Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Still sick, but it's different now. My throat isn't sore, and my muscles feel a little better, but the coughing has kicked up to where I can't talk without coughing, and when I cough I wet my pants. Add a mild diarrhea and a strange weakness in my legs (I'm walking like I'm drunk), and I'm still miserable.
People have asked "What are you taking for it?" and offer me Z-Packs and decongestants, and recommend aspirin. I believe this is a virus, so antibiotics are counter-productive. There is no congestion. I'm coughing because the back of my throat is super dry. I'm not taking aspirin for the fever, because I believe fever (as long as it's not out of control) is the body's way of fighting invaders - a way to make the body inhospitable to colonization. So I'm doing hot soaks, gargling with mouthwash, sucking on honey-lemon drops, and resting. I slept 13 hours last night. I figure I've got two more days of miserable, followed by two weeks of coughing, and then it will be over.
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I assume by now everyone has heard about the woman who was ticketed for breastfeeding her baby and talking on the cell phone at the same time, while driving her other children to school. The baby's head was resting on the steering wheel (think "air bag"). She says that when she gets out of jail, she'll probably do it again, because when the baby's hungry, he needs to be fed.
She's an idiot.
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In other news, there's the saga of the the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition family in Atlanta whose deteriorating one-story ranch was replaced by a $450,000+ castle.
I always wondered about that show - when a modest house is replaced by a mini-mansion, the taxes have got to go up, utilities have to be much higher, and how do the families manage the taxes and general upkeep? Well, it turns out that the show gives them enough money to pay the taxes for 25 years (around here, for a house that size, that's over $200,000). Plus this family in Atlanta was given college tuition money, and a car, and I don't know what else.
So, they've got a brand new $450,000+ 5,000+ sq ft house with no mortgage, 25 years worth of taxes, and tuition money.
What did they do? They went to the bank and got a $450,000 equity loan on the house, ostensibly to start a business, which apparently was never started.
So, let's see. They have $450,000 from the bank, cash for 25 years worth of taxes, and who knows what else. They never made any payment on the loan, and are giving the house to the bank, and walking away with the money.
Ya gotta admire the gall. They can buy another reasonably-sized house and still have a half a million left over. Neighbors and the community volunteers who worked on the house are justifiably pissed.
Apparently it's not a rare problem. Other recipients of the show's largess have done the same thing - used the house for collateral for loans they can't repay.
So, now, how do I apply for the show? I could use a quick half-million....
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