A Most Miserable Friday

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I did manage a rally early last evening, even without lying down. I guess I just needed to get away from blogging.

It was at least 7:30 p.m. (I suppose) when I left here to hike the mile or so to Surrey Place (Central City) where I visited The Shoe Company and in total parted with $146 for a size 11 pair of Timberland Men's Mt. Maddsen Mid Lace Up Hiking Boot. 

These are the boots at Timberland (Canada); and at The Shoe Company. It was due to taxes that the boots I bought were jacked up another $16.

I wish that they had size 11½, but they did not. I was too doubtful about size 12. However, the size 11s do seem snug. I am also not enchanted by the almost plastic-like outward appearance of the boots, but I have yet to take 'em for a hike. When I do, I will report back on the result.

My nose was draining so badly in the store from this wretched upper respiratory infection that I believe it was obvious to the man and woman staffing the store.

I was back home before my brother had yet shown up, so by the time he did, I had already used our Android TV Box to set up an episode of Chicago Fire for when he finally joined me. It was episode 17 ("Keep You Safe") of season 10, and plenty enough exciting and interesting, but my brother preferred to pass out and miss it.

He was conscious for Chicago PD ─ episode 18 ("New Guard") of season nine. The new Dante Torres character is very interesting, but my brother and I both expect that he was brought in by the people in control of the series to have a recurring 'good' character to eventually kill off.

Our third show was an episode of Wolf Creek ─ episode two ("Outback") of season two. Lord, we despise the Taylor character! I hope he is killed off finally at the end of this series, but I am not expecting it.

Then it was an episode of Riverdale ─ episode 12 ("Chapter Sixty-Nine: Men of Honor") of season four. Now I am torn as to whether to sample the one-season spin-off series Katy Keene. It sure doesn't look like anything my brother will be able to develop an interest in.

We finished the night with some random YouTube videos via the SmartTube app.

I don't know now, but it may have been as late as 3 a.m. before I got to bed. I had put away three cans of Cariboo Malt (8% alcohol) and a shot of Kraken Black Spiced Rum (47% alcohol).

My wife did not show up last night from her partial day of work until something like 12:10 a.m. She had another latter afternoon partial workday today, but I will be in bed before she is home this time.

Oh, this has been an ill day!

I cannot remember ever sneezing so many times over the course of a day. And I feel so wretchedly feverish. At least I do not have a sore throat ─ only from coughing. I finally resorted to taking ivermectin to try and kill off whatever has me in its grip.

So what did my brother and I watch this morning on T.V. via our Android TV Box? I will not identify the videos, but I selected a reasonably short one at both Rumble channels ConstitituonalConventions and The Official Corbett Report Rumble Channel.

My brother had left around 10:10 a.m. to pick up his girlfriend Bev and drive her to work, so as miserable as I felt, I regardless went out to the backyard tool shed for some exercise ─ pull-ups and chin-ups.

Where the opening pull-ups were concerned, I was only able to do a single repetition in each of what what became four sets. My joints and musculature are just too ... diseased. It felt like something might rip or tear. And who knows what the toll is on my 74-year-old heart. I also did a  pair of sets of chin-ups (two in each set) and two sets of pull-ups between two bars (again, two repetitions in both sets).

But I did hold the final pull-up between a pair of bars for a 20-count; and I then did 15 slow full-range push-ups on the wood floor.

The most interesting video my brother and I were to watch was 50 minutes (51:37) long: Rome: Power & Glory | The Fall (Episode 6).

Episode 6: Rome's glory had shone for a thousand years. The Roman Empire had united all lands from Spain to Syria, created more prosperity, more stability and more peace than the Western world had ever seen - nothing lasts forever. In the 3rd Century AD, civil war engulfed the empire. Chaos and corruption undermined it from within and from every direction Rome's enemies gathered for the kill. By the end of the 4th century, the Roman Empire was nothing more than a fragile military machine that was no match for the invading barbarians.

The inevitable occurred in 410 AD when Rome, the historic heart of the Empire, was sacked. As the Vandals stormed the city they were shocked at what they found. Gone were the crowds of the Golden Age. An eerie silence greeted the warriors as they wandered the same streets that their ancestors had walked down in chains 150 years earlier. The inhabitants of Rome, with their empire crumbling, had been chased away, the glory that had been Rome's was of another day.

I want to get to bed ─ I feel poorly, yet I intend an early a.m. five-mile+ walk. I have begun a Sabbath fast, so things will be rough on me tomorrow, especially with caffeine withdrawal on top of everything else.

I had a Cariboo and a shot of Kraken late this afternoon while watching an episode of Chesapeake Shores ─ the finale episode ("That Old Feeling") of season five. I was feeling decidedly anxious ─ thus the shot or rum. It did the trick.

But I do not feel far off from having a headache. It is almost 9 p.m. and my brother has come home, so I want to wrap this up, take some ivermectin, and get to bed and hope for the best. I will set my cellphone alarm for 2:30 a.m.