With a song in my heart (or head)

So, while I was ill, I had a couple of the world’s worst earworms. When I first got sick, the Christmas season was just ending, and I had a Christmas hymn stuck in my mind: “Break forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light.” That’s the first line. The second line is, “And usher in the morning.” That’s as much as I know by heart.

But! Not only did my brain keep replaying just those first two phrases, it kept getting the second part wrong. So I would be lying around, thinking things like, “Ugh” and “Bleah,”and my brain would sing to me:

Break forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light,
And take away…no, wait…and usher in the morning.

“Stop!” The sane part of my brain said. A few minutes later:

Break forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light,
And take away…and usher in the morning.

No, nooooo.

Later, when I felt better, it was a different song. From time to time I would get chills, and even as I thought, “I’ve got chills,” my brain would belt out (inside my head):

I got chills!
They’re multiplying.
And I’m looooooosing control.
Cause the power
You’re supplying—
It’s electrifying!
(It’s electrifying!)

As my brain tried to move on to “Better shape up. Cause I need a man, and my heart is set on you,” the sane part of my brain would shout (inside my head), “Shut up, shut up, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John! I don’t want you right now.”

Now that I’m well (or better), my brain has reverted to my current long-term song, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken.” At least with that one, I know all the words and even three verses, so if I become aware of the song drifting through my head (it usually happens in my car) I can sing the whole thing.

Obstacles along the way

Well, my New Year got off to a rough start. I was scheduled to go back to work on January 6th. On Sunday, January 5th, I woke up shivering and nauseated, with certain symptoms you don't even want to know. I was sick, sick, sick that whole week. My dear sister-in-law kept in touch with me by text and came by with soda crackers, ginger ale, and anything else I needed. Her daughter, my niece, drove me to the doctor's office, where I received antibiotics and ineffectual anti-nausea medicine. I called back for something stronger and my doctor phoned in a prescription for something that was both anti-nausea and sedating.

I went back to work the next week, but didn't last out the week. Slowly, very slowly, I started to recover. I saw my doctor at the end of January, and he said my illness had been a kidney infection, and my blood test results showed my kidneys were not functioning as well as they should. I have since had a scan that revealed a kidney stone in each kidney.

In the first week of February, I took a sick day, and went back to work the next day. At work, at various times in the day, I thought, I feel surprisingly well, given how lousy I felt yesterday. Then, in the last quarter hour of the day, I tripped over a box in my workstation and fell down on our hard floor. It's carpeted, but underneath I'm pretty sure is cement. Bruised my left knee, hurt my left arm, and even smacked my nose on the floor causing it to bleed. I was pretty shook up by the time I was able to get to my feet and then drive home.

Instead of going directly home, I went to the urgent care place in my town. X-rays revealed a fracture at the top of my humerus bone, which is the long bone in the arm between the elbow and the shoulder. They gave me a sling.

A large percentage of people who hear about my injury ask if I am left-handed. No. I am right-handed, so I am fortunate that my dominant hand is not impaired.

The next day at work, co-workers told me (what I hadn't thought of for myself) that, since this was a workplace injury, I needed to start an L&I (Labor and Industries) claim. So I did. I've never done that before, so I don't know whether it's going to be a big hassle or not.

Tomorrow I go back for more X-rays to see if the fracture is healing. It's been almost three weeks since I fell. I still have a certain amount of pain from the injury. I take a lot of ibuprofen. My kidney stones have been mostly quiescent. Once in a while they make their presence felt, but not to the extent that I have to seek immediate medical attention. I try to drink lots of water.

I have an appointment in early March with a urology clinic regarding my kidneys and their stones. I keep thinking if biology means the study of life, urology must mean the study of urine. It doesn't sound like a high calling, but it is. I've had kidney stones before, and when the urinary tract is blocked the body really suffers. Truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

There is a Jewish prayer specifically for after elimination of waste from the body. This is an English translation:

Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who formed man with wisdom and created within him many openings and many hollow spaces. It is obvious and known before Your Seat of Honor that if even one of them would be opened, or if even one of them would be sealed, it would be impossible to survive and to stand before You even for one hour. Blessed are You, Lord, Who heals all flesh and acts wondrously

Amen.

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; 
save me, and I shall be saved: 
for thou art my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14

Presidents' Day

Tomorrow I have a Monday holiday: Presidents' Day. It is always the third Monday of February. It is associated mainly with Presidents Washington and Lincoln. Lincoln's birthday is February 12th and Washington's birthday is February 22nd, so Presidents Day falls in between.



In my research online, I found out that Washington's birthday became a Federal holiday in 1880, and it was celebrated on whatever day it fell on. I remember in junior high (grades 7 & 8) making a little cherry pie in home economics class in honor of Washington's birthday. That is because of the story about Washington's honesty, that when he was a boy he cut down a cherry tree and, when his father asked who had done it, young George said, "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my little axe." Or words to that effect.

Lincoln is also known for his honesty, even bearing the nickname "Honest Abe." The story I heard about him was that when he was a young man he worked in a store, and one day he accidentally overcharged a woman by a tiny amount. I think it was three cents. Granted, in those days, three pennies could buy more than it could now. Anyway, according to the story, when he realized his mistake, he walked a long distance to the woman's home to give her back her pennies without delay.

In the late 1960s, Congress passed a bill changing four holidays (Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day) to always be Mondays, so that workers could have three-day weekends. (Labor Day was always a Monday. Veterans Day was changed back to November 11th in the mid-1970s. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday was established as a Monday holiday in the early 1980s.)

I was surprised to learn that Congress has never officially changed the name of Washington's Birthday to Presidents' Day. But it has become general usage. Some say the honors all presidents. In today's polarized political environment, that could cause some uproar.

Anyway, as this lengthy explanation shows, Presidents' Day is a somewhat amorphous holiday and, it seems to me, does not bring out the patriotic feelings of some of our other Federal holidays. Other than cherry pie, I know of no traditions associated with it. Not that cherry pie isn't a fine tradition all by itself. But I do appreciate George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for being such exemplary Presidents of the United States that I can sleep in tomorrow. Thanks, guys.