Gripe

Sadly, I have the flu, or in Spanish, gripe. El gripe came for a visit this Sunday and he is hopefully preparing for departure tomorrow. Because of my past history with small flu symptoms turning into knock-down drag out phlegm wars in bronchial passageways and the like, I decided to heed my body's warning and stay inside. It is really wet and rainy here and since most of my work is on foot, I always run the risk of getting caught out in a rainstorm. In fact, this helped propel mi gripe into active status on Sunday, when I found myself lugging several bags of "gifts" a couple of miles back to my house in the middle of the rain.

Monday and Tuesday I was feeling very icky- fever and dry cough. Yesterday a bit of improvement. Today, I am beginning to feel like a human being again- still the dry cough but I think the fever is under control.

The scariest thing is my lack of reading material. I read a pretty cheesy book Ancho and I bought at Goodwill about a guy who decided to walk across the USA in the 70's. I read the 1st book of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, even though I listened to it on tape on the way down here and read parts 2 and 3 since my time here. Now, I am reading a very strange piece of nonfiction called The Devil in the White City, which merges the story of the planning and implementation of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago with the emergence of a nasty and terrifying serial killer in the same city concurrent with the planning and implementation of the fair. This was a present from my Mom and I am still trying to understand what propelled her to chose this book over other possibilities. Overall, it's a depressing tale, but the research done on the architects and engineers of the fair is interesting enough to keep me reading, even through the nasty and disturbing parts about the serial killer.

The climate is not helping me feel saucy about the prospect of venturing out of my house. It has been strangely dreary here this week. I feel like I am in Portland in November- it's just a little warmer. In addition to the nasty climate, the electricity has gone out the past two nights and stayed out until around 8 a.m. (well after I am awake and ready for coffee). Add to this the element of water line repair this week, which the fellas start around 8 a.m. (so you lose your water just in time for the electricity to come back on) and one can imagine that I have had ample opportunity to sit around and feel sorry for myself.

Thankfully, the funk is lifting, and I am hoping most feverishly for a sunny day tomorrow. Or at least enough sun so that my clothes will actually dry on the line. Hey, maybe I will even feel good enough to get back to work on my research!