I was in bed last evening ─ before 10:30 p.m., I think ─ decidedly ahead of my wife's homecoming after her long day working at her friend's Thai restaurant.
Of course, I never truly know when she will arrive home, so that can discourage the onset of sleep.
My present problem is the coughing phase of a flu that seized me back on January 14. The worst is over, but even so ─ once I lie down, the need to cough seems to noticeably accelerate.
As a result, I have been sleeping on the chesterfield to spare disturbing my working wife's sleep ─ I am the one who is retired, after all.
But I cannot do that unless everyone else in this household of five adults are abed or absent. And last evening, my younger brother was watching T.V. in the living room where the chesterfield is.
Besides, having me next to my wife also escalates her chance of becoming infected. We do not need her losing work!
Thus, even though I did not have the chesterfield as an option when I sought bed last evening, I felt that if I could gain some sleep before she was home, then I could later relocate to the chesterfield if my coughing was to still prove a problem.
My brother doesn't often sit up beyond the midnight hour.
As I recall, some sleep did come; and I rose once to use the bathroom ─ this may have been during the midnight hour, and my brother was still downstairs watching T.V.
Upon returning to bed, I managed to eventually slip back into sleep; and eventually I became aware that my wife was in the bedroom.
I wear earplugs and I use two folded bandannas as a blindfold, holding them in place with an old fleece headband that encircles beneath my chin and over the crown of my head.
When she then went into the bathroom immediately next to our bedroom, I peeked at the time ─ it was 2:48 a.m.
Well, I felt reasonably rested, so I rose and began dressing ─ the plan was to tackle the new day's content assignment at the post I am ever so slowly constructing at one of my six hosted websites.
When my wife emerged from the bathroom and saw that I was not in bed, she came to where I keep my computer in the small room immediately next to our bedroom, and queried if I had yet slept.
I assured her (in my squeaky, hoarse voice) that I had, explaining that I had been in bed since before 10:30 p.m.
She accepted this, understanding my peculiar habit of often rising unfathomably early.
And I stayed the course, working on the website post until the content assignment had been fulfilled for today.
My eldest stepson had risen around 6:15 a.m. to ready for work, and then left while I was still involved.
It is odd that I cannot recall precisely when it was that I bedded down on the floor here in front of my computer, but it must have been at least 7:30 a.m. I no longer had ample time to catch worthwhile sleep on the chesterfield, for my brother tends to rise around 8:30 a.m. and practically immediately turns on the T.V. once he goes downstairs.
I set my cellphone's alarm for 9:59 a.m. to ensure that I was up in time to rouse my wife for her new day at work if she needed me to ─ she has an 11:00 a.m. start time and a fair drive to Langley from our home here in northern Surrey.
But I fared most poorly ─ sleep was pathetically rare. I just couldn't find sufficient comfort. Nevertheless, my cellphone's alarm did rouse me.
And so I rose, emerging from this room to see that my wife was already up and using the bathroom.
Content with that, I went downstairs to join my brother, first fixing myself my day's second hot caffeinated beverage.
My wife was on her way to the restaurant by 10:30 a.m. with a very sunny drive ahead of her ─ our second consecutively sunny day.
My brother doesn't know how to operate our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, so I put it to use to fetch a movie ─ and it turned out to be a good choice: Green Room.
Yes, it was violent, and four of the six innocents were murdered. But it ended with the satisfaction that the main villains were all killed ─ none of this absolutely hole-in-the-soul sort of finish where the evildoers are not quite all vanquished, and suddenly a seeming victory becomes an illusion.
I despise movies that end in that sort of futility ─ I need to see innocence ultimately triumph over evil.
This movie brought that.
Anyway, my brouther sought a rest at the start of the noon-hour, and I soon did the same in my proper bed. I was to enjoy a deep nap, and was abed for well over 70 minutes.
At emergence from my bedroom, I found that my brother had already left for the afternoon. I hope he gets in a good walk somewhere ere he engages his usual daily drinking (as is his habit).
My youngest stepson didn't rise until at least 2:30 p.m. And at 3:19 p.m. he headed out the front door to his girlfriend awaiting him in her car ─ both work at the same location, and seem to have an afternoon / evening shift.
And I was alone at last.
I had not yet taken down the Christmas lights decorating the outside front doorway, so I finally did that. And then I had some exercises out in the backyard tool-shed that fast had me coughing, refuelling my concern that even a four-block walk in the cool, moist air to do some local grocery shopping will probably find me erupting into heavy coughing once I was into the warm, dry air of the market.
And that in turn causes me to flinch from leaving home yet. Alas, I have not been into the public since January 13; and I am of a type who finds it more and more difficult to brave the public the longer I put it off.
You may have read or heard in the past few months that the U.S. life expectancy rate has dropped, whereas it used to have a rather steady climb in average life expectancy years.
This article at APNews.com explains: Suicide, at 50-year peak, pushes down US life expectancy.
But let's be honest ─ it's not just because of suicides and opioid overdoses. How many heavily medicated seniors ─ those who swallow numerous pills and capsules each and every day, and all throughout the day, are ever going to be centenarians?
It just isn't going to happen. Anyone relying upon the Pharmaceutical Industry for their supposed well-being is on the fast track to that last and final roundup.
Dr. Marc S. Micozzi gives his views on this dreadful turn of events, and offers some suggestions on how not to be a part of that wicked trend:
DrMicozzi.com
But who will heed? It seems to me that the preacher is only reaching the choir ─ no one else can bother themselves. Too many gullible souls worship the medical profession, and look nowhere else.
This is one of those articles that causes me to wonder ─ if my pension was far more ample than it is, I do believe that I would experiment and see what truth there is to the claims:
HSIonline.com
But really? I realize that the article was not linked to some product that it was attempting to sell, so there is no incentive for bombast.
However..."unlimited sex"? That's laying it on rather thick, I would say.
I did a little research into the article this afternoon, and found a few flaws.
For one, it appears to me to be false to identify the fungus as having the scientific name Cordyceps mycelium. From what I found, its scientific name is Cordyceps sinensis.
Mycelium just happens to be a botanical feature of fungus.
And according to Wikipedia, the name Cordyceps sinensis no longer applies ─ the fungus is now being identified as Ophiocordyceps sinensis.
But that name change must be very recent, for the web is full of usages of the older name.
Here are some articles about the fungus and its purported benefits:
- SuperFoodify.com: Cordyceps Sinensis: 9 Cordyceps Benefits from Workout Performance to Sexual Function
- Healthline.com: 6 Benefits of Cordyceps, All Backed by Science
- Examine.com: Cordyceps
- NutritionalOutlook.com: Ingredients for Sexual Health
- Nammex.com: Cordyceps Products: What You Need to Know
- RealMusshrooms.com: Everything you need to know about Cordyceps supplements
The adenosine analog cordycepin was originally isolated from Cordyceps. Other Cordyceps isolates include, cordymin, cordycepsidone, and cordyheptapeptide. CS-4 is commercially sold as C. sinensis, but Cs-4 has recently been confirmed to be a different species from the Cordyceps species used in traditional Chinese medicine. CS-4 is properly known as Paecilomyces hepiali. Hirsutella sinensis is the accepted asexual form of C. sinensis.
That quote is from the section in the article titled Edible species containing drugs.
Another quote I would like to include here is from a study titled Anti-inflammatory effects of Cordyceps mycelium (Paecilomyces hepiali, CBG-CS-2) in Raw264.7 murine macrophages:
Paecilomyces hepiali (PH) is a derivative of Cordyceps sinensis (CS), a fungus that has been shown to have anti-cancer and pro-apoptotic effects. This strain was one of the best known CS derivatives. Some studies have shown that PH can inhibit tumor proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and neovascularization; induce apoptosis; reverse drug resistance; and enhance immunity.
Lacking any notable botanical background, I find this to be getting somewhat confusing; and since the quotes could go on and on, I'm going to stop here.
With that said, I will repeat that I would give this stuff a shot if I felt I could afford it.
My evening is well underway, so I am going to conclude this post with a few more photos that were taken practically a year ago when my wife and her two sons arranged a small reunion in Bali with five of their Thailand family members.
I am actually leading off with a collage that Google Photos automatically created just today from an album of those Bali photos, and which supposedly commemorates today (January 29) back in 2018:
So here are the original photos, beginning with the left column ─ the first photo depicts my wife's nephew and his wife:
This is a selfie by my wife:
And this is my eldest stepson ─ 23 years old at the time ─ with Pura Tanah Lot (Tanah Lot Temple) in the background:
Both of the photos in the second column also feature that temple. In addition, the first photo repeats with another view of my eldest stepson, and his cousin's wife; in addition, the woman is one of my wife's two sisters, and the man is the husband of that sister:
I still have to create a post at my private blog, so I shall call it a day where this post is concerned.
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