Sick, Tired, You Know

I've been home sick the last two days. I got sick on Saturday, but Sunday night I was pretty floored, so I decided that night to stay home yesterday. Then last night I was still pretty floored, so I stayed home today, too, especially since coughing kept me up last night.

It's been about a year and a half since I last took a sick day, so maybe I was due.

I also was able to finish wrapping Christmas presents and ordering others from the Web. Time's almost up!

Debbi came down and brought me dinner tonight. Thanks, Deb! We hung out for a while, talked, felt overly full from dinner, petted the cats (who have loved having me home)... a nice time lounging. She ordered me to be in bed by 10 pm tonight. Yeeks! Only 40 minutes left!

Anyway, I think I'm almost better, if still somewhat congested, so probably I'll go to work tomorrow.

I spent much of yesterday waiting for the hot water heater people to show up. They were apparently very slammed yesterday, and didn't get someone to me until 8 pm. As I'd suspected, my tank started leaking, which is basically game over for a tank. It needed to be replaced.

Very expensive. More than I'd expected. Ouch.

Apparently a city inspector will need to come out and see the work, too. The company will notify the city, and send me some info to call and make an appointment. Argh. Hopefully it will all be up to code, though. The only glitch might be if I need to install a post to prevent a car from hitting it when pulling into the garage. Apparently this varies from city to city; it's mandatory in San Francisco, but varies widely elsewhere. Putting in a post would be a pain not so much for the expense as because it would change the shape of that part of the garage, which might make storing items in that area a pain. So here's hoping I don't need to do it.

Anyway, I do have hot water again, and the heater is guaranteed for as long as I live here, so that's something. Just one of those little Joys of Home Ownership. It won't break me; it's just annoying.

I watched the first two episodes of this season's Smallville. Good stuff! Fluff, but still. Beats Firefly all to hell (which only occurs to me because someone on a mailing list I'm on was gushing about the DVD release of that series, and apparently we saw completely different shows).

Also watched the extended release of The Two Towers on DVD last night. Also good stuff! I'm still disappointed that the Ent attack on Isengard feels rather perfunctory, but a number of the added scenes make the film better.

I'm looking forward to Return of the King, even though I suspect Peter Jackson and company dropped all the stuff from the very end of the book which made it such a powerful experience for me. We'll see. I'm sure it will be fun in any event. I am a little tired of the hype surrounding the films, though.

I'm not really stir crazy from all of this, but I am ready to get back to work. I'm ready to be done with Christmas presents. I'm ready for my holiday break. I'm ready to not be congested anymore.

Heck, I might just be ready for 2004.