No Ho Ho.

I know I will forget what we have been doing unless I post about it. 
On  Tuesday Dec. 13th  we attended Bernie's professional organization's Christmas party.
It was held at a Fine Art museum.

A nice jazz trio played...

The food was good, the people not particularly friendly. 

After we dined, we wandered about the galleries enjoying the art. 
Not a bad way to spend a very cold Monday evening in December.
Not bad at all...

Wednesday afternoon was the staff Christmas party at work, a potluck held over lunch time.
Not quite as glam as the party the night before, but the people were a lot more friendly.

The guys even wore festive ties and such.

A few games were played; we visited and laughed together. 
Not a bad way to spend an hour.
Not bad at all.

This year Bernie has taken on the holiday chores; he has both shopped for gifts and decorated the tree and the house.

The tree...he decided to drape the deck railing with garland and lights and place the Christmas tree outside where it could well be seen from our kitchen, dining and living room, a scene framed through the garland and light trimmed sliding door.

At various times the tree has had snow on the branches and even some ice cycles.

Colorful birds have stopped by to enjoy the festive scene.

The flicker was an especially impressive visitor.

At one point all four cats held a meeting on the stairs. 
Trust me...the four of them rarely are seen this close together.

I'm not sure what the meeting was all about, but shortly afterward, there was a complete re-arrangement in the feline sleeping accommodations.
Why?
Who knows.

A grey icy fog has covered our area for a couple of weeks, trapping pollutions and making the world look uninviting.
Each morning new hoarfrost designs are to be seen outside on metal and glass surfaces.

I wonder how it works that a long streamer of frost designs will sometimes form while other frost remain in rounded clumps.

Fascinating stuff...or at least it is to me.

So after our staff Christmas party last Wednesday we went back to work and then I went home as usual.
The next morning, last Thursday, I woke up with a 101 temp.
Since I have no sick leave (new job/had to take time off without pay for cardiac procedure) I decided to just pop some Tylenol and tough it out.
When I got home my temp was 103.2

Next morning the temp was 102...but off to work again.
Around 10 am I noticed it kind of hurt to breath.
Decided I should at least let the cardio group know what was going on.
(They have shown absolutely no interested in a week of fever and chest pain earlier so I didn't think they would care this time either but just to be safe...)
Well.
This time I was ordered in for eight hours of tests.
CTs
Echocardiogram
Ultrasound
Bloodwork
Urine tests

All of which confirmed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with me.
(This bit of excellent news was delivered to me as I displayed a 102 temp.)
I was sent home with an anti inflammatory and percoset...oh how blissful those "percs" are when they kick in!

Anyway, that pretty much took care of all of Friday.
Saturday: More fever
Sunday: Our Anniversary.  More bed time with fever.
Monday: Same
Tuesday: Same

You know what is really bugging me?

Is that while the doctors were running all manner of amazing tests to discover why I was feeling so cruddy, NO ONE did a swab to see if maybe, just maybe I could have the flu?

I know...why didn't I ask?
It is such folly to assume doctors can think of these things on their own, right?

So I have been basically burning up, drenching in fever break sweat, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, worry about what this is if it isn't the flu, worrying about how lame I must seem to my coworkers, worrying about what isn't being done for Christmas (Bernie really has handled all the needful things, and I keep telling myself that I can make Valentine day treats to give to the neighbors and coworkers later...)

This morning I didn't have a temperature.
Still feel yukky, but hopeful that maybe things are on the mend.

So for now...no ho ho ho here.
I think I am ready to go back to bed.