Yet another cold...

My angel daughter has had a runny nose for several days now, seems like a week, not sure. She and I have both been using lots of Kleenex for several days. Ask her if she needs and Kleenex and she will tell you the truth, accept the tissue, and sniffle her own nose with it. My son refuses Kleenex as if it were an insult. Anyway, last night before dinner, yours truly felt the sinus floor swelling, the sense of being too hot. Took a shower. Slept next to my lovely wife. Woke up with a full cold. In addition to the redominant hacking cough.

So far MLW isn't sick. Good. She is taking the kids to the pediatrician for flu shots this morning. I'll get mine from my GP soon.

Yesterday I checked the fluids in my car for, I think, the first time since I was diagnosed, Good thing too, because it needed coolant, oil, brake fluid and, oh, wiper fluid. I'm guessing on the oil because, like my odometer, my dipstick is broken. I mean, it's not visibly bent or anything, but it just collects oil up above the mark lines and none below. I guess I could buy a new dipstick.

I checked the fluids in the family car before we went to Crater Lake.

The new washing machine continues to be a star, but the dishwasher, going on two years old this month, is a disappointment. It leaves bits of food on everything. Like for example, diced rice. Or, for example, a small plastic cup with yogurt lining it comes out at the end of the wash with yogurt still lining it. So you have to pre-rinse by hand. It seems to be draining fine, and the hose issue has been investigated. I just think that, even though it is a Maytag, we got a lemon. I wonder if it is still under warranty.

Operation Baby Doll was a success. Phew! The story goes like this: I went for a walk a few days ago with my angel daughter. She was pushing the plastic baby doll stroller with the aforesaid plastic baby doll recumbent within. When she got tired underneath the train platform, I picked her up and carried her home, dangling the stroller from one hand. Well, along the way somewhere, Baby Doll fell out, and we didn't notice till hours later. Search parties went out. All we found were the blanket, and the tiny red jumpsuit Baby Doll wore.

I thought our daughter would freak. You lost my baby! But apparently she thinks of it more as a toy than as a real baby. She did, however, ask several times a day about Baby Doll. I told her that I had lost Baby Doll and some other little girl was taking care of Baby Doll now. And I was very sorry, I said, but I promised her I would get her a new Baby Doll. I went shopping for a couple of days, trying to find a replacement. You wouldn't believe the collection of huge, misshapen, tiny, cloth, or otherwise non-matching baby dolls in the stores, and on eBay. The manufacturer only sells wholesale. Target failed me. The local stores too, until, this one store had a baby doll about the right size and construction. I tore off the frikken Christening headband and tiny white gown, and chucked them in the trash with the tiny baby bottle and toy potty. Then I coughed phlegm on top of that, wrapped up the trash, and put it in the garbage, which the waste collection people promptly took away. And I waited...

...When my daughter came home from the park I showed her New Baby Doll, dressed in the old familiar red jumpsuit, and asked her if she wanted New Baby Doll. To my immense relief, New Baby Doll was accepted. There was some hugging and stroller pushing. Phew! And her opinion on this issue is all that matters to me.