Please forget about the Alamo for a while because nobody needs to do any stupid sightseeing in triple-digit heat.

I regret to announce that yours truly is severely under the weather right now, although the story actually began last night. Around midnight I didn’t feel well, I was shivering, and Sam took my temperature. It was extremely low (94°) … and that’s typically a precursor to a high fever within a couple of hours. In the past I’d usually wind up unresponsive in an ambulance on my way to the closest emergency room, but last night the high fever never materialized. I got lucky. I took Tylenol, 20mg of Norco, bundled myself up on the chaise lounge and Sam turned up my oxygen generator to the highest setting.

When I woke up this morning, though, I was already heading into “round two” of whatever started creeping up on me before I went to bed … body aches, horrible arthritis pain and a very low body temperature (again). Sam and I also discovered that I’d been brewing a urinary tract infection for the last day or two. I won’t tell you how we discovered it, but trust me … we did. (It’s a little different now that I’m catheterized. The catheter masks a few of the typical symptoms.) And so … I talked to my hospice R.N. and texted with the hospice administrator, and within half an hour they’d already ordered an antibiotic. The hospice pharmacy will deliver it on Friday morning. That’s tomorrow.

Another chronic hoo-hah that’s plaguing me right now is a weird one: I CAN’T EAT WHEN I SIT UP. Food gets lodged in my throat, and I either suffer and struggle from not being able to get it down … or I simply regurgitate it. I spent a good part of the day sitting at my rolling computer desk, and the only “food” I could eat were three Popsicles. However, after I finally got back to the chaise at 6:30 I laid down and ate a couple of frozen fish fillets and some tartar sauce. Go figure! Anyway, I mentioned the problem to my hospice nurse this afternoon, and she promised to discuss it with the on-call physician. An inability to swallow is a side effect of neuropathy but I don’t think there’s any medication for something like this. You just can’t swallow any more. (Incidentally, this doesn’t go on forever. I’ve had this before and it eventually subsides after a week or two.)

The Howdygram recommends these fish fillets for not regurgitating.

---

Woo-hoo! I just ordered something FUCKING WONDERFUL for myself! Instead of asking Sam to keep buying Popsicles (see previous paragraph) at Wal-Mart three or four times a week and then let him figure out how to drive them home in 100° heat, I ordered these … online! You get 80 freeze-at-home Pop-Ice thingies in a box but only have to freeze a couple dozen at a time, maybe in a big Ziploc bag so they don’t slide all over the place. (I’ll let Sam figure this out. He’s such a genius.)

Six fantastic Pop-Ice flavors, including watermelon, blueberry and banana!

I also ordered a box of “original” flavors, including pineapple, lime and blue raspberry. No kidding, people … I CAN’T WAIT. Blue raspberry! Oy!

---

Tomorrow — Friday, June 29 — is Sam’s birthday. My sweet string bean will be 59 years old! I can’t cook something fabulous for him (he always loved my homemade potato salad) any more because I’m an old coot who can’t even stand up, but we’re planning to order-in one of his favorite decadent meals … a large thin-crust supreme pizza from Pizza Hut with a side order of warm Hershey brownies. (Holy crap! I might try to eat a BROWNIE!)

And on Saturday, June 30, please join Sam in the nationwide FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER march! There’s one here in Dallas, and there’s probably a march in your city, too. CLICK HERE to find the march in your area. Please … we need to make our voices heard to stop the Trump regime from separating immigrant families and throwing defenseless children into concentration camps. America is being humiliated on the world stage!

---

I need to take a handful of pills, inject my bedtime insulin and try to get some sleep. It’s almost midnight already. Thank you for reading this, and please forget about the Alamo for a while because it’s too damn hot here and nobody needs to do any stupid sightseeing in triple-digit heat. Shalom, y’all.