Post Flu
Friday afternoon I came down with the flu of the stomach kind. Hot brown liquid spewed from both ends of me for the remainder of the day and things were generally bad. I left work early and rode home on a bus whose driver seemed to be practicing dance steps on the brake pedal. Longest bus ride ever. I had the shakes and shivers all evening and crawled in to bed, trying to block out the rest of the world. Violet was right behind me, as the flu took her down for the count as well. The fortunate part was my parents were in town staying with us that evening, on their way up to Seattle for the weekend. They offered to take Mia with them for a day and we gladly accepted.
Saturday, after a brutal night of stomach flu suckiness, began a brutal day with more of the same. I stayed in bed for as much of the day as would allow and then sat on the couch playing San Andreas until company arrived. Violet had a design show on Sunday and had several friends/designers fly/drive in from all over to go to the show together. She had made a beautiful recovery in the past 16 hours, and prepared to go out and take care of a few designer things before things got started for them. The girls left the house and I decided it was time to rest again. The flu was still kicking my ass and it dropped me like a sack of potatoes as soon as I even thought about closing my eyes.
Sunday consisted of more of the same. Violet and her friends went off to the show and I was again tempted with more San Andreas. Happily, I got in more playing time than I have since I bought the game, however in hindsight, not sleeping during this time was probably a gigantic mistake. My parents brought Mia home from her trip that afternoon, and we hung out, building castles with lego blocks for much of the evening. They're playing all the old Rankin & Bass Christmas shows from long ago, so we had those playing in the background. I tried telling her about how her Daddy used to watch these shows when I was her age, but she seemed to glaze-over at that suggestion. I quickly decided that even though my sick days at work were depleted, there was no way I would be going in. Time to go in to the hole for vacation days.
Violet got home and seemed fully recovered. She did really well at her show, as did most of the other girls she attended with. We were both thankful neither Mia nor Cannon came down with even a small sign of the flu. My plan was to stick it out at home for another day, taking it easy, and then to return to work on Tuesday. Well, that kind of planning only works for the A-Team.
I felt well enough on Monday to do some contract work from home. Since I was being tortured with a wrenching burn in my gut and wicked bad pain, I joked that I probably have an ulcer. Violet became instantly concerned and I knew I had made a mistake even mentioning it. She threatened to take me to the doctor. The only thing I hate worse than being incapacitated by sickness is going to the damn doctor. I'm convinced that I am too young to get an ulcer and wrote off that prospect right away. Violet persisted. Time to act like I feel better and stop complaining, I thought. The subject was dropped and if I have an ulcer I will be sure not to bother complaining about the pain any more, lest I be taken to some voodoo crackpot.
Tuesday had me retching over the porcelain god again, trying to clear out the junk inside me. Things seemed to get better that evening, but most of the day was complete ass. I began a strict diet of bananas, yogurt, and toast for the rest of the day, and that seemed to help. Eating anything was becoming a chore. Later in the day, I opened up San Fiero in GTA:SA, so I had that going for me. As Tuesday came to a close, I knew Wednesday would probably be a wash too. I prepared myself for the worst, but expected the best. I set the alarm for the usual 5:45am, and planned a morning shave and shower before deciding if I was going to attempt the workday.
Wednesday, shave and shower felt great, but the work day was axed. I wanted to make sure my recovery was complete. I did begin the morning nice and early by heading in to the home office and returning emails which had gone unanswered for days. Then, I started in to some contract code work until Mia woke up and had to get ready for school. The rest of the day was filled with more code and design work, and I began to feel normal again. When Violet went to run some errands and pick up Mia from school, I felt well enough to get around to the task I have been putting off for so long: putting up Christmas lights on the house. Happily, they are now up and twinkling. The damn lawn still needs mowing and the leaves need to be gathered (again), but I didn't want to get carried away.
This morning I had the first cup of coffee I could stomach since last Friday morning. That's 5 mornings in a row without coffee. I haven't done that in years. I did realize how nice it is to be working from home again, and now that I'm back in the daily grind -- I find it to be just that.
Good news is I now have BEER on my keyboard. Tim at Zoom Studio (client) knows me well enough to buy me this new key for my keyboard. As soon as I find the tap for this, things will be beauty.
Saturday, after a brutal night of stomach flu suckiness, began a brutal day with more of the same. I stayed in bed for as much of the day as would allow and then sat on the couch playing San Andreas until company arrived. Violet had a design show on Sunday and had several friends/designers fly/drive in from all over to go to the show together. She had made a beautiful recovery in the past 16 hours, and prepared to go out and take care of a few designer things before things got started for them. The girls left the house and I decided it was time to rest again. The flu was still kicking my ass and it dropped me like a sack of potatoes as soon as I even thought about closing my eyes.
Sunday consisted of more of the same. Violet and her friends went off to the show and I was again tempted with more San Andreas. Happily, I got in more playing time than I have since I bought the game, however in hindsight, not sleeping during this time was probably a gigantic mistake. My parents brought Mia home from her trip that afternoon, and we hung out, building castles with lego blocks for much of the evening. They're playing all the old Rankin & Bass Christmas shows from long ago, so we had those playing in the background. I tried telling her about how her Daddy used to watch these shows when I was her age, but she seemed to glaze-over at that suggestion. I quickly decided that even though my sick days at work were depleted, there was no way I would be going in. Time to go in to the hole for vacation days.
Violet got home and seemed fully recovered. She did really well at her show, as did most of the other girls she attended with. We were both thankful neither Mia nor Cannon came down with even a small sign of the flu. My plan was to stick it out at home for another day, taking it easy, and then to return to work on Tuesday. Well, that kind of planning only works for the A-Team.
I felt well enough on Monday to do some contract work from home. Since I was being tortured with a wrenching burn in my gut and wicked bad pain, I joked that I probably have an ulcer. Violet became instantly concerned and I knew I had made a mistake even mentioning it. She threatened to take me to the doctor. The only thing I hate worse than being incapacitated by sickness is going to the damn doctor. I'm convinced that I am too young to get an ulcer and wrote off that prospect right away. Violet persisted. Time to act like I feel better and stop complaining, I thought. The subject was dropped and if I have an ulcer I will be sure not to bother complaining about the pain any more, lest I be taken to some voodoo crackpot.
Tuesday had me retching over the porcelain god again, trying to clear out the junk inside me. Things seemed to get better that evening, but most of the day was complete ass. I began a strict diet of bananas, yogurt, and toast for the rest of the day, and that seemed to help. Eating anything was becoming a chore. Later in the day, I opened up San Fiero in GTA:SA, so I had that going for me. As Tuesday came to a close, I knew Wednesday would probably be a wash too. I prepared myself for the worst, but expected the best. I set the alarm for the usual 5:45am, and planned a morning shave and shower before deciding if I was going to attempt the workday.
Wednesday, shave and shower felt great, but the work day was axed. I wanted to make sure my recovery was complete. I did begin the morning nice and early by heading in to the home office and returning emails which had gone unanswered for days. Then, I started in to some contract code work until Mia woke up and had to get ready for school. The rest of the day was filled with more code and design work, and I began to feel normal again. When Violet went to run some errands and pick up Mia from school, I felt well enough to get around to the task I have been putting off for so long: putting up Christmas lights on the house. Happily, they are now up and twinkling. The damn lawn still needs mowing and the leaves need to be gathered (again), but I didn't want to get carried away.
This morning I had the first cup of coffee I could stomach since last Friday morning. That's 5 mornings in a row without coffee. I haven't done that in years. I did realize how nice it is to be working from home again, and now that I'm back in the daily grind -- I find it to be just that.
Good news is I now have BEER on my keyboard. Tim at Zoom Studio (client) knows me well enough to buy me this new key for my keyboard. As soon as I find the tap for this, things will be beauty.
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