March?

Sorry that I haven’t written in a while… I can summarize the entire month of March in 3 words:  Cough, Cough, and Cough.  

I started to develop a slight cough around Feb 1 and I tried to power through it.  As March began, the cough started getting progressively worse, eventually getting to the point when I broke down and went to the doctor.  For better or worse, my doctor is kind of a cold Nazi, "no prescription drugs for you!"  Every time you go in with what appears to be a typical cold, he gives you the same sheet of paper with a list of over the counter drugs on it and basically says tough it out. This technique definitely encourages you to try to beat it on your own, which I am more than happy to try to do.  

The first round of medication suggested by the doctor did nothing to stop the escalating cough, so I ended up going back for a second office visit.  That visit turned into a chest x-ray to verify that it wasn't Pneumonia, which you might remember I had 1 year ago.  The x-ray was clear so more over the counter medicine followed, along with an antibiotic.  After another 10 days, the cough was still active and starting to keep me up at night.  I went back to the doctor for a third time and was loaded up with a serious round of medicine… this time a lot of prescription stuff.  My collection included a steroid, another antibiotic to kill anything that is lingering, a cough syrup with codeine in it that totally knocks me on my ass so I can sleep, and zyrtec because he thinks it might be allergies that is causing the post nasal congestion that is making me cough.  I’m definitely sleeping like a rock now and the cough is slowly receding.  Hopefully I will continue to recover this week, but now the CFO is developing a cough.  Ugh.

Because I didn't want to be “that guy” at the gym that is coughing away while working out, I haven’t been to the gym in over a month.  I miss going and I’m worried that it is going to be hard to get back on the 4:45 am routine once I can go back.  The good news is that I haven’t felt so bad that I couldn't go to work, so I've worked this entire time.  I’m sure my boss is tired of hearing me cough through the day, though…

In other news, the CFO and one of her co-workers have been spending all of their waking hours from the last few weeks working on a big grant application.  They have put a ton of work into it, including staying at the office until 3 a.m. the last night they worked on it.  The final copy was submitted on Tuesday and, after all of the effort that they have poured into it, I hope they get it.  However, the grant getting funded could tie us down to Bloomington for at least another 5-6 years and I’m not sure how I feel about that… Sometimes it is hard to be supportive when you aren't super thrilled with the possible outcome...  

The best news of all is that Spring has finally sprung, signified by the daffodils and tulips that are starting to poke up from the ground.  It looks like our almost record setting snowfall is over, ending at 51.2” for the winter, falling just short of the 1959-60 record of 57.8”.  It will probably be another couple weeks until the spring bulbs are in full bloom, but it is nice to see some green appearing around the yard and, more importantly, no snow on the ground.  

The CFO and I took a quick walk around the yard on Sunday afternoon and, while we were walking around the backyard, we met the couple that will be moving into the house to the left of us.  The guys that were living there moved to Atlanta, GA and there has been a sold sign up for almost a month with no signs of the buyers.  They appeared to be in their 30’s/40’s and don’t have any pets or kids.  As long as they don’t have a garage rock band, it sounds like they will be nice, quiet neighbors.  We are still waiting for the 5 bedroom house on the other side of us to sell... I've already predicted a house full of kids along with an ugly trampoline or play structure on the level area right next to our property line...  I am going to focus my yard funds on beefing up the plantings along that property line this spring.

I don't have many photos from the last month, but here is the mini closet make over I did on my side of our closet.  I had this big open space above the area where my sweaters (it is cold here, remember) were, not so neatly, piled up.  The addition of a few shelves helped clean up the space and made it much more functional.

That looks much better...