Call it malaise, or maybe ennui. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s lupus mist. I think it started Monday when I showed up on time for my dentist’s appointment — but a week early. So I went on to the grocery store for supplies, and the heat index was like 107. I spent Tuesday in a daze, muttering, “This, too, shall pass,” Only it didn’t.
I managed to make it to an absolutely necessary appointment on Wednesday (yes, my hair is shorter), came home and collapsed. Books went unread, blog posts unwritten. I wanted to write about the Edward Gorey exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art (“N is for Neville who died of ennui”), and tell you how wonderful I found Laura Lippman’s new novel, I’d Know You Anywhere. I thought — fleetingly — about the upcoming Katrina anniversary and some good hurricane books to recommend. Mostly I have been horizontal on the couch without the energy to put in a DVD or pick up the remote. I listened to paint dry on HGTV.
This has gone on long enough. Apparently not. You won’t believe how many typos I’ve corrected in these few paragraphs. Thank goodness for the dogwalker in the afternoons. It was 90something when we went out a few hours ago, and the humidity was like a soggy blanket. We didn’t go far. My legs hurt. I’m like Lucy, crabby as all get out. The cats want to be fed. As smart as they are, you’d think they could pour Purina in the dish. Oh, all right.
Woundikins! That’s my only accomplishment of the last 24 hours beyond the essential. Aimlessly surfing the web, I found savetheword.org, which is devoted to rescuing obsolete words before they go completely out of use. Move your cursor across the collage of words on the screen — words I can’t remember now, most I’ve never heard of — and the words talk to you: “Choose me!” “Over here!” “Me! Me! Me!” They’re begging to be adopted. I chose “woundikins,” which is either a mild oath in itself, dating from the 1800s, or referring to mild profanity. Like dadgum, or egads or, batcrap. Having adopted the word (I can now order a T-shirt), I’m supposed to use it in a sentence every day. So, I’ll be back when I don’t feel like woundikins.
On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever 
Love you to pieces, dearest, and hope tomorrow will be a better day.
There is a pervasive malaise going around, and I’m under it. It improved slightly when the kids went off to school this past Tuesday, but still all I want to do is sleep. I would rather have a root canal than write a review. I feel fat. I’m blaming it on the forever heat.
I’m in a bit of a lupus haze myself. I blame the heat although I haven’t spent much time in it. I have zero energy so I know how you feel.
Ugh. it sounds miserable, exacerbated by the heat. i hope you have AC. our weather finally broke for a few days, which was a huge relief. the heat and humidity return on saturday, though, which means i will be doing nothing except sitting very still, occasionally dozing.
hope things turn around for you quickly.
Thank you all. @Laurie, you can’t live in Florida without AC! It’s why we dread tropical storms and hurricanes —– losing power. I now co-own a generator for which I paid a small fortune and had to throw a hissy fit in a hardware store to boot. Stay cool…
Woundikins ?!?! Freudian slip?
Delightful as always !!
I L O V E bike riding, but I can’t go out in this heat. Have you ever ?!?!? Incredible! I just hope it doesn’t solidify itself into a series of back-to-back H-bombs this season…
Th eyards here are suffering, too– way too hot to go outside and weed. I need to dead-head a giant rose bush, but unless I go out at 6 AM, it’s hopeless.
Ah well! The price of living in Paradise… !
Enjoying your blog! I understand the writing issues with brain fog, for me the cognitive dysfunction affects my ability to write and do conceptual work as the manager in a local government law office. Thank God for the ADA, and attorneys that I work with that believe in it and me. Thanks.