reaction to my allergy shots, and they gave me a shot of ephedrine to pull me out of it. I feel today like I felt after getting that shot — loopy, shaky, and perpetually tired.

This morning I was afraid to drive myself to work, I was so loopy, so I called in sick for the AM, and took a nap. I was out for almost 90 minutes, and when I came to I was still tired, but less loopy. I got myself into the office just fine, got a couple of emails answered, and then lay down on the floor of my office for another hour. Gah!

All I can figure is that the store-brand “nyquil” I took last night at 11:00pm is not settling well with me. There aren’t any other medications in my system. But that stuff shouldn’t still be around 15 hours later — here it is 2:00pm, and I’m STILL tired and loopy.

The good news is I’m pretty sure I’m going to be okay driving myself HOME.

–Howard

Yesterday I took Gleek to Blockbuster video. I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow, and just let you know that she picked “Rainbow Brite: Horse of a Different Color” all by herself. None of my kids had ever seen this particular sappy, sweet, horrid, 80’s-era cartoon. Naturally, they’re all quite taken with it.

This morning Sandra drove halfway to Pocatello to swap Howler for Kiki. Upon arriving home three hours later, Gleek ran downstairs and popped in the video. I’ve caught bits of it, and the video saccharine is almost instantly carcinogenic with just a single exposure.

On my way back downstairs to pencil I caught the intro. “… She lives far away in Rainbow-land …”

Ugh. Not far enough.

–Howard

This morning at 8:00 Sandra and I were at UVRMC (the local “big” hospital) for her MRI. I decided that rather than sit for an hour in a sterile waiting room playing with my new Blackberry device, I’d go get some breakfast. So I went to McDonald’s, and that took all of 10 minutes.

So I drove around.

UVRMC is at the northwestern corner of what I call “central Provo.” That’s where the grid of streets gets interrupted by the Grandview hill, and in the heart of that grid are a few places that were pretty important to me a decade ago.

I drove past the Acadamy Square library, built in the gutted-then-renovated facade of the old Brigham Young Acadamy. From there I drove past the little house on the 400 block of 2nd east where Sandra and I had our first married apartment, living downstairs from my friend the genius after whom I named “Kevyn” a decade later.

I drove a couple of blocks over to 341n 300e, which was my last “single” apartment — a house I shared with four other guys and a married couple who got the basement. I drove past the first LDS church Sandra and I attended as a married couple. I looked at the contstruction-atop-a-smoking-hole where the ratty old piano store used to be, where I worked for about 4 months.

I circled BYU campus, where I graduated about 11 years ago with my Bachelor’s Degree in music composition. On my way back towards the hospital I drove past 876N 300W, where RMS Audio and HoTay productions joined forces in 1995 to create Sanctus Records (which I sold off six years later). And finally, I drove past the house where Chalain was living when I first met him.

“Central Provo” used to seem much bigger.

–Howard