Flu Season

Even if you get your news from Fox TV, you know about the flu epidemic.  Children have died.  That’s tragic.  No one I know has succumbed.  Not as far as I know.

Around here old people have been sick.  Herb, whose apartment is next door on the left, coughed for a week.  So did Everett, my neighbor on the right.  Mariam, my fiend and bridge partner, was sick and did not leave her apartment for two weeks.  But we are not sure if it is the flu or just a bad cold.  We call it “the crud.” 

I got sick, too.  A week ago I spent Friday night coughing, feeling miserable, gagging and throwing up.  I took that in stride, as I sometimes feel that way after dialysis.  But when I felt queasy all day on Saturday, I realized I caught the crud.

Sunday I moped all day.  I had to go down to the second floor and wash clothes.  I had no clean underwear or washcloths.  Monday morning I called the dialysis center and said, “I’m sick.”  The nurse said, “Come in.  We’ll put a mask on you.”

On Tuesday I gave up.  I did not wash my face.  I did not make my bed.  I filled Charlie’s food bowl but did not scoop out his litter box.  I sat in my recliner all day.  I even called downstairs and had David, our efficient and ubiquitous waiter, bring my lunch on a tray.  Charlie sat on my lap for hours, keeping me company while the television droned nonsense and I dozed. 

By afternoon, while watching Dr. Phil advise a dysfunctional family, I felt pretty good.  Doing nothing all day brought recovery.  I loved sitting there doing nothing.  As it turned out, it was as pleasant a day as I experienced for – weeks?  months?  Now I know the meaning of “relaxation.”  
Wednesday was dialysis; Thursday was catchup day.  I sorted mail which piled up since Friday, threw out catalogs and appeals from charities I never will give to.  I checked my VISA bill and agreed I owed all that money, opened my bank statement and – wonder of wonders –
my checkbook balanced.  Even after paying that VISA bill, I have money in the bank  Why do I need to worry?

Now it is another Saturday.  The bed is made, dishes done.  Charlie, taken care of, sleeps on the bed behind me.  I spent the day reading magazines that staked up when I was too tired to read.  Found a clutch of interesting articles  I’ll share with Everett and John Q.  (There is also a John T., who is a nice little man who gives no indication of being a reader.) .

I can not change the World, but I can vent my opinions.  Some of the things I read about, I’ll share with you in future blogs.  If I can find time to post them.  After I take time for relaxation.