What's everybody doing today?

[backlash]

Be strong bro. they didn't consult me about my bro's tombstone and they got the color of his truck wrong!
In life, ever truck he drove was dark blue or black, he said red was bad luck. now he's stuck in one for eternity!

Our Mom had everything pre arranged so all I have to do is make sure they carved all the information correctly, and pay them $375 to set the headstone.

 

[Amish Heart]

I hate novacaine shots. Got five of them today to get three fillings. Felt out of sorts all day long. Headache and tired. Glad I don't have to do that again for awhile.
Going to bed. Told older granddaughter I'd take her in first thing in the morning to get her driver's license. So she is helping with the animals to get us out of here earlier. Have to stop by the pediatricians to get them to fill out a form for grandson's boy scout week (last minute, always), and then go bin shopping at the salvage store. So both granddaughters will need to be up and helpful early.

 

[Pearl]

I hate novacaine shots. Got five of them today to get three fillings. Felt out of sorts all day long. Headache and tired. Glad I don't have to do that again for awhile.
Going to bed. Told older granddaughter I'd take her in first thing in the morning to get her driver's license. So she is helping with the animals to get us out of here earlier. Have to stop by the pediatricians to get them to fill out a form for grandson's boy scout week (last minute, always), and then go bin shopping at the salvage store. So both granddaughters will need to be up and helpful early.

Hope you sleep well!!

 

[Magus]

Doing a deep info dive and calling up old friends, something huge is going on and I want to mentally be ready anyway!

 

[Magpie]

The sun is poking through the slate sky here- at last! I've made more jam and pastry, gathered all the heels of bread in my freezer and made breadcrumbs. Going to clean out the hen house, pick blackcurrants, earth up potatoes and check what seeds I can still plant. Dinner is made so this evening I plan on working on some writing. Have a great day all!

 

[Pearl]

The usual!! Going to work, take a fast nap when I get home. I do have to run by Walmart fast! All my morning outside work is done. Just another "in my rut" day!

 

[snappy1]

Had to go into town, yesterday. Walmart was surprisingly well stocked, even looking down the aisles I don't go to.
Haven't walked yet today. Am in slow motion.
Will walk dogs after I walk.
Take ebay photos.
Maybe dehydrate corn kernels.
Bible study tonight.

 

[goshengirl]

Learning how completely and pathetically unprepared we are. Tornado hit yesterday a mile from our house - everyone here is unharmed and no major property damage. But no power means no water due to cistern pump - and the cistern is low anyway (called in a truck delivery yesterday but haven’t heard back, probably won’t now).

We’ve lived without AC, but I wasn’t prepared for how hot it would be without a fan. Concerned about our freezers, but hubby will bring home his generator this evening (he had to close out his business but still has some equipment).

I’ve never seen so many downed power lines, it’s near impossible to get around. Fortunately nearby towns were largely unaffected and still have all their services.

We will be totally fine, and it’s really just an inconvenience more than anything else. I’ve seen the houses half a mile away and have absolutely nothing to complain about. Just grumpy after having a hot, sleepless night.

Lots to do today just meeting our needs. Lord knows this family needed a wake-up call. I need to do a much better job with preparedness - so many things are getting my attention now. And maybe now my family will help me with preparedness? Or at least not make fun of it or block my efforts?

 

[Chaosdawn]

@goshengirl I'm glad everyone's ok! I know how that feels, it was a tornado that forced me to start prepping. One came through my town and we were without power and water for 3 days with only a tiny generator to keep our fridge running. Taught me a lesson for sure.

 

[goshengirl]

Hugely grateful for all the first responders. As tornadoes go, this was a small one. But there were crews from all over here last night - the local Kroger served as headquarters and it was quite a sight seeing all the different styles of trucks and gear all together. They came fast, too.
And our own guys working late into the night making welfare checks on foot - no small job in our semi-rural community.

 

[goshengirl]

@Chaosdawn, I can totally relate! And here I’ve been prepping-ish, but boy did I fail.
We had a week without power about 15 years ago, but that was in a suburban home with public water. This not having water scenario is a game changer for sure.

 

[Wingnut]

A solar-powered pump is one answer... any pump tied to the electrical grid will be useless when the grid goes down. A generator is another way to deal with that problem, but a backup hand pump (with hoses) is also a good idea... this straight from a guy I know who lives in the boondocks.

Went to bed last night feeling fine, but the 'bug' crept back overnight... woke in the wee hours bathed in sweat and running a mild temperature. Drank plenty of water and swapped sides on the bed, then drifted back to sleep. Woke this morning with my joints feeling "creaky"---definitely bug-related, as there's no other reason for it.

Once I started moving around this morning, most of the "creakiness" vanished, but boy, I sure felt OLD there for awhile, lol. Gonna hammer the bug with the same fluid regimen today, it can't last much longer... I feel alright now, but I'm not up to home rehab work, that'll wait till the bug is entirely gone.

I think the bug tried to 'migrate' to other parts of my body, namely the joints, but the bug isn't strong enough to last, my immune system has always been fierce. However, it looks like I'll be taking it easy again today... I already watered a bit outside, did the dishes & took a shower, now I'm doing a load of laundry, no funky sheets tonight.

Oddly enough, I haven't lost my appetite, and I'm looking forward to a steak & egg sandwich later. I'll make a cheese omelet loaded with those hot peppers, maybe a little fresh onion & tomato... set that aside, cut some of that fresh Italian bread loaf and slap mayo on it, shave thin slices of steak to pile on one side, add a slab of omelet and the other slice of bread.

Should be mighty tasty, and those hot peppers will burn the virus to a crisp, lol... but for now, I'm just gonna drink more fluids, maybe watch a movie and let my body recover from this pesky little bug. I checked out some DVDs from our local library, doesn't cost anything to do that, maybe I'll go with 'AMERICAN SNIPER'---haven't seen that in a while, lol.

 

[LadyLocust]

Learning how completely and pathetically unprepared we are. Tornado hit yesterday a mile from our house - everyone here is unharmed and no major property damage. But no power means no water due to cistern pump - and the cistern is low anyway (called in a truck delivery yesterday but haven’t heard back, probably won’t now).

We’ve lived without AC, but I wasn’t prepared for how hot it would be without a fan. Concerned about our freezers, but hubby will bring home his generator this evening (he had to close out his business but still has some equipment).

I’ve never seen so many downed power lines, it’s near impossible to get around. Fortunately nearby towns were largely unaffected and still have all their services.

We will be totally fine, and it’s really just an inconvenience more than anything else. I’ve seen the houses half a mile away and have absolutely nothing to complain about. Just grumpy after having a hot, sleepless night.

Lots to do today just meeting our needs. Lord knows this family needed a wake-up call. I need to do a much better job with preparedness - so many things are getting my attention now. And maybe now my family will help me with preparedness? Or at least not make fun of it or block my efforts?

I put but don't mean that because folks lost their homes etc. but because maybe it was a blessing in disguise for your family.

 

[TeeJ]

Hugely grateful for all the first responders. As tornadoes go, this was a small one. But there were crews from all over here last night - the local Kroger served as headquarters and it was quite a sight seeing all the different styles of trucks and gear all together. They came fast, too.
And our own guys working late into the night making welfare checks on foot - no small job in our semi-rural community.

@goshengirl - glad you are ok, tornadoes are no joke! Whenever we have wildfires nearby all of the 1st responders camp out in the baseball fields outside our old Jr High. Crews come from all over - I'm always so grateful they will leave their homes and families and sleep on the ground to risk their lives for our safety.

Whenever we lost power at our house in Ohio we were without water because of our well pump. It ran on 220, and at the time a generator that could handle that was outside our price range. We learned to fill up every bathtub, bucket and jug when a storm was approaching. We came up with a method where we'd use water for something like washing dishes and then it would do double duty to flush toilets... It's amazing how much water you need for a couple of days!

 

[Peanut]

Glad you were spared @goshengirl but sorry for your troubles… a few ideas. My power goes off 12-15 times a year, a royal pain. But after years of practice I know what works here. I keep a couple of IBC totes around, 275g capacity. At least one tank is full of water in warm months. I have a small 1” honda self priming trash pump. You can buy both for less than $750. (be aware 275g of water weighs 2300lbs). You can get the tanks new or used. I don’t mind used tanks as long as I know what was in them previously.

I sometimes have livestock that needs water when the power goes off. I can access several streams or creeks from a road. I put a tote on a small trailer. Takes 10min to fill a 275g tank with the trash pump. For human consumption it’d need to be filtered of course.

Long story short, I keep a small gasoline powered pump and tanks around. I can get all the water I need. (I also have sand bags so I can damn up a shallow creek to make a pool for pumping.)

pics, ibc tote and 1" honda trash pump.

 

[TeeJ]

Glad you were spared @goshengirl but sorry for your troubles… a few ideas. My power goes off 12-15 times a year, a royal pain. But after years of practice I know what works here. I keep a couple of IBC totes around, 275g capacity. At least one tank is full of water in warm months. I have a small 1” honda self priming trash pump. You can buy both for less than $750. (be aware 275g of water weighs 2300lbs). You can get the tanks new or used. I don’t mind used tanks as long as I know what was in them previously.

I sometimes have livestock that needs water when the power goes off. I can access several streams or creeks from a road. I put a tote on a small trailer. Takes 10min to fill a 275g tank with the trash pump. For human consumption it’d need to be filtered of course.

Long story short, I keep a small gasoline powered pump and tanks around. I can get all the water I need. (I also keep sand bags in storage, so I can damn up a creek to make a pool that can be pumped from.)

pics, ibc tote and 1" honda trash pump.

Great suggestion @Peanut - I use totes now, and got them used off of Craigslist for about $50 each. They held avocado oil used in cooking, so I'm assuming they are not contaminated with anything truly nasty... I fill mine up with the garden hose, so they'll need to be filtered for human consumption but they fill in about 45 minutes. I drain and fill them about once a year to keep algal or bacterial growth from being a problem, but the water always seems fine when I drain them. We've never had our (city) water go out here in Utah, but if it did it's not like there's much around to be "harvested" and laws and people's opinions about water rights are pretty harsh. I've heard multiple stories of people being killed over damming up streams or irrigation channels out here...

 

[Mountain trapper]

Great suggestion @Peanut - I use totes now, and got them used off of Craigslist for about $50 each. They held avocado oil used in cooking, so I'm assuming they are not contaminated with anything truly nasty... I fill mine up with the garden hose, so they'll need to be filtered for human consumption but they fill in about 45 minutes. I drain and fill them about once a year to keep algal or bacterial growth from being a problem, but the water always seems fine when I drain them. We've never had our (city) water go out here in Utah, but if it did it's not like there's much around to be "harvested" and laws and people's opinions about water rights are pretty harsh. I've heard multiple stories of people being killed over damming up streams or irrigation channels out here...

Absolutely. Water is a big deal out west. Everytime some city fool moves out in the country with a creek on their property they think it belongs to them. Most of these city slicks don't have enough sense to check to see if they have any water rights, or even mineral rights either. Many get very disappointed.

 

[TeeJ]

Absolutely. Water is a big deal out west. Everytime some city fool moves out in the country with a creek on their property they think it belongs to them. Most of these city slicks don't have enough sense to check to see if they have any water rights, or even mineral rights either. Many get very disappointed.

Absolutely! The neighbor next to me that opted not to buy the water rights with their house is always pestering me to have "some water", like I can just materialize it from thin air or have some obligation to share what I paid a LOT of money for with my house, and continue to pay for in maintenance fees...

 

[Mountain trapper]

Absolutely! The neighbor next to me that opted not to buy the water rights with their house is always pestering me to have "some water", like I can just materialize it from thin air or have some obligation to share what I paid a LOT of money for with my house, and continue to pay for in maintenance fees...

Always, always check to see if you own the water rights and mineral rights when you buy property. When I was working in the North Dakota oil fields, a lot of farmers were shocked when we pulled up to start surveying for a drilling pad. And they found out that they didn't own the mineral rights on their land. They usually found out that granddaddy sold the rights many years before. They'd really get upset when they would see the meter on the pump clicking off barrel after barrel 24/7 and they didn't get any of it.
Always due your own due diligence when buying property.

 

[zannej]

You might look at putting terramycin in their water.

I've got L-Lysine for them. It has helped in the past. Some are getting hit worse than others. I didn't see Senator Snugglebum all day yesterday so I sand his summoning song (Which is "Bum Bum Snugglebum Bum Bum Snugglebum. Snuggy Snugglebum. Bum Bum Snugglebum" to the tune of Electric Funeral). Later that night I woke up and he was curled up on a pillow near me.

Had a good weekend - gave myself permission to sleep in and take it easy a little bit (LOL - I doubt getting up at 7 is sleeping in on weekends for some people).

For me, getting up before noon is rare. I am more of a night owl. 7AM is very early to me. LOL.

I did wake up somewhat early this morning. Checked the weather, got the inspection sticker on the truck, grabbed some food for mom (per her request) as well as some test strips for her new blood sugar meter. Helped my brother remove the battery from the CR-V. He couldn't find his 10mm wrench and while he was looking I used an adjustable wrench to remove the nuts. We went in to get a new battery and get credit for the core charge by handing in the old one. Got a new 10mm wrench and some hook thingies for the strap that holds the battery tight. Old ones were rusty and nuts didn't want to move properly. New ones came with wingnuts. I got them hooked on and tightened. CR-V still needs some more work, but hopefully we can get it running smoothly.

Had a derp moment bc I was desperately looking for the registration for the truck to get the sticker renewed. Went to my friend's house so he could help me look. I was holding it in my hand... LOL. I thought it expired in 2021 bc I need glasses and couldn't read the expiration part. Apologized to my friend but we had a good laugh.

Tomorrow my brother might have job orientation and his truck isn't running so I'll have to drive him (then we need to get CR-V inspected, washed, and get oil change).

I'm about to get a nap in a few minutes if I can get my brain to settle down.

 

[Weedygarden]

Learning how completely and pathetically unprepared we are. Tornado hit yesterday a mile from our house - everyone here is unharmed and no major property damage. But no power means no water due to cistern pump - and the cistern is low anyway (called in a truck delivery yesterday but haven’t heard back, probably won’t now).

We’ve lived without AC, but I wasn’t prepared for how hot it would be without a fan. Concerned about our freezers, but hubby will bring home his generator this evening (he had to close out his business but still has some equipment).

I’ve never seen so many downed power lines, it’s near impossible to get around. Fortunately nearby towns were largely unaffected and still have all their services.

We will be totally fine, and it’s really just an inconvenience more than anything else. I’ve seen the houses half a mile away and have absolutely nothing to complain about. Just grumpy after having a hot, sleepless night.

Lots to do today just meeting our needs. Lord knows this family needed a wake-up call. I need to do a much better job with preparedness - so many things are getting my attention now. And maybe now my family will help me with preparedness? Or at least not make fun of it or block my efforts?

So glad you and your family are okay! In some ways, this is truly a blessing. It will help you to fill the gaps before the SHTF for everyone. On the list of the top 100 things that will disappear is a generator. I need one!

@Chaosdawn, I can totally relate! And here I’ve been prepping-ish, but boy did I fail.
We had a week without power about 15 years ago, but that was in a suburban home with public water. This not having water scenario is a game changer for sure.

I put but don't mean that because folks lost their homes etc. but because maybe it was a blessing in disguise for your family.

I agree!

Always, always check to see if you own the water rights and mineral rights when you buy property. When I was working in the North Dakota oil fields, a lot of farmers were shocked when we pulled up to start surveying for a drilling pad. And they found out that they didn't own the mineral rights on their land. They usually found out that granddaddy sold the rights many years before. They'd really get upset when they would see the meter on the pump clicking off barrel after barrel 24/7 and they didn't get any of it.
Always due your own due diligence when buying property.

I know families in North Dakota who retained their mineral rights, and a few generations down the line, every family member gets a nice check each month. Water, though, is the most important.

 

[Wingnut]

Always, always check to see if you own the water rights and mineral rights when you buy property... Always due your own due diligence when buying property.

Damned good advice!!!

Moi, I'm recovering from this pesky bug without ANY Big Pharma cr@p involved... I had so many hot peppers in my lunch earlier, my scalp (with what hair I have left cut short for low maintenance) was WET with sweat, lol, just the way I wanted it. Nothing like hot peppers to burn viruses, lol. Feeling pretty good now, might take a break from the DVDs and go read a book... caught some decent rain a few hours ago, it wasn't Noah's Flood but it served to water the trees & plants. Hey, I'll take whatever I can get in drought country...

One thing to remember if ya go the natural route in fighting disease... when you eat, blood goes to your stomach to aid in digestion, which leaves less blood in circulation to fight illness or infection. I believe this is what happened yesterday: I ate a little too much, therefore blood was diverted to my stomach and that gave the pesky bug a chance to try and make a comeback. I didn't eat as much today, just enough to know that my system was chock full o' hot pepper juice, lol... in the meantime, I'll stick to my fluid regimen with water, juice, etc.

Hopefully, by tomorrow this pesky little bug will be history... and I have nice clean sheets to lie down on tonight, I didn't want any funky sheets with the sweat of sickness dried on 'em, lol. Reminds me of my Army days, when we slept in the field and dealt with the wet, the mud, the roots & stones under your back, etc. Of course, that clean fresh outdoor air also worked wonders, so it all kinda balanced out, ya know? And believe me, if you're TIRED enough, you will sleep ANYWHERE, lol. I know, I've done it, and some of the sleeping sites were quite... er... unusual, lol.

Y'ALL BE GOOD, I'M OFF TO READ A BOOK... MIGHT FALL ASLEEP TOO, 10-4?

 

[Peanut]

Loss of power... I used to know some folks who were beginner preppers but serious. They had family drills, the first adult home tripped the main breaker in their electrical service panel, last one to leave the next morning turned everything back on. Their two teen age daughters hated it!

The same or similar has been described in many prepper type books I’ve read. Family emergency drills is a good idea but everyone's situation is different. If your power hasn’t gone off in a few years it’s hard to take it very seriously.

I can attest to the fact losing power monthly is no fun. It’s always a surprise and at the worst time possible. Mine rarely came back on in less than 4 hours. If it happened in the evening it’d be off over night.

Besides regular bad service from the power company I have two weather concerns. Small spinny things and really big spinny things. Tornadoes are year round but most in spring. I have a 5 month hurricane season. I'm gonna lose power more than a day from major storms every year, once for 12 days

This made me prepared for no electricity or water though. I can keep my freezers cold for 2 weeks if necessary or haul 1000g of water in an afternoon. The most annoying part? If I'm in my power recliner when the power goes off, I can't get out of my chair!!!

 

[LadyLocust]

Loss of power... I used to know some folks who were beginner preppers but serious. They had family drills, the first adult home trip the main breaker in their electrical service panel, last one to leave the next morning turned everything back on. Their two teen age daughters hated it!

The same or similar has been described in many prepper type books I’ve read. Family emergency drills is a good idea but everyone's situation is different. If your power hasn’t gone off in a few years it’s hard to take it very seriously.

I can attest to the fact losing power monthly is no fun. It’s always a surprise and at the worst time possible. Mine rarely came back on in less than 4 hours. If it happened in the evening it’d be off over night.

Besides regular bad service from the power company I have two weather concerns. Small spinny things and really big spinny things. Tornadoes are year round but most in spring. I have a 5 month hurricane season. I'm gonna lose power more than a day from major storms every year, once for 12 days

This made me prepared for no electricity or water though. I can keep my freezers cold for 2 weeks if necessary or haul 1000g of water in an afternoon. The most annoying part? If I'm in my power recliner when the power goes off, I can't get out of my chair!!!

Now that might just be the best excuse, er I mean reason to take a nap that I’ve ever heard!

 

[TeeJ]

It's interesting, we probably haven't been without power for more than a grand total of 6 hours or so in the decade we've lived in our current house, but when we lived in the "snow belt" in Ohio we'd lose power several times a winter - sometimes for days at a time. We had a family "tradition" where when the power went out we'd get the flashlights out and grab the ice cream from the freezers and eat it watching a movie huddled around a battery powered portable DVD player. Ice cream would be the 1st to thaw, and who wants re-frozen crystalized cream? If it was a short outage, we had a good excuse for a snack, if it was a bigger one we started out in good spirits

 

[Wingnut]

Day 3 of fighting the bug... I'm definitely winning the war, but this bug is like a viral guerrilla, it fades away and then strikes in a different area. Sometimes it fades hard, and I feel fine, but within the hour it has returned to cause grief on another front. It's a resilient little pest, that's for sure... but I have its number, it's only a matter of time before my immune system soldiers pin it down and eliminate it. Looks like this week is shot, though, as far as home rehab work goes... meh, there's always next week.

One thing I've noticed about this bug, it creates a false sense of tiredness, a lassitude which makes me want to simply lie in bed, even though I just had plenty of sleep. Once I roll out of bed and start moving around, this lassitude vanishes like a Democrat when the bill is due, lol. It's weird, like some sort of viral sham, a trick of the senses... there's probably some reason for it down on the microbial level, or even the molecular level, but it's still strange. Hopefully this will be the bug's last day, and these symptoms will disappear.

This prolonged war may be due to my age... when I was a younger man, my powerful immune system would process bugs like this within 24 hours, chewing 'em up and spitting 'em out like something out of a cartoon, lol. Now I'm older and my fast metabolism has slowed down a bit, so it's taking longer to process this particular bug, even though the bug is not really that strong... it's wily though, a full-on guerrilla bug which fades & strikes again elsewhere. A slight fever here, some aching joints there, a minor headache at times, then the squirts... definitely a guerrilla bug.

Yet I don't feel that bad overall, and I'm confident that the bug will be destroyed... it's just a matter of time. Good thing I don't have to be anywhere today, while my fridge & pantry are well-stocked. I'll just putter around a bit, do a little watering and catch some sunshine & fresh air... those will undoubtedly help. I still have a library DVD of 'THE QUIET MAN' to watch, I'll save that for later. Great movie, always fun to watch... I've seen it many times, but I always enjoy it after a long interval. I reckon I'd better get outside and water before it gets too hot, I only need to water the smaller plants & fruit trees.

 

[snappy1]

@Wingnut , Isn't the Quiet Man--Nick and Nora? I love those movies!

Walked first and picked up some pears while out there.
Went back and collected the pears to bring home and stopped at local grocery.
Still need to weed eat in the garden--that's how you know the weeds are winning. LOL
Going to learn to use my vacuum sealer on jars, today. I have always just sealed in bags.
Will water garden this evening if it doesn't rain.

 

[Pearl]

Day 3 of fighting the bug... I'm definitely winning the war, but this bug is like a viral guerrilla, it fades away and then strikes in a different area. Sometimes it fades hard, and I feel fine, but within the hour it has returned to cause grief on another front. It's a resilient little pest, that's for sure... but I have its number, it's only a matter of time before my immune system soldiers pin it down and eliminate it. Looks like this week is shot, though, as far as home rehab work goes... meh, there's always next week.

One thing I've noticed about this bug, it creates a false sense of tiredness, a lassitude which makes me want to simply lie in bed, even though I just had plenty of sleep. Once I roll out of bed and start moving around, this lassitude vanishes like a Democrat when the bill is due, lol. It's weird, like some sort of viral sham, a trick of the senses... there's probably some reason for it down on the microbial level, or even the molecular level, but it's still strange. Hopefully this will be the bug's last day, and these symptoms will disappear.

This prolonged war may be due to my age... when I was a younger man, my powerful immune system would process bugs like this within 24 hours, chewing 'em up and spitting 'em out like something out of a cartoon, lol. Now I'm older and my fast metabolism has slowed down a bit, so it's taking longer to process this particular bug, even though the bug is not really that strong... it's wily though, a full-on guerrilla bug which fades & strikes again elsewhere. A slight fever here, some aching joints there, a minor headache at times, then the squirts... definitely a guerrilla bug.

Yet I don't feel that bad overall, and I'm confident that the bug will be destroyed... it's just a matter of time. Good thing I don't have to be anywhere today, while my fridge & pantry are well-stocked. I'll just putter around a bit, do a little watering and catch some sunshine & fresh air... those will undoubtedly help. I still have a library DVD of 'THE QUIET MAN' to watch, I'll save that for later. Great movie, always fun to watch... I've seen it many times, but I always enjoy it after a long interval. I reckon I'd better get outside and water before it gets too hot, I only need to water the smaller plants & fruit trees.

Hope you are over the bug soon! Unfortunately you'll never recover from getting older!!

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I am not being very productive, just doing paperwork.

 

[Wingnut]

Ate some leftovers with plenty of chili garlic sauce... that'll help win the war, lol. Though I had root beer with my lunch, I've also been working my way through a large bottle of fresh carrot juice, another weapon in my arsenal, lol. I hit this bug with different weapons to keep it guessin'... tea & lemonade one hour, carrot juice the next. I just cracked a large bottle of grapefruit juice last night, that's another weapon that comes in handy when ya wake thirsty in the middle of the night. What I do is chug the juice till I can chug no more, then after a moment I chug some water to rinse the enamel on my teeth, lol. I also keep a jug of spring water handy at my bedside, in case I just want water in the middle of the night. In this way I stay hydrated, which is important in any situation, but especially important when fighting a bug.

Feeling good right now, that garlic must be kickin' some viral @__, lol. Fresh garlic would be even more powerful, but this garlic sauce will do for now. Same goes for fruit juices: fresh-squeezed juices are always best, chock full o' enzymes, but bottled juice is better than no juice at all. I try to buy bottled juices that aren't made from concentrate, they taste better in my estimation. Each time I hammer this bug, it gets a little weaker... usually, germs & viruses don't fare well in the high desert, but this is the monsoon season, when the humidity creeps upward, so some bugs actually survive to cause trouble. This bug must be one of those... it's kinda ironic, really, that I should go all winter long without a hint of illness or infection, then catch this pesky summer bug when I least expect it. Meh, it's on its way out, it's just hangin' around like an unwanted house guest...