My right ear is feeling better already. My left ear is showing no improvement, but at least it isn’t getting worse. It’s definitely swimmer’s ear, which sounds so ridiculous since I don’t swim, but that’s not the only way to get it. My left ear has been prone to this problem since I was a kid, but I haven’t had to deal with an earache in ages. It completely sucks, but swimmer’s ear doesn’t suck nearly as much as an inner or middle ear infection. The worst of it is the feeling of having cotton stuffed in my ear. The pain isn’t so bad. I guess I’ll keep doing what I am doing, and if it doesn’t show signs of improvement in a few days, I’ll have to go to a clinic to get something more potent to treat it. There are a lot of things I’d rather be having checked out at a clinic, but earaches are nothing to play around with or wait too long to get treated. I appreciate being able to hear. I don’t want to lose that ability.

It’s raining today. I am growing incredibly tired of all the rain. The work I need to get done in the garden continues to be put off, because it can’t be done in the rain or in a mud pit, and my plants are suffering now not from lack of water like this summer but from lack of sunlight. There’s rain in the forecast for the next seven days. Ugh. When they said it was going to be a mild and wet winter, I was excited for the prospects of a really great winter garden. Well, I didn’t know “mild and wet” meant “you will never see the sun again, and every surface will eventually be covered in moss, mushrooms, and mold.” It’s really becoming completely miserable. The yard squishes when I walk on it. Too damn wet.

But to look on the “bright” side of this non-stop rain, I haven’t had to water the garden in weeks. The water bill will be smaller, and that’s always a good thing. We used a lot of water this summer. About six times more than we normally do. It’ll be nice to get back to being water thrifty. Wish we had a rainwater collection system. We’d be stockpiling water right now.

Dallas just squeaked out a victory over Kansas City in overtime! I think I’ll go watch the replays with Lin. I don’t watch football, but I do have some state pride so … GO COWBOYS!