The Simple Life at Home: Whew! It's Been Quite a Week!

2:30 PM | Posted by Lori ~ The Simple Life at Home | | Edit Post

This week has been filled with a big high and one big low. I'll get the low out of the way first so that we can move on to happier things.

On Saturday evening, Daniel was telling me that he didn't feel well. He said he'd been coughing (though I hadn't noticed anything) and that he just didn't right. I shrugged if off, but let him stay home the next day as he did feel slightly warm in the morning. When I went home at lunch (thank goodness we moved so close to the school!!) he felt warmer, but still didn't seem to badly off. By the time I came home from school, he was significantly warmer and miserable. We thought it best to get him checked, so I dressed him (literally - he couldn't dress himself, poor baby!) and Hubby took him to the ER (he's become the official parent to accompany kids to the doctor since he can often communicate better with them than I here in Doha). His fever was 104.6 when he arrived, but soon reached a high of 105.8! He was given an injection of something designed to bring down the fever, which it did. He was diagnosed with the flu (swine or otherwise, they are testing so we'll never know) and given a raftload of drugs, including Tamiflu.

Happily, he has not needed even one dose of fever-reducing medicine since that first injection. He's felt much better ever since. He did stay home from school the rest of the week though. (They are off school today and tomorrow for Professional Development days). I figured since he was still coughing he didn't need to be spreading that all around. I'm just happy that he's well and back to his old self.

On the upside of the week, we got.....drumroll, please...A DRYER!!! A dryer. A dryer. A dryer. It's an amazing invention, you know. The first load I did was a load of towels. When you have been using scratchy, stiff towels for a year and a half, the feeling of softness of a load of towels just fresh from they dryer is amazing. I just kept rubbing my hands all over them and giggling.

Then I did jeans and they came out soft and warm and weren't able to stand up by themselves. And they were done in an hour!! I got all 8 loads of laundry (I'd been saving it all up for the big arrival!!) done in less than 24 hours. That would have taken me days and days to do before since I'd have to line dry everything and wait for it to dry so that I could use the dryer rack for the next load. I was so excited and I'm so thrilled.

But, we are in Doha, and that means that there's always a little something that goes wrong. The guys who delivered it weren't putting in a vent hose. So I asked them about it and in their broken English they informed me that it only puts out a little heat, so it's not necessary.

Excuse me??

But they could not be persuaded and claimed to not have any on them. Finally I let them leave, figuring it's just easier to install it ourselves than deal with the people. Since I was desperate to do laundry, I just shoved the machine over to the back door of the kitchen, opened up the door and vented it directly to the outside. Ingenious, aren't I?!

4 comments:

Erica said...: Oh, that is so exciting! We had a washer/dryer combo that would lock as soon as you started it and hyjack your clothes for at least 3 hours. It sounded like an airplane taking off, too. Then, at the end of the cycle, you had to fight with it to get it to unlock, only to find slightly dry, slightly cleaner clothes. Congrats on the dryer! And, glad to hear that Daniel's feeling better. My kids got kicked out of the nursery yesterday for coughing.; October 28, 2009 at 5:51 PM
Leeann said...: Yes, you are ingenious indeed! I'm glad you finally got your dryer.. and look how much you appreciate it since you had to go without one for a while. I'd just as soon not have to go through that test personally, though! :-)

Glad Daniel is on his road to recovery. The swine flu seems to bring those high fevers out in most. Sounds like he was able to turn it around pretty quick.

Be on the lookout for the same amongst the rest of you!

xo!; October 28, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Nancy M. said...: I'm glad to hear that Daniel is feeling better! And yay for the dryer!! I try not to use mine too much, but, I sure wouldn't want to be without one. Towels are awesome fresh from the dryer!; October 28, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Stacey said...: cheers for warm fluffy towels!; October 31, 2009 at 2:56 PM