It began last Friday morning as a dry cough. By Friday night, it had become an incredibly sore throat. By Sunday, I was suffering from a full blown...something. Don't know if it was a cold or the flu or an allergic reaction triggered by the smoke and dust in the air from the Marek and Sesnon fires, but it wasn't pleasant. I couldn't sleep because every time I started to doze, I coughed myself awake. Unfortunately, that trend continues...

I called in sick on Monday and thought I was well enough on Tuesday to power through the show, but I was so tired from the lack of sleep and drugged out from the PM cold medicine that I'd taken that I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience on the air. I thought it best to take Wednesday off to rest. My wife, of course, had other plans for me and I ended up spending much of the day working through her "Honey-do" list...but I digress...

I changed my PM cold medicine and switched to something the pharmacist recommended--an over-the-counter severe cold and sinus medicine--you take one kind of pill during the day, a different one at night. I've also been using a nasal wash (TMI? Sorry...) and a prescription nasal spray like Flonase. I'm feeling a little better but the cough is still hanging around like a house guest who has overstayed his welcome.

I take comfort in soups and sleep, and I'm hopeful all these meds will help me get through this without suffering too much. But I was wondering: what do you do to fight off a cold? Any family remedies you want to pass along?

Meanwhile, I'm with you on the new layout. Bit of a pain for you to have to scroll from one page to the next. I'll ask the webmaster to see what can be done. We'll see.

I hope to be back on the show again Friday morning. We'll see about that too...