week 24/16

50-7 – Sick. Bleh.

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In Food, posted Monday, I mentioned eating sweet potatoes when I was sick. The truth is I was almost never sick. I had the chicken pox like everyone of my generation and got a week off from school, staring out of the front window of our apartment with my brother who also had them that week. But I was never sick. I didn’t get colds, no ear infections. While my friends were out sick, I was always in school. I did miss senior skip day and I never went to class in college (or work later on) on my birthday and while I always worked Christmas, I never worked New Year’s. I also never called in because of having too much to drink.

So I was completely stunned when in my 20s, working for a child development center for the US Navy, I got an ear infection. Having never had one before I had no idea what it was except that I was certain that I was dying. The pain was unbearable. I tried to lie down to make it stop, not realizing that is pretty much the worst thing you can do for an ear infection. When I finally got diagnosed and on antibiotics, I thanked G-d for science and medicine and medical advances that would remove that pain.

Since then, I have had a few more ear infections, chronic ringing in my ears (thanks Stray Cats) and hearing loss (again, thank SC), but I still never really get sick.

My second pregnancy.

One or two bouts of food poisoning and a couple of flus, all after my kids were born. Kids wear you down. They really do.

I am pro-vaccine. I feel the need to say that in this world of maybe science doesn’t work, but science does work and vaccines save lives. I have the mark on my left shoulder from the small pox vaccine that my kids will never get because we eradicated it and no longer need a small pox vaccine in this country. I went to Jonas E. Salk Middle School, named for the man who discovered the vaccine against polio, a disease that killed our thirty-second president.

On Monday, I had my yearly physical, complete with a tetanus booster. I moaned in that childlike way of no like shots, but I took it and there was no doubt that I would.

It hurt for that split second and I went about my day, getting my hair cut, eating lunch which fit into my new prescribed diet (except for the diet coke which so far is the last one I’ve had). I watched Major Crimes. I slept and got up on Tuesday and went grocery shopping. I felt great.

Then I felt fine.

then I was achey and whiney, and my head was throbbing and I had a fever, but I was so cold that I needed a blanket and then another. I fell asleep in my office chair, which is an overstuffed living room chair.

I barely ate dinner. My eyes hurt (which is why I haven’t been here as often as I had planned), even as I listened to Containment on the television.

Wednesday was slightly better but not by much.

On Thursday, I was able to leave my bed, eat lunch and go to my meeting for the day of service for my church. I’m the secretary.

I will be calling the doctor today, although I should have called on Wednesday morning. I have never had a reaction to a vaccine before. Obviously, this is better than getting any of the things the Tdap prevents, but it was still pretty miserable.

I couldn’t even watch television which is usually very comforting when I ‘m not feeling well. Sweet potatoes and the blue glow of the television used to be the only medicine I needed.

Take your shots kids (and adults) and have some extra water, fruit, Netflix, wifi, and of course, sweet potatoes on hand. Just in case.

Pops

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Representing:

Arrow
Supernatural
The Walking Dead
Ant-Man
Green Lantern
The Avengers, Captain America
Barman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman
Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther
Despicable Me, Minions

The New Television Off-Season

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Besides the usual television, there are also tablets and phones with apps to watch network shows.

When I was a kid, television shows had seasons. They were very specific. School started and so did the new fall season. School ended right after the shows did. September through June without fail.

There was an occasional hiatus, but without the internet we drowned our sorrows in our bedrooms or outside playing in the fresh air. At least today we have other fans to commiserate with, not to mention reading and writing fan fiction and drawing fan art.

Sometime around high school (1981 for me) there was the mid-season replacement. A new pilot with a half schedule that started in January and if it got good ratings it would be back for the new fall season, sometimes with a cast change or schedule change.

While fans today talk about when a favorite show jumps the shark (it was also a Supernatural episode title in the seventh season), I remember the first shark jumped – Happy Days – and my kids are surprised that it was a literal shark. It was. I saw it happen live.

There were three channels, broadcast free (ABC, CBS, NBC) plus your local PBS station (operated out of Boston or New Jersey usually) that had some great murder and mystery mini-series and comedy, almost all British, which gave me a life-long love of them.

I loved my television shows. Summer was withdrawal. I always had the television on even when I was in the shower. I’m happy to say that while I still watch more than a little TV, I’ve stopped putting it on and leaving the room, and I’ve nearly all but given up on the news unless it’s something important that I can investigate online through reading.

I was with my great-grandmother watching television when Thurman Munson died. That was watched on a big box piece of furniture television.

I sat on a green velvet sectional sofa in the basement of my house when the 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey team beat the Russians. Most people forget that they won the gold one game later against Finland. That television was a smallish one that you had to get up to change the channels on. It stood on a TV cart that looked almost like a drink cart with handles and wheels. I think there was an Atari on the bottom shelf.

I got a new television when I graduated college. That was in 1988. It started giving us trouble two years ago.

One of my favorite shows all through school was The Fall Guy. I loved the behind the scenes aspect of stunt work. Being a stuntman was one of my fantasies. LIke riding a motorcycle, it was something that was just too cool for me to do but if I were stronger, or braver or more self-confident, I could, but I could never. It was also one of those shows that gave me the inside look into the television industry, which is something that still interests me and that I get to see a bit through the online world of fandom, especially where Supernatural and The Walking Dead cast and crews are concerned.

Then reality shows became popular. They were unique and unscripted, and then everyone was doing them. They’re everywhere. There are even scripted shows around reality shows. Law & Order, Bones, etc.

Today’s shows don’t get much of a chance. Supergirl was a good show but it wasn’t for CBS. I could see that. Fortunately, they dropped it and The CW picked it up so it will have its second season at a network that will love it and care for it.

One thing that started this past Sunday was the non-season. All of the shows had their season finales last week or will this week, right before school lets out.

There are new shows in mini spurts for a few weeks. I began with Major Crimes, a police procedural on TNT. I never watched the original show, The Closer that it was spun off from, but it has a great cast and interesting and entertaining stories. It’s similar to Law & Order in that the focus is on the crime, but you do get a glimpse of the personal lives, perhaps more than Law & Order always had.

Sunday’s show on AMC, Ride with Norman Reedus follows The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus as he rides his motorcycle around the country delving into the motorcycle culture, equipment and meeting some personalities. I saw the first episode where he went up the Pacific Coast Highway.

Major Crimes airs on Mondays.

Tomorrow, The CW’s Containment continues for another few weeks. As I understand it, it was not picked up for a second season. I’m still interested in the story though. I know that it’s somewhat predictable and I know exactly where the romance is going, and what the importance of the kid is, and how everything will turn out, but I still like it and I want to watch it play out. It’s my guilty pleasure.

So the non-season season starts this week and it goes for about six weeks, I believe. This will get we TV-aholics through half the summer and in my case, maybe give me something extra to write about.

Later in the week, for example, I’ll give a better review/reaction to Ride with Norman Reedus’ first episode with some links that might strike the fancy of the motorcycle enthusiasts visiting my page.

Food

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No matter what plans you have, kids or no kids, they almost always revolve around food. Food sustains us, but it also holds so much more. Comfort food is called that for a reason. Comfort food contains the five senses within it plus a sixth: memory.

When I’m eating sweet potatoes slathered in butter – real butter, stick butter, not spreadable canola, but real, all I can think of is sitting up in my parents’ bed, sick, and this was my medicine. The sweet flesh sweeter than any candy, the soft mash letting me eat and swallow without any work or pain whatsoever. Were they sweet potatoes or yams? How was I supposed to know?! I was 11 or something. It was better than chicken soup, and less messy in bed besides. Then, drifting off to sleep with the empty plate still on my lap. Empty because the potato skin is just as yummy as the rest of it. It was the one little kid yuck that I didn’t mind; eating the potato skins long before potato skins became its own food group.

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