The Right Side of The Tracks

Okay, I suppose I should let you off the hook for the lyrics quiz I posted last week. Here are the answers:

1. Weird Al Yankovic, "You Make Me"
2. The Beatles, "Help!" (identified by cscottd)
3. Tori Amos, "Precious Things" (identified by cscottd)
4. Christine Lavin, "Yonder Blue"
5. Alan Parsons Project, "The Voice" (identified by DSAG)
6. Gordon Lightfoot, "Sundown" (identified by dawn_guy)
7. Northern Pikes, "Hopes Go Astray"
8. The Proclaimers, "Sunshine On Leith"
9. Depeche Mode, "Halo" (partially identified by dawn_guy)
10. T'Pau, "Heart & Soul" (identified by clintono and Nicole)
11. Shriekback, "Running On The Rocks"
12. Jane Siberry, "The Lobby" (cdk thought it looked familiar)
13. Sheryl Crow, "Every Day Is A Winding Road" (identified by Nicole)
14. Sarah McLachlan, "Steaming" (identified by ronebofh)
15. REM, "Drive" (identified by ronebofh)
16. They Might Be Giants, "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" (partially identified by dawn_guy, identified by DSAG)
17. They Might Be Giants, "Absolutely Bill's Mood" (partially identified by dawn_guy and DSAG)
18. The Pursuit of Happiness, "Walking In The Woods"
19. Tears For Fears, "Mothers Talk" (identified by cscottd)
20. U2, "The Unforgettable Fire" (identified by dawn_guy)

Making Healthy Choices

I feel like crap warmed over right now. Actually, maybe it's been already allowed to cool off after being warmed over.

Saturday afternoon I went to give blood. I'd had a little early morning sore throat, but I put it down to dehydration, and it did indeed mostly go away once I had a couple of glasses of water. I confess that sometimes I answer the pre-donation questionnaire to say that I feel well even if I'm only 90%.

By Saturday evening I had a raging sore throat, a headache, and at least a couple of degrees fever. I took some acetaminophen for the fever, which is kind of interesting--what happens is not so much that your temperature drops as much as your body's thermostat suddenly gets reset, and you realize how hot you actually are and sweat profusely for half an hour while you cool down. I've gone through it a few times this weekend, but on Saturday night it was like switching between wearing warm clothes to bed and huddling under the covers, and sitting on top of the bed shirtless waiting for the burning heat stored in the mattress where I was lying to subside.

Sunday and Monday I developed a runny nose and a cough, too. Monday I of course phoned in sick to work, and in the afternoon I went through the 2.5-hour ordeal which is waiting for a doctor in the free clinic. (I had a good book, at least.) The result of that was a five-minute interview with the doctor, who concluded that I had a bacterial throat infection to go with the viral symptoms. I was hoping for that, frankly, to have something I could try to fight with antibiotics. So I've got some amoxicillin and some codeine cough syrup, and with any luck I'll see some improvement over the next few days.

Oh, and in the middle of this we finally got around to finishing our taxes. We usually try to get it done for the April 30th deadline, even though Nicole's writing income has been low enough for the past few years that we always get a refund, which IIRC means that Revenue Canada doesn't really care when we submit our return. (If you owe them money and submit late, then they charge you interest, but if they owe you money, you never get the interest no matter how late you submit or how slow the processing is. Does that seem fair?) We didn't actually get them mailed off until today. The major hassle is usually getting all of the writing expenses tabulated(which include books--we bought over $1000 in books last year, which is still better than spending it on cigars, hookers and booze). Nicole's old laserprinter kept balking at one of the pages, printing some of the boxes on a second page, so I got the clever idea of sticking the same piece of paper in twice, and voilà!

I don't know the source of the infection, but either it's related to the eye infections that everyone else in the house had last month, or I caught it at the West Edmonton Mall wave pool on Friday. (I seem to get most of my infections from swimming pools, but maybe WEM's is better than the Mill Woods Rec Centre. They keep their water colder, at least.)