The Raven's Roost

I probably should have updated before now, but I've been down with some sort of mystery illness. I started feeling vaguely unwell on Wednesday, and by Thursday afternoon I was feeling truly awful. I've been running a temperature this entire time, and that's been about the only thing I can tell you. I don't seem to have any symptoms, and fever isn't a symptom. Well, right now my ears feel strange, a little like there's cotton in them, or perhaps like when you go swimming and get a little water trapped in there.

Anyway, the only thing I've done all this time is try to rest. I was already exhausted by it on Friday but I feel utterly depleted now. All I have been able to do is try to remember to drink water. I haven't even been able to sustain enough focus to read. Sunday was probably the worst day, because I couldn't actually sleep, but didn't have the energy to do anything, so I sat on the couch and stared into space, or I laid in bed and stared into space. That was extra special fun since my brain took that opportunity to cook up every single worst-case scenario it could.

This morning my AM temperature was on par with pre-crud readings, but I plan to keep taking advil for a while. The body pain that came with this thing was horrifying and I really don't want that to come back. I also managed to perform two tasks without needing to rest in between. I'm finding my mind is clearer and my ability to focus is returning, so I've been trying to catch up on what's happened that's important - and I mean around here, like one of the tomato plants died, and Fox has applied insecticide to my hibiscus because they had aphids. I've also missed some virtual book club posts, haven't written anything, I have no bread, and I need to find out how my neighbor's daughter did in that 5k she wanted to run in. I just don't want to go near the neighbor and possibly give her and her whole family whatever I have.

“Darkness took me and I strayed away through thought and time. Stars wheeled overhead and every day was as long as a life age of the earth... But it was not the end. I felt life in me again. I've been sent back until my task is done."

I woke up this morning and I'm still coughing. Not as much, but enough, and I still feel sort of drained. Stiff, achey. You can't "make up" marathon training like trying to cram for an exam, it will backfire. At this point I'll need to wait until I feel decent, pick up the plan wherever I am now, and just trust my base training, adjust my goal, and remember I've done at least nine of these, I can do this one. Also my earlobe hurts, because my stretched lobe which has been healed for years now is infected? How? Why?

Since I don't have the brainpower or energy to do much else, I've been gaming. I did think up some short story to fit a prompt but haven't been able to write properly, though I feel like today's going to be a good day for that. I got back into Baldur's Gate 3, where I'd left off just ahead of a fight that a lot of people seemed to find very difficult and I was reluctant to engage in. I may have over-prepared because my allies did most of the fighting for me while my party took a few stray hits. I also wondered why I bothered wild-shaping for this, but I would probably spend the entire game running around as a bear if I could.

I completed Gourmand's food quest in Rain World and got his adorable ending. Gourmand has a few drawbacks but is really incredible for doing anything combat related. You can fall on stuff and kill it. You take significantly less damage yourself. You just get "exhausted" a lot. That unlocked slugpups, which should spawn into certain campaigns now, if you ever wanted to be a single parent slugcat. I didn't explore some of the new regions because getting around with Gourmand can be challenging compared to a more agile slugcat, but I got to roam around the Outer Expanse for a while ... because I was seriously lost. There's actually a terrific interactive map for this game but sometimes I try to not use it and just enjoy the organic exploration process.

So I may take today off training, then pick up tomorrow with a four miler and see how I feel. I mean, people complete marathons with zero training ... though I'm not sure why that's become a thing to do. Not to say that you can't, you just won't have a good day.

I very suddenly started feeling awful today. Specifically, I have a lot of aches and pains - joints, muscles, even my skin hurt for a while. I noticed I was weirdly sensitive last night when Fox put his hand on my knee and I tensed because it tickled. Anyway. I napped this morning for a couple of hours, but I still feel like I just ran a marathon while being chased by people hitting me with sticks. Nothing else is wrong, my temp's a little elevated, but not to Covid 19 levels, and I am not having any trouble breathing or anything. So I have no idea what I picked up or where.

Right now I'm just sitting on the couch derping out and looking at Reddit. Reddit can be awful, but I follow a lot of cute animal subs, biking and running, and photography ones so my feed is usually pretty nice. I just read an interesting post where the comments were all about good bike trails in Duval, and they recommended a 14-mile loop I have saved on AllTrails. They said the pavement is good and it's shaded most of the way, so sounds like it would be okay for a summer ride. Obviously I'm not doing any bike riding today. Meh.

We're supposed to be getting a lot of rain and storms, so I hoped somewhat it was just the barometer dropping and how that can make certain things hurt, but everything hurts - just not the things I'd have expected. I cracked my big toe a couple of years ago and it typically clicks when I walk in the morning, but it feels just fine. But my shoulders and spine feel like someone's been beating me with a wooden baseball bat.

The cats are also helpfully piling on me, since being weighted down by purring felines is obviously good therapy. (Actually it is, it's nice to have kitties.) I think I'm going to try taking a pain/fever reducer and dig around for ramen. Instant noodles are my go-to sick food, but I don't have much on hand right now. Pandemic panic buying sort of threw a wrench into my hurricane supply shopping. But I think I have some Japanese noodles stashed away from Jax Oriental. Sometimes they have really amazing instant noodles. That's where I found these Korean hot noodles I like that have a bomb-throwing fire-breathing chicken on the label. Yeah, they're that hot. A little hotter than what I want right now though.

I'm just kind of glad to notice that I'm hungry. If I still feel like eating, I'm not THAT sick. But we'll see how this goes.

It may simply be the front passing through but I've felt progressively worse and worse as the day goes on. My skin hurts. Just, ick.

I managed to do a long run this morning, then we had supper early, and now I'm just sitting on the couch with cats piled on me feeling miserable. Of all the things I planned to do this evening the only thing I have done is make my grocery list and if I don't feel better tomorrow I'm not going out. I get the feeling I'm going to just read a bit and go to bed early.

UGH I HATE BEING SICK. I have stuff to DO. ARGHYGTUYBDUKCHDJ 

Edit: I'm now shaking so hard I can barely use my laptop. I am taking ibuprofen or something and going the fuck to bed, fuck this. And whichever disease-ridden carrier monkey gave me this I will fight you when I am well again. Or in the next life, whichever. I am dying but I will fight you