Today in My History

2000:  Mom's Christmas Crisis
2001:  Lost and Alone on Some Forgotten Highway
2002:  Fizzbin
2003:  Sensory Overload
2004:  Must Be Santa
2005:  It Was a Pretty Good Year
2006:  The Shop Around the Corner
2007:  The Deadline Looms
2008:  Memories with a Hint of Cinnamon

Books Read in 2009
 
Updated: 12/13
"The Copper Bracelet"
"Voyager"

OH DEAR

22 December 2009

In this Christmas of misadventure a new wrinkle has arisen and I'm not sure what is the right thing to do about it.

I don't know if I'm sick or not.

I've been coughing a lot and sneezing a lot (I usually cough and sneeze for allergies, but this seems excessive).  The cough is a dry hacking, "nonproductive" cough that seems to sit between my throat and the upper part of my lungs.  It's not a bad cough, but it's definitely a cough. I have a hint of chills--but it could just be that it's cold in here.

Walt's sister just got over an illness and doesn't need to be exposed, if I am sick.

Walt's mother was just released from the hospital and somebody as prone to pneumonia as she is certainly doesn't need to be exposed, if I'm sick.

And the very last thing I want to do is to give any sort of illness to Bri, Tom or Laurel.  I would never forgive myself if I did that.

But I'm not sick enough to be really "sick."   It could just be because Dexter kept me awake so much last night.  It was one of those nights when I just wanted to sleep on the couch and instead of curling up inside my knees, as he always does, he insisted on draping his body over my hip, which meant that as he fell deeper asleep, he would gradually slide down until he fell on his head on the floor.  I'd pick him up and put him behind my knees again and pretty soon he was climbing up to my hip once more.  I couldn't convince him to sleep in any other position, so we finally moved to the recliner, which my body really didn't want to sleep in.  I did eventually fall asleep, but perhaps the late night activity just wore me down.

Our annual order of oranges that we have been buying from a local choir for the past 20 years or so arrived two days ago and I've been od'ing on vitamin C as a result.  And drinking lots of fluids.  I also took a long nap today.

Jeri and I were going to go out shopping for boots, her Christmas present from us, but I decided not to go wandering around downtown this afternoon.

The only thing we actually did was to drive out to the cemetery and leave a little Christmas tree on the boys' grave.

This whatever-it-is is the sort of thing that will either be gone tomorrow or be a bit worse and if it's a bit worse, I know from experience that it will probably be two weeks or more before I'm completely over it.

The problem is that we need to leave tomorrow. The plan is to drive to my mother's for a Christmas dinner with her and from there to Santa Barbara the next morning.  The plan is to be there until the 27th. At that time Walt will decide if he's going to stay down to be with his mother for a bit longer or come home with us.

If I don't go, Jeri will have to drive to Davis, so I can get the car back.  Her plan was to have me drop her off at my mother's house so they could have a visit and then spend her last day with her friends in Oakland.

I guess I'm just going to have to count on the angels of Christmas to make this thing go away.  I would hate to miss Christmas with the family, but I would hate worse being Typhoid Mary and leave Santa Barbara riddled with my germs.

In the meantime I'm going to try to get a lot of sleep tonight, keep downing the Vitamin C and fluids and just hope that whatever this is will have run its course by morning.

Jeri stayed here for dinner and then Walt took her to Ned's for the night.  I made a ham casserole and Dexter was very interested.  I call this photo "Delusions of Grandeur"!

I'm convinced that he's convinced he can actually reach the food on the counter.

Hold the good thought.  I don't want to sit home eating leftover ham casserole for Christmas while everybody else is playing with Brianna.

If I actually do go off with the family, I don't know where or when I will have internet access, so postings might be spotty for the next few days--or I might luck out and have internet access all the way.

Or I might just be sitting at home feeling sorry for myself. 

PHOTO OF THE DAY

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