Oh my goodness. I know what you're thinking. Michael, where have you been? I guess I owe you an extra donation because I got sick.
I got long about a week before Thanksgiving. I had this cough thing going on. And it had been going on for a while. But right just a little bit prior to Thanksgiving, after I did the last podcast that you heard, which was about the new Beatles song, I one day I was in my front yard and I just started coughing.
And I could not stop. It was, and I went into the house to see what I had to make. It stopped. I had throat lozengeers.
They like cough lozengeers across the room. It was really bad. And at one point I even panicked. I could not stop coughing.
And I was home alone. And I almost ran out my front door to go to the neighbor's house to ask them to call 911. That's how serious this was. But I didn't, I got a breath because I couldn't breathe because I was coughing constantly.
But I got a breath and I found some, oh, I don't know, Robitusson from 2007 in my cabinet. And I chugged a little bit of it. And I don't recommend that, by the way. But it helped a little bit, not much, a little bit.
And I just kept working on it, trying to cure myself. And I could not do a podcast. I could not record anything. I had commercials to record.
I could not record anything. It was just like that. So I said, OK, what are we going to do? And it's the day before Thanksgiving, if I recall, correctly.
And I did a telehealth thing. Because I remember when I was a little kid, did this ever happen to you? Did this ever happen to you? I did a telehealth thing.
And I've never done a telehealth thing. It was kind of fun. And I talked to this PA. And he said, yeah, you're doing everything that you're supposed to be doing, except I said, when I was a kid, my doctor, Dr.
Ang Statt, long since gone, gave me this cough medicine. It was in a red bottle. And I said, I remember I had a really bad cough. And I took a teaspoon of that.
And the cough stopped just like that. He goes, yeah, that has code in it. I said, oh, I want me some of that. And I said, you know, you can't get that on a telehealth call.
But we're going to give you antibiotics. We're going to give you a Z-PAC. We're going to give you the spills that come your throat down. And you'll be good.
But if you want the stuff in a red bottle, you got to go to the, yeah, walk into a doctor's office. I said, OK. So they did that. I ran up to the drug store, picked up my script, and I'm taking all of that.
And it's helping the Z-PACs knock the infection out of you. And I'm doing that. And the pills were helping a little bit. But oh gosh, Monday after Thanksgiving, I went to my real doctor.
I called him, you've got to give me the yack. Come on in right now. So I go in and I told him about the little red bottle. He said, yep, that's got code in it.
I said, OK, I don't like taking drugs. OK, you give me a time on all PM, and I'm gone for like 10 hours. I don't like taking drugs. And the thought of taking code in did not make my heart sing.
But I was still coughing quite a bit. So they got me that. I got the bottle of that, brought it home. And I took the exact amount you're supposed to take.
And my goodness, did it work? I mean, cough just, boom, gone. And it lasted about eight hours. And then it would start coming back eight or nine hours.
But I could get a whole night's sleep with it. But it has taken this long for everything to come back, for the voice to come back. So that is interesting. And I'm glad that that has happened.
So I'm not starting this podcast up until next week again. I'm giving you this episode today. But next week, on Monday, we will start doing the Daily Grateful Monday through Friday. Once again.
And we're going to be talking about all kinds of gratitude stuff in the new year. We're going to be talking about stuff like how gratitude acts like a happiness magnet. It attracts positive people, too. I'm going to be telling you stories, too.
And how gratitude strengthens relationships. And it does. It really does. I have a very close relationship now with my son.
And a lot of it is because I'm so grateful for all the stuff he does with me, my youngest son. I got to work on that with maybe another one or two of my sons. But no, it's getting there. And so that's what I want to do.
I want to start the new year up with gratitude. And we're going to be talking about all kinds of things. We're going to be talking about challenges. The other thing is I'm in a real personal challenge right now.
My brother is very, very ill. He's in the hospital. And I'm kind of devastated by it because he's got something. I'm not allowed to go to the hospital.
Neither is his wife. Neither is his kids because it's very contagious. He's in isolation. And I don't like this.
So I'm just going to start doing podcasting again on January 1. On New Year's Day, I think that's Monday. So that's when we will start up again. So we're going to make things better.
Because what's life without gratitude? What's life without challenges? And you know something? And I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again.
And in the midst of all kinds of bad BS happening to you, like my brother. I'm very worried about him. But in the midst of that, talking with my son's wife about this, we're finding little glimpses of happiness that pop up. And I think about all of these things I've talked to my brother about in the last several years.
And it's been wonderful. So even in the midst of garbage, there's happiness. All right, we'll see you on January 1. Be ready.