::hack, wheeze:: You know else smells after three days?

Benjamin Franklin said, "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."

What else smells after three days? Colds, that's what. Sniffle, snuffle, wheeze, hack -- this one began around Tuesday of LAST week as a slightly drippy nose and a sore throat that looked suspiciously like strep. Went to the doctor Friday for a quick test, that came back negative. Okay, I thought, I'll just park myself on the couch all weekend and knit until I get better, right?

Hah. It was Monday when the coughing set in. I'd be okay all day at work, but every night, between 7 and 8, I started coughing. And coughing. And coughing some more. Cough, cough, cough, cough, COUGH until about 2 or 3 in the morning, when it stopped as mysteriously as it had started and I could finally drop off, exhausted. Why? Who knows? I tried all sorts of remedies gleaned from the internet. Cough syrup? Hah. Vaporizer? Not much. Hot herbal tea? A little relief while drinking it, after that, nothin'. Spoonful of honey? Nope. Ginger tea? So-so, mainly as a counter-irritant, but short-lived. Shot of brandy from a tiny, dusty bottle out of some long-ago Christmas gift package? Nada, and considering we're a "dry" household out of deference to hubby's desire not to follow in the alcoholic footsteps of many of his older relatives, that I'd even go for the brandy is a sign of how desperate I'd become.

Standing in a hot shower was the only thing that seemed to help at all, but again, only when the shower was running. Could it be dry air? Maybe, maybe, so last evening, desperate for a reasonable night's sleep, I went on a humidity attack. I turned on the vaporizer in the bedroom as soon as I got home. I put a big pot of water on the stove. I put my electric tea kettle on the boil in the living room. I filled the bathtub with hot water and set a fan on the sink to blow some of the steamy vapors out. Ahh, finally a little relief. Some coughing, but much less. And after an hour's initial restlessness, some sleep. (Then hubby came home at midnight from a magician's meeting, so another hour's restlessness before I went to sleep again, but at least I was sleeping!)

So tonight I'm doing the same, and also left off taking the 24-hour antihistamine that, with a decongestant, had kept an off-and-on runny nose at bay, wondering if that was drying my lungs out too much. I can live with sniffles. I can't sleep with coughing. So far, so good. A few coughs, but not much. My poor tired ribs are much relieved.

At least last weekend I made significant progress on a mystery sock KAL. It's a new pattern, Isaz, by Ariel who keeps the Adventures in Sock Knitting blog, done up in BFL Platinum from Three Fates Knitting.

Clue 1 I'd finished:

I plowed through Clue 2 while occupying the couch all weekend:

And got through Clue 3 on one of the socks:

Even though I was feeling like "ah done been rode hard and put away wet" as the cowpokes say, I was still productive. Yay, knitting!