Both John and I have had bad colds for about three weeks. Mine’s been better for the past couple of days, but John had to go to the doctor yesterday to get a prescription to help with his sinus congestion. He’s feeling better today but still not 100%.

But I’m ok, still an occasional cough, but nothing I can complain about. Now that I feel that I’ve licked the cold, I have a new problem. I sprained/twisted my right knee a little over a week ago (when we were at Busch Gardens last Friday). I’ve been babying it. Probably should have gone to the doctor, but I’m sure he would have told me to do what I’m doing: apply Biofreeze (or ice it), wrap it when I must walk, and stay off it as much as possible.

I miss my walks to and from the pool, but I learned by doing it one day that, until it totally heals, I need to avoid long walks. And when we dance, I need to have an ace bandage wrap.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be rather rainy and cool, but Monday and next week, we’ll enjoy 80’s. The pool and sunshine will help more than anything to get rid of all our “bugs.”

By mid-week I thought I felt pretty good. Wednesday I washed my hair, put a little color, and went to the country couples class. And then again on Thursday, we went to Rockin’ Rendezvous (aka Throwback Thursday). Both activities were fun and I felt pretty good, but last night (Thursday night) I got practically no sleep. (At about 4:00 a.m. I finally got up because, while reclining, I was going into coughing fits.)

Today I’ve been all stuffed up and coughing a lot.

We had an invitation to Caroline and Stephen Cooper’s tonight for a house party/dinner. I was really looking forward to it, but I knew that no one would appreciate my presence if I continually sneezed and coughed. So I decided to stay home. (We have other parties tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday, and I’d hate to miss them all.)

John was feeling better, so I encouraged him to go, especially since he’d baked dozens of cookies to take to the party. (At first John didn’t want to go alone but the host, Stephen, talked him into coming.)

So he’s at the Coopers. I’m home alone. But it’s the right thing. If anyone got sick, I’d be blamed for spreading my bug. I feel better here.

He said he’ll bring back dinner to me but I’m not hungry anyway. (I’ve been filling up on wine.)

I was sorta disappointed that we didn’t have plans for Super Bowl Sunday, but last night we both started feeling rotten and when we got up this morning we both had head colds.

My eye lids are horribly swollen. I couldn’t open my eyes normally this morning and the swelling went clear up into my tear duct. Now I can see ok, and the lids are down to about 1/4″ thick but I’m still sick and so is John. (He’s coughing and sneezing.)

We canceled today’s planned practice with the Conklins for our two up-coming performances. They are nearly two weeks away so there’s still time. We’ll get together Tuesday or Thursday. We weren’t about to expose them to our “bug.”

So we lazed around all day, and had a nice dinner. As we were cleaning up from our meal, I bumped my wine glass and it hit the tile floor. The glass was everywhere. Hopefully we got it all, but we will have to check again tomorrow when it’s light.

My plans are to take more Cold-Eze and get to bed early.

We’re watching the Super Bowl now.

My smart phone has decent GPS services.

Yesterday John and I went to to Tampa Bay Downs racetrack. As we pulled out of Kings Point I put in our destination address: 11225 Race Track Drive, Tampa, FL. The GPS responded and we dutifully followed the instructions, listening to the female voice. Unfortunately following her instructions took us onto a toll road and John wasn’t happy. He was sure we could have avoided paying the fee, if we’d taken a different route. And as we approached the race track, she had us turn right rather than left, so we had to backtrack. John wasn’t happy.

So on the route home, we didn’t follow her instructions. Instead we defied her!

We intentionally kept going on Hillsborough Ave. even when she said we should turn, and we didn’t get on the Memorial Highway, even when she told us to. We had our own route in mind and it felt good to be defiant. We stayed on Hillsborough Ave. until we could get on 275, which allowed us to merge with Hwy. 4 toward Orlando. We knew Hwy 4 had an exit to I-75 and that’s what we took. Once on I-75, we were in familiar territory. Only when we got on I-75 did I feel “the voice” approved. Up to that point, she knew we were defying her and her tone chastised us.

John laughed at me as she gave me orders and I’d reply to her, “No, we aren’t going that way.” I had the nerve to taunt her!

He said it was weird listening to me argue with a “device.”

But it felt good to know we had a better route in mind. Of course, she was there, if we really got lost. I can imagine she’d have laughed, if we’d really gone astray, but as it was, following our route went smoothly and didn’t have any tolls.

I just thought of something: Maybe she is paid by the toll roads.