thyme saver.

"But--I thought you said she had her jaw worked on??? AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"...etc, etc. etc.

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I'm self-diagnosing myself as having bronchitis brought on by the flu. But Mark....isn't that absolutely terrible timing??? Yes, thank you for asking, this is bad timing as Mara's parents arrived this morning and last night we had to get through 7 hours of pillow-muffled coughing by me that counted as "sleep".

Since over-the-counter antihistamines aren't good for bronchitis sufferers, I've been exploring other options for re-opening my breathing ports, and one that has worked fantastically is thyme.

Take a big pot, put a couple inches of water in it and 3 or 4 branches of thyme. Bring it to a boil, take it off the stove, drape a towel over the back of your head, and stick your head in the pot. Being careful not to burn your little self, of course. Breathe carefully but as deeply as possible for as long as you can stand it.

Now, would this work just as well with any other aromatic herb? Don't know, haven't tested yet, and hopefully I won't have too many more days left when conditions would be right. But good ol' Wikipedia seems to think that thyme is an especially medicinal herb:

The essential oil of common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is made up of 20-55% thymol. Thymol, an antiseptic, is the main active ingredient in Listerine mouthwash. Before the advent of modern antibiotics, it was used to medicate bandages. It has also been shown to be effective against the fungus that commonly infects toenails.

A tea made by infusing the herb in water can be used for cough and bronchitis. Medicinally thyme is used for respiratory infections in the form of a tincture, tisane, salve, syrup or by steam inhalation. Because it is antiseptic, thyme boiled in water and cooled is very effective against inflammation of the throat when gargled 3 times a day.

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So you can gargle with your vaporizer water when it cools, huh? Sometimes Wikipedia sounds like a doddering old aunt that nobody believes anymore.

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The rest of this post used to contain a scratchpad for figuring out where we would be eating with Mara's parents, but that has been relocated for reprocessing. Really.