Well, I am definitely coming down with something, I can feel it in my chest and throat.

The problem is that once a germ gets a hold of me it tends to wrestle me to the ground and stomp my ass pretty good. Before you know it, I've got bronchitis or pnumonia and I'm laid up on the couch for a couple of weeks, or walking around for 2 or 3 months trying to go on with life while a nagging persistant cold just won't leave.

So I get very pro-active. And I've gotten quite good at cutting colds off at the pass.

First I set up the crock pot. I put in some broth, chopped garlic, thyme, and a shot of black & cayanne pepper. I leave it on high all day and take a cup every couple of hours.

I Gargle and clear my nasal passage with salt water every couple of hours to keep away mucuous and blow my nose.

I change the sheets and pillowcases and spray the pillows and mattress with disinfectant. I wash my hands a lot and use hand sanitizer and am very careful about germs (I usually am anyway, but I take extra precautions when getting sick).

I take some vitamin C, and a tsp of honey two or three times a day. Lots of tea... if I have fever or achiness I make slippery elm and lemonbalm (the slippery elm is kinda gross, lemonbalm and sweetner like honey or stevia powder make it more bearable). I take a hot shower and try to sweat it out and take to bed for a day or two.

If I do this the minute I begin feeling the sniffles or a tickle in my throat, I'm usually fine in a day or two.

If I don't-- I don't know, I have low resistance or a poor immune system or something because I end up sick for weeks, if not months. I've been known to have a cold last for as long as 5 months, even with dr. visits every month to try some new meds. I have gotten bronchitis and pnumonia more than I can count and last time it almost killed me, about 2 years ago, that started with being exposed to mold (I have a bad mold allergy).

I don't take chances any more.

Anyway, I was visiting a Pagan message board and I am really saddened sometimes by how much false information Pagans still believe and spread about our religions. It seems so many people have just embraced this romanticized, anti-Christian, yet very false history. They keep spouting these inaccurate tidbits as facts, such as 9 million women were burned as Witches (more like 40-60,000 at most), or that Christians stole Pagan holidays (they sort of evolved, a lot of what we borrowed back was brought to the holiday by Christians), or that Christians tricked Pagans into becoming Christian by replacing our Gods (they really believe ancient Pagans were that stupid?) or that Pagans were forced into conversion (most Pagans converted quite peacefully and willingly) or that Pagan societies were peaceful and happy-go-lucky before Christians (many were war-mongering aristocracies that would rape and pillage and force prisoners into slavery) or that there was this near-universal ancient feminist Goddess-worshipping culture (ummm; no, Goddess worship was actually rare, and women were usually treated worse under ancient Pagan tribal customs than they ever were in Christianity).

I don't get it... Pagans will holler from the rooftops that Christians lie about us worshipping Satan or doing 'evil' things, but then will try to paint Christians as these sneaky power-hunger barbarians throughout history; Pagans will scoff and poke fun at Christians for believing the Bible literally about Adam and Eve and talking snakes even though it flies in the face of facts, but then will go on to embrace these completely fabricated historical claims painting some ancient Pagan utopia-- claims that have long been debunked.

It embarrasses me when Pagans go on about all this basically BS; it makes me worry about the future of our Pagan faiths... are we to be a religion of deluded morons who turn a blind eye to history? Or will we die out when more and more Pagans begin to wake up and learn they were lied to in *this* religion, too, and this let down being the last straw, just turn to atheism? If we're so embarrassed about what historic evidence really proves about ancient Pagans, and if that bothers someone so much, why be Pagan at all? Why try to create an imaginary history to make yourself feel better?

I guess I didn't go on much about weight loss today, but I had other things on my mind.

I decided that after the next full moon I am going to start Cunningham's dieter's bath. I am clinging to my weight-loss mojo bag and burning my candles because since my period ended I seem to be a bit stalled at 344. It's probably a natural plateau, so I'm not about to let it discourage me, I'm just going to pray and meditate my way through it. I'll worry more when I feel a bit better. I got circle sickness once, which is not fun at all, so I tend to lay low when under the weather.