Banal Leakage » cold

How I Fight A Cold

martymankins — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:23:55 +0000

This last week, I felt a cold coming on. It was inevitable, as both of my co-workers in my immediate office area were sniffling and blowing their noses, not to mention the general office area filled with sneezes and coughing.

When I catch a cold, it’s more of a flu, with body aches and attacks most of my muscles. I hate it. So I do what I can to fight getting a cold.

Grapefruit Seed Extract pills

I started taking these daily [two a day] about three years ago and since then, the number of colds and other sicknesses have been significantly reduced. When I feel a cold coming on, I take six of these pills a day – two in the morning, two at lunch and two at dinner. They are non-toxic and taking a lot of them doesn’t do any harm. Only good.

Green Tea

I’ve been a green tea drinker for over 10 years now and while I only have a couple teas a week when I am well, I drink two a day when I am fighting a cold. Like the pills above, this acts as an antioxidant to cleanse the system. I’m sure there are healthier teas out there, but the goal for getting rid of a cold is quick and easy and available at your local grocery store.

Water

I refill this water bottle three times a day at work. Water is a natural hydration method and just increasing the amount of water I drink by one more of these per day while in cold fighting mode is a no brainer.

It takes me about three days of doing the above increased items to feel like I am winning the battle. I get some congestion hanging on for a couple more days, but normally by the 5th day, I no longer have any major cold symptoms.

I got tired of taking all of the OTC cold medicines that made me feel like I had done a small mountain of cocaine. Plus, the no breathing at night, the tiredness that sets in. I don’t like to deal and live through any of it. And what I do above works very well for me.

I know they say you are supposed to get a cold to help your antibodies fight off any sickness. And I’m sure at some point, I will need to let a cold run it’s course. But not before Christmas and the holidays.

Do you have any cold remedies that work for you?

48 Hours Of Blech

martymankins — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:57:10 +0000

A nice fall day… could it be the last? Will there be more to enjoy?

I had such grand plans for enjoying what may be the last nice weekend in October for Utah.

I wanted to get a new episode of Scooter Sunday done, but that didn’t happen [I even had the entire script and everything ready to go film].

There was a trip to Lagoon that I missed out on with my wife, her granddaughter, her daughter and her brother [there's always Universal Studios next week]

I did attend a friend’s 60th birthday party and had a few of these:

And I cooked a turkey [or at least monitored the progress of it]

But mostly I spent time starting at one of these:

Fighting a cold is no fun, but I did my best to shake it quickly. I ingested all sorts of natural and over the counter products and ended up waking up this morning to just a cough.

I feel tons better this morning. Which is good.

Because in 6 days, I need to be well and rested for this:

Six more days… Six more days…

Snowy Sunday #03

martymankins — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:26:58 +0000

Blogging Goodness

I hope all of you in the states had a good holiday [Thanksgiving, Turkey Day, Screw The Diet Day... whatever you want to call it]. I had a few days off and enjoyed it quite a bit. Got caught up with some movies from my Netflix queue, made my famous spinach & artichoke dip as an appetizer before turkey dinner on Thursday and watched our kitchen get that much closer to being done [full blog post with before and after photos once it's all completed]

One thing I didn’t do that I wanted was to get caught up on my blogging. Oh, my feed reader stayed clear until Friday [blame it on Black Friday], but I’m still stuck at posting two blog posts per week. I’d like to add that third on a weekly basis, but it’s just not happening yet. I’m sure it will soon.

For now, enjoy an all new Snowy Sunday episode… now with snow!

Snowy Sunday Ep. 003 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

For the YouTube version, click on this link: Snowy Sunday Episode 003

As for that ‘cool thing‘ I promised from last week’s episode… well, I couldn’t make it happen this time around. But I will soon… I promise… next week.

Snowy Sunday #01

martymankins — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:43:01 +0000

What’s Snowy Sunday?

Starting somewhere in November, the weather starts to get really cold here in Utah [although a few sunny days in the mid 50's make their rare occurrence]… cold enough to snow, especially in the higher altitudes. Then by mid to late December, snowfall finds its place on a regular schedule in the Salt Lake valley. Since this kind of weather is not very good for riding a small two-wheeled vehicle on icy roads, I’ve decided to put Scooter Sunday on hiatus for the winter, yet still finding an avenue for making videos.

Snowy Sunday seems an appropriate name as each episode will revolve around some form of winter activity involving the powdery white stuff [no, not that stuff]. Plus this gives me a chance to not get out of practice once Scooter Sunday makes it’s triumphant return in the spring.

So here you go… the first video episode of Snowy Sunday. Watch and comment.

Snowy Sunday Ep. 001 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

For the YouTube version, click on this link: Snowy Sunday Episode 001

Scooter Sunday #6

martymankins — Mon, 26 May 2008 05:59:30 +0000

I am working on a different Scooter Sunday graphic that I can use for my weekly scooter posts. Until that is done, I’m reusing a previously-taken photo of my scooter.

Ride

I actually rode today. Just to the grocery store. Was out of Red Bull to add to my vodka. The weather started out nice earlier in the day, but by the time I hopped on my scooter, it was cloudy and turned a bit cooler. Not very promising for a holiday weekend, or for a longer scooter ride.

The Cure

Ended up going to The Cure concert here in Salt Lake City on Friday night.

Each and every time I’ve seen them in concert (this was my third), they put on an incredible performance. And this show was no exception. Four encores in just over three hours. And they played pretty much everything you can think of (except for “Close To Me” and “Charlotte Sometimes”), pleasing old and new fans. And as an old fan [since 1982], it was great to have them dig deep into their back catalog (“One Hundred Years” and “At Night” never sounded better live), even though many in the crowd may not have been born before those songs were released. Regardless, a great show and one that my daughter enjoyed for her first Cure concert.

Indy IV

Nineteen years after the third installment of the Indiana Jones movie was released, we have the return of Lucas, Spielberg and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was one of those films that you have to see, but there were some differences since 1989′s Last Crusade brought movie goers cheering the whip-cracking explorer. I won’t reveal any spoilers here, but the ending was totally unexpected. Talk about taking a completely different turn. I guess Lucas and Co. didn’t like the previous screenwriters attempts at extending a successful trilogy into a “forth time’s a charm” series. It should make a nice chuck of change at the box office, but audiences may wonder if the wait was worth the semi-climatic ending.

And that’s all for now. Let’s see if I can finish next week’s post any sooner than the final minutes of Sunday. Hope everyone has a safe and eventful Memorial Day. Remember those who have fallen in fighting for our country.

Sunday, Freezing, Sunday

martymankins — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:28:37 +0000

It’s hard to believe it was 70 degrees on Saturday. I was riding my scooter in the sun (and fierce winds) and now on Sunday, I was looking for something heavier than my gray hoodie. That still didn’t stop me from carrying out the plans I had.

Public Rail

For the last 7 years, Salt Lake City has been moving forward in expanding their public transportation solutions. In December 1999, TRAX (our light rail system) opened. A few years ago, a second leg of the light rail opened. And Sunday was a vendor preview of the new commuter rail, Front Runner.

This train, unlike the smaller light rail trains, is full-sized. With a top speed of 79 mph, it gets up and moves. And it was smooth as it traveled the full destination: Salt Lake to Ogden, with the occasional stops at all of the completed rail stations in between.

I’ve always been a big supporter of public transportation. I mean, I could live in New York if I needed to, hopping on and off subways and rail systems without an issue. When I worked in downtown SLC, I rode TRAX every day, only driving to work twice in an 18-month period of time. At this time, I don’t live that far from work (a bit more than 3 miles each way), so the scooter and my car take me where I need to go. But I often choose rail over car when they are available. So any trips I need to take to Ogden, I’ll be sure to take Front Runner.

Even the cold can’t stop the BBQ

It’s no secret that I love to BBQ and I always look forward to summertime so I can cook up some great meals: burgers, salmon, steak, shish-ka-bob and anything else that tastes good bar-b-q’d. So after our train ride, I came home, prepared some meat patties and put them on the grill. Of course, the whole time I was watching them, I stood as close to the heat as I could to stay warm.

The rest of this week is looking pretty dismal, but maybe by Saturday, we’ll reach the 70′s again so I can start to hope that summer wasn’t here for just two days.

Another Cold Weekend

martymankins — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 05:00:43 +0000

Last weekend was spent in the cold. I was out of town (Lake Tahoe), but it was still cold.

On Saturday, I wanted to get the scooter out and get it ready for me to start riding to work most days. And I did, ignoring the cold, bundling up in a coat, gloves and a helmet. Took it for a ride down the road for FREE AIR (most places charge at least a quarter now) and to help the battery charge level. I’m hoping in the next couple of weeks, I can get be a regular on the roads.

A Visit From Dave – It’s not too often I get to meet fellow bloggers, but when given the opportunity, I always try to make it happen.

Dave from Blogography was in town and my fiance and I were able to meet up with him at Rio Grande Cafe (the old train station). Even in his pain-killer induced state, he was his humorous and witty self. And it gave both of us the chance to have a picture of ChillyWilly posted online.

So as another weekend ends, it’s one more weekend closer to warmer days in Utah. Which I look forward to each and every day.