Typhoid Becky and the Olympics

Ugh...
Today is Monday. I'm home from work...again. My face hurts, and my head is filled with snot. I've been sick since Thursday. This past weekend we had incredible weather, and I spent every second of it on the couch. I never get sick. I don't think I have been this sick in the last 5 years. Sigh. There is so much to do...baby chicks are coming...
Dilemma #1: Last Friday when I stayed home I managed to venture into the office to open the breaker panel to try to solve the mystery of the barn wiring. There are many leads in the well house that are every other color besides black, white and red...and I have been trying to find out what they are suppose to go to, and where they are from...So knowing I could get away with it since P was at work, I slid the panel cover off. It looked like a crypt from Indiana Jones. There were more webs and insect carcases in the panel than wires. I made note that the blue wire went to the breaker, and the green went to the neutral bus...and then...I shit you not, I noticed the old brown envelope at the bottom of the panel, and faintly in pencil I could read the word "barn". Now on any other day, I would prefer to find a stash of cash in the walls of my home...but this little envelope could have been holding every answer to every irritating question I had about the barn. It was a treasure waiting behind the afghan of webs for me. Using the plastic end of my screwdriver, (I'm not that stupid) I wiped away the webs and flicked the envelope onto the floor. I closed up the panel and carried it upstairs with a finger and thumb holding it out in front of me as if it had cooties...
After cleaning it up I unfolded the envelope to find a derelect kindergardner's version of a wiring schematic. All it showed me was that the previous owners had done some not so legal wiring...that there was more than one breaker that fed the barn, and that I may have more power available down there than I thought... Back to square one...
Dilemma #2: We have some huge ladders that need to get down the hill to the barn for the re-siding. If I recall, the peak of the barn is 17 feet and the totem pole method for P and I would only work for so long. I guess we could play odd's or even's for who would have to be on the bottom, but a ladder or two would be the safe way...and I am all about safety!!! So on that note, I had the super idea of "Luging" the ladders down the hill....one at a time of course. :) P didn't really like that idea. It was like my idea of riding the tub lid down the hill in the snow into the blackberry bushes...Hey! I didn't have a sled...I was improvising. I figured luging the ladders down the hill would be a great way to get them down. Although in the recent events of the luger at the Olympics, I may reconsider. Even though I am sicker than a dog, I do want to see the day the barn is done...But...Patty isn't home today......... :)
So back to being sick this weekend.. :(
Bless her heart, Patty waited on me hand and foot for the whole weekend. And yesterday was our anniversary and we couldn't even go out for dinner. I stared outside at the beautiful weather...knowing I should have been outside progressing the barn...At one point, I went to the restroom, and then looked out the bathroom window to watch the birds eating out of all the feeders on the back deck. I opened the window to feel the fresh air on my face, (since I couldn't smell a thing), and the alarm on the house went off. Patty came running, and accused me of trying to escape out of the bathroom window.
Last night when she came home from errands, she brought me my new favorite toy... A vicks humidifier. She set it up on my nightstand for me, and I must say, I felt 4 years old again. She poured the vicks in the top, and filled the tower with water and flipped it on. I layed in bed and was immediately soothed by the green night light on the front of it. The soft gurgling sound it made sounded like a spring rain, and not the torrential deluge we are used to. We watched the Olympics for awhile and a little while later Mariah came in to check on me. She immediately said her eyes were burning, and asked what the smell was. I looked at Patty. Smell? What smell? She told me to close my eyes and inhale directly over the machine. I did. Nada...not a damn thing....
Sigh...hopefully I will feel better this weekened.