A Sort of Homecoming

Well, I'm back finally. Sorry for the delay - I've been suffering from the worst case of influenza I've ever had. I've missed most of the week, so let's get caught up, shall we? Andiamo...

Virginia and the X Man arrived into Venice on Sunday. I jumped in the new Passat and headed out to the autostrada with a full tank of gas and a book full of CDs for the drive (Venice airport is about 30 minutes away with my driving). There are fewer feelings in this world greater than cruising at over 200kph with the 8 speaker monsoon sound system doing it's thing. I picked them up, and oh how cool it was to see the X Man walk! My little boy is growing up so fast, I feel like I'm missing half of it. We drove back home, stopping at the base to pick up a few groceries. That's when it all unraveled. As I was waiting at the airport, I realized that I was coughing quite a bit. By the time we got home, it was getting worse, so I figured it was my turn to catch the cold that was going around. Would that it were just a cold. The next morning I got ready for work feeling like hell. Got to work and within two hours, had to go home sick. I went right to bed, and Virginia took my temperature which came out to 99.6 F. From there it just got worse. I was unable to even get out of bed for the next two days, with my fever topping out at about 102. For all you Euros, I think that's about 36 celcius. Several times I tried to get out of bed and walk to the kitchen, got dizzy, and had to fall backwards into bed again. It sucked, lemme tell you. Thank God Virginia arrived home when she did, I really don't know what I would have done without her to take care of me. So I didn't eat anything for a couple days, and tried drinking lots of fluids, and finally went back to work yesterday. I probably should have stayed out one more day as it was miserable, but I was starting to fall behind with some important things at work, so I couldn't miss any more time. As it is now, I'm still suffering several ill effects, but I'm much better now. I saw on the news that the Pope is also suffering from the flu - in fact, it has him hospitalized. Apparantly, the recent cold snap we're having in Italy has caused a major flu outbreak. And let's face it, if the Pope isn't immune, none of us are safe.

So I'm trying to get caught up on everything as best I can. Hopefully the insightful, witty posts that you all have grown accustomed to will now be returning to their regular schedule...

Ciao,

Rik