Confused? Could be worse.

I got up at 4:00; needed juice. Came upstairs, worked on web pages, thought Keith would come through on his way to work. Waited. 5:30 came; I needed to go back to the bedroom to get the one and only real-paper copy of the Big Book of Unschooling so I could put a page count on the description page.

As I went back through the house it was all dark and quiet. Really quiet. Keith wasn't up. Keith is always up. He must have swine flu. I will take care of him!!

It's Saturday. He's sleeping in (which for him means maybe 7:00 a.m.). So I'm thinking I'm all well and can take care of Keith, and I don't even know what day it is.

Yesterday I did walk to Kinko's and get copies of the insert "booklet" (a 14" two-sided set of instructions and notes on Thinking Sticks) for a set of sticks someone had ordered. I came back and discovered I already had a finished set, with the instructions. So I hadn't needed Kinko's; that's okay. I opened doors with a piece of paper, out there, so I wouldn't germ up the place. I keep washing my hands every time I think of it, and then some. "What have I touched?" I coughed on my shoes; no one will touch those. It felt good to be outside in the sunshine and the breeze. I was sweating, but that's good, immunologically speaking.

Holly's four days ahead of me and Marty on the flu, and so she was going to drive me to the post office to mail those sticks and a copy of Moving a Puddle someone ordered. I packed those up and came upstairs to find Holly had fallen asleep. So Keith went to the post office for me.

Friday morning (yesterday, by my slow calculations) Holly came back to check on me, and I said "I'm all better!" She said "You THINK you're better, but you're not." And honestly, I had woken up at 10:20, opened e-mail and seen a "TGIF" subject line which reminded me I was missing a Friday chat. My chat room had disappeared for the second time, so I lifted another set of code and cobbled up a quickie new one. Had an hour-long chat with several people. I must be well if I can make up a chat room so quickly.

Yeah, I'm not well yet. But I'm better every day.

I hear Marty's girlfriend didn't believe it was swine flu, but she got to work that night (at a medical lab) to a batch of swine flu samples and she thought again. She's been helping take care of Marty. Eeep.

Better now than a month ago. Flying with this headache would've been very painful. Better now than in a week and a half! So the good news is that we won't get sick in San Diego.

The photos are gratuitous New Mexico photos from Holly's blog. One of the early symptoms we all have had was loss of appetite, so seeing those signs doesn't make me want a Lotaburger at all. Both Holly and I had a craving for Cheerios. So my advice is buy some Cheerios (for day four or so), maybe some Advil caps if you're into pills, put some clean towels near your bed to put under you or on your pillow if you get sweaty, and extra tissues, water and juice, breathe slowly if you start to imagine scary "what ifs" and sleep it off for a couple of days. A cornbag or heating pad might be nice for the chills between fevers, or when your back hurts. You might not know what day it is when you do feel better; you might not be as "better" as you think you are; but Kirby and Holly in series and Marty and I in tandem have come through the flu.