Tikkabik

Sorry I haven't been my usual bloggy self for the past few days, but I've been sicker than hell. I caught the flu on Friday and basically slept, bitched and barfed straight through the weekend. I was functional enough to work yesterday, but I had to call it any early day because my temperature came back late in the afternoon and I spent another night tossing and turning, sweating, getting the chills, and coughing like crazy.

I hate getting sick, and Corey's right that I tend to complain about it a bit too much when I get a cold or an upset stomach. I totally admit that I'm a wimp when it comes to getting sick. I can live with chronic discomfort, oddly enough, but a toothache or a sinus infection can knock me for a loop.

This was the real deal -- I haven't had a case of the flu like this in more than a decade, since I was living in California and got infected by the Andromeda Strain or some alien zombie virus from Tahiti. At one point I got so febrile that I hallucinated on the sofa while watching some Alec Guinness movie about a Highland brigade in World War II. It was the same time that McDonald's introduced the McRib sandwich, and to this day seeing pulled pork on a bun slathered in barbeque sauce activates my gag reflex, and strangely enough makes me hear bagpipe music.

So I'm mostly back to it today, and have found that I've got a week's worth of work to catch up on already, around the house. I never dug us out from the nor'easter last weekend, so I've got to somehow get this snow out of here before it turns onto that melted ice stuff that's the consistency of concrete. It's sunny and above freezing today so I figure I've got a window of a couple of hours to make some headway there. Also, I have to take the trash to the dump, but I can't do it today because they're closed Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I'm basically a horrible invalid. I'm demanding, impatient, and clearly incapable of doing (or wanting to do) anything. I know this is going to sound extreme to some of you, but it's a good reminder to me to make sure I've got a living will, with an exemption that allows them to shoot me if I become too much of a crotchety old fart before I become an outright vegetable.