Breathing Normally Again

I gotta tell you, it's nice to breathe without making bubbly gurgle noises.

And in response to my last post, I made it to 2PM before I had to go lie down. I reawoke at, like, 8PM. So that experiment had mixed results.

Gilly, we think, is getting better but has a wicked case of "sick baby syndrome". She can't bear to do anything but cling to Gretchen and complain bitterly about her lot in life. Not fun.

Speaking on Gilly, a funny thing happened the other night. We have an old baby monitor. Gretchen got it when Nicky was born so it's about 10 years old. Has two different channels, "X" and "Y". What with the creeping illness, we started using it to keep an ear out for Gilly during the night.

So the other night we start hearing a baby crying through the monitor. Gretchen is up and out the door like a flash. I've never seen anyone move that fast, let alone Gretchen. Me, I'm none too swift when awoken in the middle of the night so it took me a few minutes to realize that something wasn't right.

Gretchen races into Gilly's room, but I don't hear Gretchen through the cacophony on the monitor. Then Gretchen comes racing up the stairs, and bursts into Harry's room, across the hall from our upstairs room. And there's this wild, panicked look in her eyes. "It's not Gilly!" she screams as she charges back downstairs to check on Nicky and Gilly again.

Blink, blink. Um, what's going on here?

Gretchen whirls back into the room, and she's electric with nervous energy. "I checked Gilly, she's asleep. Nick's asleep. I think I woke up Harry when I checked on him. The crying isn't coming from our house!"

Oh, yeah. I guess someone else's monitor was tuned to our frequency. Oops.

But you know, in the time that it took Gretchen to check on all her babies twice, our neighbors still hadn't gotten up to take care of their kid. So how's that for a Super Mom?

Tales from the Sanatorium

Yes, Harry is much better. Sadly, Gretchen is a little worse -- she probably is having another recurrence of bronchitis, perhaps lighter than in previous years -- but Gillian is very sick. Yesterday, she had a high fever and earaches. Any sudden movement would cause her to start vomiting rather violently. And because she didn't want to be separated from her Momma, Gretchen got very little sleep last night.

Right now, Gretchen is upstairs napping and Gilly is passed out on a rug. Although the darling puke-monster was doing much better this morning, I don't care to risk moving her.

Me, I still have an occasional coughing fit, but so long as I take it slow, I'm doing pretty well. I'd like to see how long I can remain upright today before I grow short of breath and need to lie down. Should be a good indication of how my lungs are doing.

And the sweating! Ugh!

Good news: I'm not in the hospital.

Bad news: Evidentially, just having the flu isn't enough these days. I also have pneumonia.

So I've got the rocking pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu, only without the "rocking" and "boogie woogie".

Harry and I will be keeping each other company for a while longer. No, Harry's not as sick as I am, but he has excellent taste in cartoons.

With occasional bouts of consciousness,
-- Ben

Guests of Texas

I just heard from my brother, Seth.

While I was moving to Connecticut with my family, he was moving to Texas with his. Same reasons -- job moves.

He's doing well! My niece Katelyn loves school, even though it's a full day session instead of the half day she'd been doing in Rhode Island. Her younger brother James is digging the scene, too.

Seth asked what the weather was like here. I told him about the snow we have on the ground, and how the 4 inches of rain we receive (in one day!) had pretty much turned it all into tiny glaciers. Seth told me that the weather in the Dallas/Fort Worth area was maybe in the 40s F in the morning and in the 60s during the day -- cold for the locals, idyllic for a New England transplant. Hail is the big concern there. And lightning. A sudden overhead bolt scare the dooky out of him the other night.

Now, I have a request of all the folks living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I know that moving to Texas does not make you a Texan. You have a national identity there. I can understand and respect that. I have heard that even having your children in Texas does not make them Texans. "If your cat had kitten in the oven, you wouldn't call them biscuits."

Fine. But I would really appreciate it if you would look a little more favorably on those who are new to driving in your area. I'm not pointing fingers, I'm not going to single anyone out. You know who you are and you know what you're doing. Just, please, be a little nicer to people who are inexperienced in the ways of, say, merging and lane changing in your fair land.

Okay? Thanks. Or, as you say, "Much obliged."


UPDATE

Looks like Seth took a little of our fine weather with him to Texas:

All moved in

Thanks to the hard work of Gretchen,
the garage now has room to hold both

the car and my scooter!

And, while she was moving stuff around,
she found the $%@#ing bike pump I've been looking for.

$%@#ing bike pump.

No joke too obscure

"I wish I knew how to C'thul-you."

Swiped from the [hopefully forgiving] folks at
http://www.velvetdicebag.net/2006/10/2006_hp_lovecraft_film_festiva.html

Penguin

Harry, for reasons known only to Harry, decided to dress up as a penguin.

(Note the feet. They're leather gloves.)