Three 12 19

Yeah hi Fans and some confusion rains this morning. Not certain if I have died or am dying as I was diagnosed yesterday with influenza. I do feel fairly certain that this COULD BE a preview of the end of days and conditions ARE such that I am glad that I don’t own a gun.

I missed the very important Ash Wednesday report but I am just typing over it and saving it with a different name.

Ash Wednesday IS significant as I ACQUIRED the virus that day at Mass. I sat next to a dude who did nothing but blow his nose, cough and DRANK water throughout and I am here to tell you, this kid cut the common sense class or poor parenting at least should have had him at home in such a state.

I could go on and on about his idiot but what’s the point?

I now have the affliction, full-blown, must recover and this leads to a bunch of new, fresh and good material.

So on Thursday knowing full well odds were all stacked high against me I laid low watching and waiting for incubation.

By Friday, I was feeling only slightly out of sorts so I was THINKING, no, let’s try HOPING I had fought it off. Kjell checked in and we stopped working the plan(s) for the weekend.

This reduction in activities continued after a good nights sleep Friday but Saturday the house of cards fell. The sore throat had become like a knife twisting when I coughed which was often. Swallowing was painful and I knew from training and experience that the patient (I, me in this case) needed to spit up and out ALL of the gunk.

I suffered privately all day on Sunday as I put together a plan to begin execution first thing on Monday.

There is a new doc-in-a-box up on the corner of LF & ED so I would go there first, See if they accepted my government provided insurance as payment which they did so let’s pick it up there.

The place was new and clean and there was no, NO LINE. I got right in and was still filling out the paperwork with history when Sarge and a male nurse (or aide) Robin came in. Sarge had to be ex-military. Well-seasoned nice bedside manners she had the fleshy age jowls and pale skin of just getting off work at the end of the day and crashing over a lifetime.

One time on the way out of the room she must have sense something and she grabbed my knee.

LIKE COMING ON ?

I think not.

Keep in mind that my mind is still spinning, concentration and focusing are a symptoms of this dreaded disease. I was trying to process the act of kindness but gave up I am not sure when if it was right before she opened the door leaving the room or it closed behind her.

During the ordeal, as I tried coughing and spitting, the knife in my throat slowed the process. Now, today, it still causes great pain to swallow but by now some of the meds are lessening the severity of the pain.

Even last night, this morning and now, breathing is hilarious. It reminds me of an old wooden ship with lots of pops, gurgles, creeks and such odd little noises.

Fits and bouts of coughing can start at any time and ALWAYS end with a copious quantity of mucoid material and bits of lung that need EXPECTORATING. And did I mentioned the throat pain associated?

Yeah.

Honestly I think in the last 72 hours I have expectorated my body weight in mucous.

First-born with RN, called and promptly informed me I sounded awful which is always good to hear.

She had just gotten over her bout plus the NEXT-gens who are always cycling something thru bringing the 'latest' home from school mates.

Anyway, we exchanged text messages and she sent a ‘care’ package by way of uber or some such home delivery service. Quite nice as expected and some areas over the top. Everything from cans of chicken soup, some with other w/o noodles.

Paper towels, Kleenex and sanitizing wipes. Tea, gorgeous lemons and I can’t forget the crackers.

Kjell checked in again on Monday evening and stepped up that if I needed anything to give her a call. She has a great heart.

As I was lingering in bed this morning, an email comes in from a lost or bygone friend. Pat was a golfing buddy years ago at the club in NY and a great guy. He relocated to FLA and we kept in touch via Christmas cards. While I spent CY 2000 there in FL and we connected. So funny. He introduced me to GOOD sushi and was quite passionate it.

Pat is maybe a year or two older than I and a couple of people that know each of us think there is even a strong resemblance.

In the day maybe but we would spend a bit of time playfully debating who was the better looking. I bowed and he got MY vote and he would argue.

He lost his wife after I left FL and returned to TX so drifting apart and a dropped friendship was sad.

So I told Pat I would give him a call when I recovered well enough to focus and talk without coughing so that is truly something to look forward to.

OK. The concentration issue has returned, the inability to focus has returned and it is time for the next sip of Robitusin A-C.

It is raining all day, dark, dreadful and dreary all falling into my ‘sweet spot’ this day. Like R Dylan once said in the lyrics of a song. ‘You ain’t gooooooooiiiiing nooooowhhhhhhhhhere …’

I might drop in a movie or try to get some shut eye. Under defcon.blue here now, sleeping and naps are always welcome and on the fly. Earlier after the last RobiA-C dose I woke and found myself asleep in and sitting in the recliner head drooped, slanted in an anatomical angle named after a Greek Euclidean mathematician whose name I couldn’t pronounce were I inclined to bullshit the loving readership.

Which I am not.

I was thinking now I know how and why all the oldies in the homes sleep this way. Laying down is the PROBLEM and CREATES problems and the meds make it easier to doze and nod off anywhere, anytime.

Sorry folks. Please say a quick prayer on my behalf and especially that idiot that sat next to me in church last week.

MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP GOING TO CHURCH ?

THAT is idiotic, blasphemous and qualifies YOU as a ignorant heathen.

WOW!! I can’t believe I topped the 1000 word mark with EVERYTHING going on. Remarkable but then again I am.

Look at it this way, it's your LUCKY day.