Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of February:

1. Donate blood. — Did not accomplish yet.
2. Watch the Super Bowl with Al. — Accomplished!
3. Celebrate Valentine’s Day! — Accomplished!
4. Clean out the pantry to donate food to the church food pantry. — Accomplished!
5. Go through all my clothes again for donations. —- Accomplished!
6. Clean off the couch in my office, and keep it clean. —- Did not accomplish yet.
7. Prepare for our taxes. — Accomplished!
8. Fully fund my Roth IRA for the year when I meet with my financial advisor for my annual review. — Accomplished!
9. Publish at least one Book Review. — Accomplished!
10. Publish at least one Commentary post. — Accomplished!
11. Publish at least one Writing Prompt post. —- Accomplished!

I felt a lot more productive this month. I wrote and published more blog posts this month than I have in quite a while. And I have several more new ones in the works!

The Super Bowl was pretty disappointing in terms of the game. Even the commercials weren’t super impressive. However, I did make amazing food for Al and I to eat!

Valentine’s Day was a bit of an adventure this year, since I got my second COVID vaccine on Thursday the 11th. The immune response was fast, faster than I had anticipated. I got the shot at 8:00 a.m., and around 3:00 p.m., my energy went from 100 to zero. I finished working from home, and then attempted to eat dinner. I started having chills, a slight headache, and a low fever. I drank a ton of water and managed to finish one of the small/mini bottles of Gatorade. I’m really glad several people encouraged me to take the next day off from work, because I needed it. I had already slept around 10 hours between Thursday night and Friday morning. I took a long shower on Friday morning, and then slept off and on for another three hours. My dad was nice to bring over Panera chicken soup. I ate about half of it with more water and Gatorade. The only time I got really concerned was when I took my temperature on Friday afternoon. It has risen to 103.1. I looked up the definition of a high fever for my age. I was already considering taking some medicine, and I took an Aleve. My fever started coming down, and broke later that night. By Saturday, I was feeling much better. Valentine’s Day was a bit subdued (because the pandemic is still happening), but I was back to 100 percent. We got takeout. All this to say – I’m grateful I was able to get the vaccine so quickly. I may have felt like I had the flu for 36 hours, but that’s far better than having COVID and being on a ventilator, or worse.

I went through all my clothes in my IKEA drawers and closet, including the three under-bed storage bins that I reorganized last summer. I filled a large leftover shipping box for Darby’s Dresses consignment. The rest is being picked up by the Vietnam Veterans of America tomorrow.