Monday, December 29, 2008

Day One-hundred-and-eighty-one: Not the Flu!

Now that I have a hopefully mild case of whatever has been going around, I have decided for the full experience. I'm in denial mode. It is either a case of food poisoning or a stomach virus unrelated to the flu.

I don't know when I actually contracted the thing, and hope it wasn't before I baked the two loaves of olive bread, but I certainly had it after our lunch at COSI. (I'm glad I practice good cooking hygiene with 20-second hand washings, approximately two verses of "Happy Birthday" to me. Washing that long and often is not good for chapped hands but it is healthier for anyone eating the food I make, which would make them gladder than me. I did notice that my sister-in-law and her husband gave my daughter and her husband the honor of the first slices.)

I've found the most effective way to minimize the symptoms is don't eat. Besides, whatever I had from COSI's is long gone. (Sorry for the too much information.) Maybe it was the poor football games we were watching that made me sick. In any regard, this is a more abrupt entry into the world of fasting than is recommended in my Dining from an Empty Bowl. At least I am sipping water with no apparent problem.

This is the first time I've been sick in my Life after Layoff. I'm still not sick of the life and suppose at some time I'll have to start calling it life after early retirement. Nah, there is no aliteration.

My youngest daughter and her husband flew in tonight with the final leg a less than an hour hop from Cincinnati's airport, which is in Kentucky. The leg from SFO to Cincinnati was 1st Class.

They brought me one present for my listening pleasure on my trip home, a four CD set of "Car Talk." They also brought pictures of a more substantial present: They moved the water supply and installed the new toilet in the master bedroom. My son-in-law is a master handiman. He had all the appropriate accessories, including the mandatory plumber's crack, at least according to one picture that may have been staged.

They also brought all of my received Christmas cards, including at least one from people that I didn't send anything to. I'm not including the one from some people I just didn't recognize, either by name or by their pictures. It was somewhat of a relief to see that their card wasn't meant for me but the previous residents. I don't know why I didn't think to check the sent to name earlier, after all, I was looking at the front of the envelope to get their name from the return address. I suppose it was my ego: of course they meant to send it to me!

Earlier today I made another entry in my Memories of Marilyn blog. I haven't made but a couple entries, so far in this entire trip. I have so many more to write and publish. It is a true labor of love.

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