White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Sunday is a bust. The kids slept well ... mostly. Jake woke up fairly early, 0145 or so. The Mrs gave him his regular 30 minute Mommy-sleeping-next-to-me soothing and he was ok for the rest of the night. I, however, did not gain any relief from the presence of the Matronly Mrs. No, I spent another night hacking and snorting, but not quite so much this time. I guess I'm getting better. The industrial grade expectorant is not clearing out the pipes as well as I would like. No, there seems to be a good pound or two of polluted glop jammed down into my alveoli and it is going nowhere fast. Perhaps if I sleep while hanging from my heels ....

We find out after Jake wakes for the rest of the day that he has picked up whatever has struck me down. He refuses to eat and is feverish. The thermometer consistently reads 100+, so we know that we have a rough week ahead of us. He has never had much luck shaking congestion and what I am currently fighting has all the markings of being a cantankerous strain of the flu. We give him some radioactive children's Tylenol drops to bring down his fever and decide that bringing him to church is out of the question. No, we figure that I could not handle a sick Jacob or a well Alexis either so it's off to the Grocery store. We bump into Sharon (Neighbor, vet assistant) while we were there and had a nice little chat. The kids were sufficiently charming and waved goodbye to her when we parted ways. They can be such little angles when the mood strikes them. Just to prove a point, Jake falls asleep during our 5 minute trip home. I carry him up to one of the Imported 20 ft Italian leather sofa's in the play room. He looked up at me one last time and then slowly closed and dozed off. Well, at least he can sleep.

Later on, I go in to check on Jake and see that he has pulled the comforter up to his chin and it is bunched up so I cannot see his face. I creep closer until I can see his face and notice that his eyes are open. He seems to be looking right at me but his expression does not light up into a glowing smile as usual. I say his name and then he suddenly jerks to life. Either he was sleeping with his eyes open or he was not expecting me to 'sneak' up on him. Poor guy, I felt really bad about that. We try lunch with him but it is a no go. We give him another 4 hour dose of fever reducer and send both of the Twin Tyrants to their afternoon nap. And as expected, I try to get in 40 winks as well.

While I was trying to nap, the Mrs ran out to do some final shopping for the week. After a few hours, she returned to the Manor with her Rapid Reaction Protective Motorcade all shot up, but they all made it back. Damn Sunday Drivers. When you enter the Manor, the alarm system alerts everyone that there is an portal violation in process. The Hounds usually pick this up a few nanoseconds before anyone else because of the wireless cybernetic implants we had installed. They can play mp3 songs too! But I digress. They immediately start barking and the Mrs has to cajole them a bit to get them to quiet down. Even with her best efforts, it does not seem to be making an impact with them today. This looks like a job for ... kaff-kaff, snort ... super (sick) dad. I bumble down the stairs and give the hounds my most menacing scowl. They retreat immediately as the paint on the walls start to bubble and blood flows down from the ceiling. Never wake a sick daddy ... nope, not prudent.

Since I was awake and feeling lousy, I might as well do something to take my mind off it. I throw on a coat and some boots and head out to the wood pile. I burnt a bit more wood this week so I need to refill both brackets. After exhausting myself with that task, I set to the less strenuous, but equally less glamorous task of washing the feces out of Thor's kennel. A healthy dose of Pinesol and some baking soda does the trick. I'm just happy that I did not need to break out the Hazmat suits for this one. Over the last 2 days that I had set the bottom of his kennel outside, the matter had dried and flaked off. Now, with a tap on the bottom and a healthy splash of spike hot water, it was clean as day 1. Mmmm, pine fresh for ya buddy ... keep it clean.

After the kids woke up, I figured that I should start getting ready for the work-week. I was feeling a bit peaked (mostly, because I neglected to eat any meals) and thought that I would cook some thing to eat for the week that would get me through the day. We had picked up a bag of shrimp and a bag of 'assorted' seafood while at the grocery store. I figured that it had been quite a while since I made my signature shrimp & chum etouffee. The little squid tentacles always seems to turn people off, but after eating enough sushi it does not seem to bother me anymore. Since I was going the Cajun route, I'm going to skip the gut-plastering oatmeal. Sure, it's good for me, but it tends to gum up the system a little too much for my tastes. If you're going to snack on fruit all day, you need some space.

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 11:19 AM