August 10 Day 10

I was up with the kitties today- they wake up about 2 hours before everyone else because they are influenced by dawn. In the winter, they sleep like, well, cats, because dawn comes very late and night comes very early. Of course, right now they are so tired by 10 am that they are laid out for about 4 hours. This morning, India was chirping (her little meeps are pretty cute) under the bed on my side. Normally, I do not encourage this by responding, and she'll stop. But thanks to a Sudafed extended release, I was wide awake and I stuck my head down and looked at her and said "be quiet Indy!" which scared her and she ran off. 

This brings us to the subject of Sudafed. If there is any place where you are more of a presumed criminal than at the airport, it is at the drug store. I've had 2 sinus surgeries and though I can breathe, I still have all the side effects of the allergies I have to the Pacific Northwest.  I've been taking all sorts of stuff- some prescription, some not. So I finally decided to go back to something I haven't had in years- pseudoephedrine.  Hmmmm. How to get some pseudoephedrine? I searched the shelves and found the little card that has to be taken to the pharmacy so I can sign for the REAL Sudafed (not the fake stuff on the shelves).  I get the pharmacy tech who either can't read or add- I'm not sure since she so totally confused me- and I asked for two boxes of Sudafed. So she informs me that the federal government, in their efforts to contain meth labs and evidently, in the state of Washington, convert them into highly explosive hash oil labs,  does not want me to have TWO boxes of Sudafed. I can only buy one. Now she says, my husband, standing behind me without a wallet since I was driving, could give them his ID and buy a second box. (Actually she called him "your friend over there"). Now I'm thinking, if I could just line up the neighborhood, my imaginery meth lab might get off the ground.   So I settled for one box- and that one pill has kept ME awake for a night.  I should have believed the box - "Does not cause drowsiness". I'll say. Next up on the list was the fact that she said I could return TOMORROW and buy another box.  Poor woman doing all that math of grams per day, etc.  To make it more nonsensical was that they sold a generic brand of it that far exceeded what she was saying- my hubby was waving around the paper from the shelf and saying "BUY THESE INSTEAD".  I didn't because I LOVE big pharma and want them to stay in  business.

But to get to the weirdness in all this- I'm getting older. I know it. The room service server at the hotel last Friday night was telling me a story about how she and her husband of 2 years don't mind "bickering" (her words, not mine- I'm not Lucy Ricardo).  I said, "oh you know, we've never had many arguments", at which point she looks at me and says "well, we're young". I was thinking, "yes dear, yes you are".  So, another teensy reminder that no one expects me, the non-young, to shoplift or make meth  EXCEPT for the feds and the regulation of pseudoephedrine.   Maybe our legal Maryjane will stop runny noses, or at the least, keep me from caring.

I have visions of meth labs using pseudoephedrine bought in drug stores.  Who gets the crap job of pushing all the tiny red tablets out of the blister pack? Do the kids come in, step around ma and pa's tobakky spit and stray teeth on the floor, get a feed bag and pop those little pills into it? Do they have to take the red dye off because that would be bad for you? Do they buy drug store ice pops to get that tacky blue color mixed in?  

When I was in college, we had a local doctor who judged me (at 5'3 and 112 pounds) to be "overweight" and he gave me Dexedrine tabs- which he did for every "overweight" college student who had forgotten exams were in a few days.  My legs turned purple, and when I finally went to sleep a week later, I woke up having forgotten everything I'd memorized.  Then I decided not to ever take something like that again. And I meant it, because I always do mean it when I quit something. Oh, the doctor was arrested a few years later and lost his license.

So, here on day 10, I might have to take a nap to see if I can get some sleep.  I'll probably limit that extended release sudafed to during the day.  But jeez louise- when does the nanny state end? My libertarian self is really annoyed.

This is  St Andrew's Bywell Church. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Andrew's_Church,_Bywell) Somewhere in that cemetery are some of my relatives from the 1500s and earlier probably.  I find it fascinating that in times when life was so hard, people got up, put on their best rags and got themselves to church. Probably by walking and carrying children in arms. Yet, I can't get up and put on "Seattle church clothes" (jeans and a tee shirt) and go to the local Anglican church in my really nice car.  God, I'll say it again, I'm lazy.

If the cats, who are now sleeping, come down, I'll post another view from the computer pictures.
Have a spectacular Sunday!!