No, Really. I'm Fine ...

(Source)

Well ...

Spent most of the past week at home with yet another cold-like ailment. Stuffy sinuses, hacking cough, and a general feeling of ennui¹. I expended three days of PTO in order to stay home and recover. I worked Thursday, that's it. And walked away with a "why am I still doing this?" feeling. Ah, because The Missus Herself says so. I get it, I really do, I just don't like it all that much.

On the upside, my new computer desk arrived, five days earlier than predicted.

On the downside ...

Saturday started off with me in abject misery, which as any woman knows, is guy-speak for "I don't feel well." I had The Missus Herself cancel a dinner engagement we had for that day. At an Italian restaurant, that's how sick I was. (The last time we had a dinner scheduled there the bridge on I-95 was closed due to deterioration. It's like the Fates don't want me to eat there ...)

So it was Saturday, I felt like a blivet² and I'm minding my own business watching Brooklyn Nine Nine on my computer³, when The Missus Herself announced that my computer desk had arrived and was sitting out on the deck waiting for me.

So of course, I decided to put the thing together. First though, I had to make space for it .(You do remember what that corner of the Home Office looked like, right?) That task started early Saturday afternoon. Around 2200 local, I decided that I would finish the desk on the morrow. The pictorial instructions, while good, were subject to some misinterpretation by the sickly.

Yes, after breakfast Sunday morning I went back to the desk, and had to undo a large portion of Saturday's work. I hadn't noticed that the instructions went from the frontal aspect of the desk, to a rear aspect and me, being hepped up on NyQuil, hadn't noticed.

But the desk eventually was finished and it is a magnificent thing to behold.

C'est magnifique, n'est-ce pas?
OAFS Photo

Now I need to haul off all the stuff I moved in order to put the new desk in. There are, shall we say, piles of stuff that are not going to move themselves.

Sigh ...

Why am I still working?

I did get my taxes done while I was away from my place of gainful employment. Once again Uncle Sam gets a check from me to squander on things. (Why does it always feel like I just gave a twenty to a homeless guy sitting outside of the liquor store, every time I do that?)

On the upside, Little Rhody will be sending me a check this year. I had heard a while back that the state was going to slowly back away from taxing military pensions, at something like 25% each year until they didn't tax them at all. So I went looking for that provision, turns out the state legislature went "whole hog" the first year. So I got to deduct all of that from my state taxes.

I did like their reasoning, the state wants to attract military retirees to the area. Seems we have lots of knowledge and a proven ability to follow instructions, the sort of things employers look for.

Well done Little Rhody, well done.

While I am starting to feel much better, it amazes me just how much phlegm the body generates with a viral infection. Seems like it's going to take weeks to clear it all out. On the upside, I am keeping one or two tissue manufacturers in the green (no pun intended). Yes, boys and girls, lots of facial tissues being expended in this new effort to clear my lungs, throat, and sinuses. Why, I'm sure someday I'll be back to breathing normally.

That is all.

¹ Which is one way the French say "boredom," but which I translate as "feel like shite."

² Five pounds of shite in a ten pound bag. An expression attributed to the Aussies on New Guinea during WWII.

³ While I do have a beautiful big TV downstairs, I tend not to wander from my computer room. The big TV is for when we have company. I stream most (read "all") things on my computer.