We didn’t get much more rain today, but oh, that wind. It sounded like a wailing banshee (if that’s what a banshee sounds like). I didn’t even have to hear it not to want to go out in it. Just looking at how the tree limbs were whipping back and forth and the tall grasses (getting taller now, but too wet to cut yet) were leaning sideways. I didn’t want to go out, but I had to.

The other reasons I didn’t want to leave the house today were (a) all that work I had to finish, and (2) the fact that I woke up with a sore throat this morning. I assumed it was just another allergy attack, and it may well have been, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t make me miserable (and slightly nauseous). I don’t need a hard and fast diagnosis to identify the symptoms. In fact, I’d have to say the symptoms are more important, at least to me. Who cares what it is, as long as I can complain about it?

Of course, there was no question about staying in all day. Even though Mom was taking a turn picking D.J. up from school, I still had to go to the bank, to deposit my paycheck so that my rent check won’t bounce, and to the post office, to mail said rent check. I’m stretched pretty thin these days, and I have no problem telling all these charities that. No, I don’t want to contribute at the ten dollar level, since I had to make the minimum payment on my credit card this month. (I never do that, except now.)

I don’t know if it’s the cold wind or something else, but my right hand feels as if the bones are frozen. I worked most of the day writing checks with the wrist brace on. That makes everything take twice as long and causes me to make twice as many mistakes, because those payroll checks have such tiny boxes you have to fit large numbers into. Eventually I took the brace off and let it hurt, just so I could get finished before dark (which I didn’t).