The last few days have been… interesting.
A rather confused young deer walked across the parking lot of my apartment building on Wednesday evening. (In broad daylight with people around, which is the unusual thing.)
Thursday morning, a somewhat lost greyhound walked down the main road and stopped traffic right next to where I work, so I called him out of the road. Being a well-mannered dog, he came right to me as he’d been bid, so I took him by the collar and walked him over to the front office of our company. This caused much amusement, interest, sympathy, and offers to adopt the dog among senior staff and everybody else. He didn’t want food or water, didn’t look too disheveled or skinny, and had his tags, so we figured he hadn’t been out long. When we contacted his owners (you can look up license numbers on a website, in most US states), it turned out that he’d just gotten out that morning, but made good his escape by several miles.
Friday I took off, because I was pooped. I got some laundry and chores done, as well as some podcasting. But then I remembered that I needed to make a run to UD and use some books from the Marian Library. This special collection, which is the largest known collection of Marian books and materials in the world and takes up a whole floor of the library, is only open on weekdays; and not very late on Fridays, which is the day the whole library closes early.
So I hustled over there and found out some needful things about St. Albert scholarship. I also found out that the Marian Library’s new reading room (which used to be rare books and archives, IIRC), is a really great place to work on scholarly stuff. When you first go in, you’re surrounded by patristics books on three sides and various editions of the Bible on the fourth. Further back in the reading room stacks, there are all sorts of other religious reference books and standard texts, right there to hand. Also, the lighting is perfect and the view from the sunny windows is lovely.
Unfortunately, on my way back home, I got a little too much sun and heat, and exhausted myself. I should have worn my hat.
(This is the worst thing about working to lose weight; you feel so fragile even when you’re losing weight sensibly. You’re walking a tightrope between eating enough food to keep you going and not eating enough food to make you gain weight. You’re fine when you maintain the same amount of activity every day, but if you add or change anything, you aren’t sure where you are. So at first I assumed that I hadn’t eaten enough, not that I’d been out in the sun a little too long. The more so since I didn’t sunburn — or sweat much, since the day wasn’t humid. Of course, it’s also possible that I just wasn’t drinking enough water.)
So Friday was mostly shot, though I did enjoy watching the Holy Father on TV. But I kept falling asleep. You can’t podcast much like that.
Saturday I got up reasonably bright and early, but still pretty tired. I got some podcasting put up, but I didn’t quite get through Chesterton for the week. Then it was time to go to gaming. It’s fun to hang out with my friends, and we had a nice dinner together, too. But there’s no denying that I didn’t get much done, and when I got home I was pooped again.
Sunday I had to get up early and cantor the 8 o’clock Mass. I got an early call from the cantor at the 9:30 telling me that she was sick and couldn’t make it. Well, that’s no big deal, as I was going to be singing in the choir at the 9:30 anyway. However, there were two factors I did not adequately predict. First, it was a very bad day for sinus, thanks to the air pressure and weather changes. Second, it was Mothers’ Day, and the Pro-Life group sells roses.
I am a little bit allergic to roses. “Rose fever” runs in the family, but it didn’t bother me until the last ten years or so. Usually I just get a little sneezy and drippy, and that’s it. But apparently, strongly perfumed roses make me feel a lot worse. Despite my sinus sealing off my nose from dripping or even smelling the roses, I got even more of a headache, and was even sick to my stomach part of the time. (Which fits with last year’s rose-scented incense incident at the Franciscan Monastery on the Feast of St. John the Baptist. So it wasn’t the frankincense to blame at all; it was the authenticity of the all-natural perfume!)
However unpleasant to me personally, blocked sinuses don’t hurt the singing voice. So I did a pretty good job at both Masses. (Helped by coffee after the first Mass, as caffeine is a big part of treating sinus. Not so good for the stomach, alas, even when accompanied by some food. But hey, I’d already taken Communion at the first Mass, so breaking the fast and abstaining from Communion was not a big deal.)
Afterwards, I went home, took sinus pills (which include antihistamines as well as caffeine and an analgesic), and collapsed. Then I remembered. It was, in fact, Mothers’ Day, and I have a mother, who just might want to see me. So I went and took a shower (to get rid of the rose scent and help my poor sinuses), and then I hied me to the bus to my parents’ house. (I did feel a lot better by this point.)
I’d already taken my mom out to eat earlier in the month, so all I did was give her a present and then help out with the yardwork. But once again, I was pretty beat when I got home.
So… I’m a bit behind on the podcast. OTOH, I’ve gotten a lot of practice this week on offering stuff up!
