Football Season and Swine Flu

I know, I know, it's H1N1, but I wanted to get that alliteration in there...

I'm going to make a long story short--Joel's come down with the flu. It's been flying through all the football teams (at Joel's scrimmage last week, there were FOURTEEN kids missing, including the backup quarterback, who, it turned out, was in the hospital...)

No, he hasn't been tested--at this point, apparently, they're only testing people ill enough to be hospitalized. Richard's been in contact with the County Health Dept. (because he's a high school principal), and they're saying that the only flu out there right now IS swine flu--the seasonal flu hasn't made an appearance yet, which isn't surprising, since it's STILL SUMMER HERE.

He ran a low-grade fever on Saturday, then got up yesterday (Sunday) morning with a 103 degree temperature. Advil helped to bring it down a little bit, but it pretty much hung around 103 all day, peaking at 103.8 at about ten o'clock last night. Kinda scary, and it broke my heart when he asked at one point, "I'm not gonna die or anything, am I?"

According to the doctor, the key was to watch how he felt and behaved. If he became unresponsive or lethargic, then we were to get him down to the hospital, and he never reached that point. He didn't move much yesterday, but was relatively pleasant, watching movies and playing video games.

Fever's down this morning to 99.4. I'm expecting that it may rise in the late afternoon (why do fevers do that, anyway?), but I think he's on the road to recovery.

The football coach wanted him to come to practice today (I know, I feel the same way!)--and we wonder how this spreads so fast through the team! I think Richard and Jenny and I had mild versions (99.5 degrees) this weekend, so the only one left is Katie, who feels like she has a target painted on her forehead.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another MILD case...

Thank you

Came down this morning, put the cat outside, turned on some music, and just started pasting and painting.

there's a cycle to this, I think. Someone compared it to a field lying fallow, and I guess that's accurate, but sometimes it's hard to get started again--in this case, I think that there are almost too many new 'what if's' rolling around in my head--pick one, run with it--that's what I need to do.

Need jumper cables--or something...

Have a little trouble getting back into the groove. Sigh.

I expected this, which maybe made it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What do YOU do when you're having trouble getting started?

Vacation's Over...

Everyone is back in school; Joel's a junior, Katie's a freshman, and Miss Jenny has started fourth grade. Unbelievable.

So it's back to lonely days at home in the studio--not such a bad thing, really, it's just a matter of getting back in the groove, I suppose. One of our cats is named Lady Jane Grey (who actually turned out to be a boy--when Jen was in kindergarten she wrote in her journal: "my cat is a he but we call him a she"). Well, poor Janie hurt her (his) leg somehow, so she's been living in the studio.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm horribly allergic to cats?

So coming out here to the studio requires large doses of Benadryl...which doesn't necessarily make for an alert artist.

It is sort of nice having company out here, though!

Now, off to paint.