I’m still home sick today, but it is mostly recovery now. I’m feeling a million times better, still have some congestion, but my fever is gone, and I was able to get almost a full night of sleep. I guess I will be going to work tomorrow.

Perhaps today is a good day to be home? Yesterday we had an ice storm which left about an inch of ice everywhere. Today it is snowing.

I don’t know if you can see it, but that blurriness on the Hyundai is the ice. I hadn’t cleaned off the ice from my car, and now the snow is only going to make it just that much more of a pain to clean later on today. If I get too lazy, I might not even deal with it until I leave for work tomorrow morning. It’s a toss up: stay at home sick and avoid the nasty weather, or having to deal with the aftermath of the nasty weather in any event? Only four months till Spring! (sigh)

Woke up this morning sick as a dog. Fever, headache, sinus congestion, and at least one other impolite body function. Went to the doctor, got prescriptions and other OTC stuff. Didn’t go to work, won’t tomorrow, doubtful for even Thursday.

Since I live alone, I really have nobody to cry to when I’m sick. All my friends are married or otherwise engaged. So I’ll post here, a semi-captive audience,and hope for at least one pity “awww” from someone :)

For the long New Years holiday weekend, a friend and I decided to go to Atlantic City, and we stayed at the Trump Plaza, which was a bit of a disappointment. The actual hotel had that old and worn-down feeling, and the casino floor was not very big. We both like to play craps, so we checked out the tables here. I wasn’t feeling the love. The tables did not have many players, there was no energy, and the dice were not being kind. I didn’t play, but my friend came out $21 in the hole. Not a huge loss, but still…

We went over to the Borgata, where we had much better luck. There were twice as many tables open, most of them were full to capacity and the players were very energetic. I came out $500 ahead. Sweet. That pays for the entire trip with some leftover.

Probably the best I could say about the Trump hotel was the view of the Atlantic Ocean. From the room:

Due to the angle and the building, you can’t see it, but we are directly over the boardwalk. We walked out to the water, and I dug up a nice shell.

I’m not a “beach person”. I don’t flock to the beach in the summer and tan myself to leather. I’m more of an “ocean” person I guess.

It is the middle of winter, and kind of cold, probably about 38 degrees right now. It’s also very windy. Standing here, listening to the tide, watching the restless sea roll in and out, you can start to forget about modern day issues: no cellphones, no computers, no traffic or cars. About five minutes, most of the cares feel like they’re washing away. I’m definitely not a “romantic” in terms of the word, but there is a poem titled “Sea Fever” which captures some of the emotion.

And of course, no beach would be complete without the ever-present birds.

Not too far away from Atlantic City is Lucy the Elephant,  who is actually on the National Historic Register.

The town is very proud of Lucy.

Here is me, standing on the beach near Lucy. You can see Atlantic City in the distance.

Here is a zoom to Atlantic City. It’s about 5 miles from here, I imagine you could walk.