Just Not Fair

It's just not fair. I have a long weekend, what with the Labor Day holiday on Monday and a comp-time day off on Tuesday. Here in Maryland, we are having some of the most breathtakingly beautiful weather of the year to date.
Here is what I had planned to do with my time these 4 days:

• Work 4 1/2 hrs on Sunday (the price of that full day of comp time on Tuesday- Sunday hours are worth extra comp hours)
• Find someplace new and lovely to take my kayak for a solo paddle, with picnic
• Buy a small chest freezer during the Labor Day sales
• Hit up the farmers' markets for produce now that everything is at its peak quality, and prep pounds and pounds of lovely things to freeze for winter in my new freezer
• Spend time in my hammock with books, or napping
• Spend time on my beach with books, or wading
• Work on my travel scrap-books
• Possibly drive up to visit my bestest friend V, who will feel lonesome once her sweetie-pie departs early Monday for a long separation.

Here is what I am actually doing with my time these 4 days:

• Working 4 1/2 hrs on Sunday
• Blowing my nose
• Coughing
• Whining
• Taking a cocktail of Tylenol, Mucinex, and either Benadryl or Claratin (depending on time of day) every 6 hours
• Napping and/or lying about feeling stuffy, achy, and clammy
• Whining some more
• Feeling generally sorry for myself

It's just not fair. I am sick enough to be medium-miserable most of the day, but not quite sick enough to call out of work (on a weekday I would, but Sundays are always minimally staffed, so someone else would have to be called in on short notice to cover my station. My conscience would only allow me to do that to a colleague on a holiday weekend if I were at death's door.) I'm with-it enough to be bored and antsy lying about the house, but not quite up to doing much else. Also, my head aches enough that even crafts and scrap-booking are unpleasant. My neighbors are all outside riding bikes and puttering in their gardens, or carrying chairs and coolers down the path to the beach. It's just not fair.

p.s.- No, it's not Swine Flu, thank-you-very-much. It's a run-of-the-mill upper respiratory infection of the non-specific variety, not helped at all by the sudden explosion of Fall-season pollen in the air.

New Boots

I am feeling a little silly, clomping around my house in laced-up hiking boots with hi-tech smartwool socks, doing laundry & chores. Why, you might ask? Well, remember when you were a little kid, and you got brand-new shoes, and you mother wouldn't let you wear them home because you had to wear them in the house on the carpet only for several days to make sure they really, truly did fit? Because once they got scuffed or dirty, there was no returning them?
Well, it's like that. These are really nice hiking boots and I paid $$ for them @ the LL Bean outlet. So I'm wearing them around the house for hours on end just to be sure, because this coming Saturday they'll get a trial by fire at the CERT disaster drill, and after that there will be no going back. These will be my boots for the forseeable future. (And when I say "trial by fire," I mean actual fire!)