Sorely afflicted

I have some kind of weird thing wrong with me -- okay, you know what? Just shut up because I can totally hear what some of you are thinking, PAT -- that is producing a number of PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS that refuse to be linked categorically to anything in the smörgåsbord of illnesses listed in the many online wellness sites I frequent. Have you had this? And if so, did you feel reallyreallyreallyreally sorry for yourself? My husband tells me that a couple of guys he works with have come down with this same thing (one of them left work yesterday to go home to bed which just tells you that I am not a big faker), which means that my husband, who is feeling perfectly well, has brought this scourge home with him and allowed it to jump on me with a hey-nonny-nonny and get busy with the torment.

(N.B. If your response to this illness is "I threw it off by taking a couple of aspirin and then went on to work, where I was productive and sunny-tempered for the entire fifteen hours I was there, I beg you -- please don't contact me.)

Symptoms:

1. sneezing and runny nose
2. fatigue
3. muscle and joint achiness
4. headache
5. a bad attitude

I have no fever, no sore throat, no cough and no will to do anything other than have many cups of hot tea brought to me while I watch House Hunters International on HGTV: I felt even sicker yesterday afternoon when that lovely British couple in the Cognac region of France chose House #3 when it was quite clear that House #2 would have been a MUCH nicer property.

I don't think this is the flu, because Aisling and I had the flu three years ago and I remember sitting on the couch watching House Hunters International on HGTV and praying for a merciful death to smite me. Oh, the punishing fever, the hit-by-a-city bus aching, the jackhammer head, the vague nausea....it was so bad and I don't feel anything like that. Because if I did? You'd probably be able to hear my tortured laments from wherever you're sitting. I am not one to suffer in silence.

Anyway, the picture I posted is a grouping of ingredients a friend of mine uses to make a hot toddy, which she assures me is the ONLY way to cure what ails you. I have everything except the ginger and the Jack. I wonder if we have a store in town that home-delivers such items as an act of mercy?

This is my first cold or whatever-it-is of the season. How have you made it through the winter so far?