We've had a cough running through the family for who knows how many months now. We can't seem to get over it. As soon as you think you're good, you get it again.
I have a few theories:
1. Blame it on the weather. Yesterday it was 73 degrees. Today is is 27 and snowing. Last week it was 5 degrees and two days later it was 59. Such extreme differences in temperature over a 24-48 hour period.
It's crazy! That's got to do something to your body, right?
2. The house could use a deep cleaning to get rid of lingering germs. Yes, this is quite true. Sadly, it's not likely to happen.
3. The alignment of the planets. Not understanding such things, I wouldn't know if Jupiter was in the 2nd house or not. Oh no, wait, when the Moon is in the 2nd house and Jupiter aligns with Mars then we'll have world peace. I think Neptune is currently aligned with Mercury and that's why we still have our coughs.
4. An evil wizard named Lug put a curse on our house and we have the dreaded "Cloud of Cough" hanging over our home. I need to find a Hogwarts graduate to see if they can remove the curse.
5. By continuously doing laundry, I'm keeping our family clean which means that our immune system isn't exposed to germs which means we get and stay sick. Maybe I should quit doing laundry.
6. The little kids who have coughs don't ever cover their mouths when they cough. They cough on the table while we are trying to eat. They cough in my face when I'm holding them. They cough on the food. And if by some miracle they do cover their mouth with their hands when they cough, they never wash their hands and then they touch me with their germ covered hands.
Personally, I'm thinking it's the evil wizard and the "Cloud of Cough" curse, but I guess I could be wrong.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Friday, February 04, 2011
The Big One
My kids (and me too) like watching the Penguins of Madagascar. One of the episodes questions the foursome, "Are you ready for The Big One?"
After this week, we are asking ourselves the same question. Are we ready for The Big One?
What is The Big One?
For us it has been emergency planning. Due to unusually cold weather in this part of the country, the electric company can't handle the demands. We've had to endure rolling blackouts. In three days we've had 5. I expect there will be more today. It's not that bad. We haven't minded it at all. They only last for an hour. We can certainly endure an hour without power. We've had fun with it and it's forced family time without electronics. We've played games and told stories.
However, it has caused us to take a look at ourselves and ask the question of the day, "Are we ready for The Big One?" What if these power outages lasted for an entire day? An entire week? Could we survive?
We realized a few things:
1. We don't have as many candles as we thought. Actually, we might have a lot more in a large bucket in the garage. Unfortunately, when the power goes out, we can't find that bucket. Those candles aren't helping us. We don't have any extra batteries either for the flashlights.
2. We don't have more than two candle holders. That's a problem when you can only use two candles at a time because you don't have a way to hold more. It's silly, but I had never thought about that before. We took care of that with a little innovation: Hubby drilled holes in several pieces of wood. They hold candles! Problem solved!
3. Water. We thought we were doing pretty well with our water. After all, we have two huge containers in the garage of water. Well, with temps being in the single digits this week, the water in those containers aren't much use to us. This delima was really thrown at us when we had a water pipe burst and we had to shut down our water for several hours. We survived, but it wasn't pretty. We're still working on that.
4. Cooking. Actually, this is where we are most prepared. We've got a BBQ grill and a camp grill. Extra charcoal would be good. I know how to cook just about anything on an open flame, so we are OK.
5. Heat. We've kept the thermostat pretty low so it is quite cool in the house. The kids are still running around without socks and in short sleeves. Some are even wearing shorts. So, if we loose heat for a longer amount of time we'll just put on better clothes and wrap up in the many blankets we've got stashed all over the house.
Are we ready for The Big One? Not quite, but, we aren't too bad off. There is certainly room for improvement, but we are happy with the progress we've made thus far.
After this week, we are asking ourselves the same question. Are we ready for The Big One?
What is The Big One?
For us it has been emergency planning. Due to unusually cold weather in this part of the country, the electric company can't handle the demands. We've had to endure rolling blackouts. In three days we've had 5. I expect there will be more today. It's not that bad. We haven't minded it at all. They only last for an hour. We can certainly endure an hour without power. We've had fun with it and it's forced family time without electronics. We've played games and told stories.
However, it has caused us to take a look at ourselves and ask the question of the day, "Are we ready for The Big One?" What if these power outages lasted for an entire day? An entire week? Could we survive?
We realized a few things:
1. We don't have as many candles as we thought. Actually, we might have a lot more in a large bucket in the garage. Unfortunately, when the power goes out, we can't find that bucket. Those candles aren't helping us. We don't have any extra batteries either for the flashlights.
2. We don't have more than two candle holders. That's a problem when you can only use two candles at a time because you don't have a way to hold more. It's silly, but I had never thought about that before. We took care of that with a little innovation: Hubby drilled holes in several pieces of wood. They hold candles! Problem solved!
3. Water. We thought we were doing pretty well with our water. After all, we have two huge containers in the garage of water. Well, with temps being in the single digits this week, the water in those containers aren't much use to us. This delima was really thrown at us when we had a water pipe burst and we had to shut down our water for several hours. We survived, but it wasn't pretty. We're still working on that.
4. Cooking. Actually, this is where we are most prepared. We've got a BBQ grill and a camp grill. Extra charcoal would be good. I know how to cook just about anything on an open flame, so we are OK.
5. Heat. We've kept the thermostat pretty low so it is quite cool in the house. The kids are still running around without socks and in short sleeves. Some are even wearing shorts. So, if we loose heat for a longer amount of time we'll just put on better clothes and wrap up in the many blankets we've got stashed all over the house.
Are we ready for The Big One? Not quite, but, we aren't too bad off. There is certainly room for improvement, but we are happy with the progress we've made thus far.
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