A Dinosaur of a Virus

On my walk to work I pass this office where a huge, golden dinosaur skull hangs in the window. It has sparkly teeth. I don't know what it means, but I kind of dig it.

Maybe it's a metaphor for our lives right now, because things have gone awry around here. Dave, who has been dragging a bit this week, felt seriously ill yesterday morning. He got himself to work in order to conduct his final band performance and then came home and got into bed. I was unable to reach him by phone all day because he was sound asleep. When I came home in the evening, I woke him up and we took his temperature -- nearly 103º F!

Now, he'd been lying under blankets for hours, so I'm guessing that was a bit exaggerated. But still.

We had plans to attend an IMAX screening of "Star Wars" with others from school -- in fact we'd bought tickets in advance for £20 each. But obviously Dave didn't feel like going (that's when I knew he was really sick, because he's been looking forward to this movie for months) and I couldn't very well traipse off to see it without him. So we had to let those tickets slide.

And now, of course, I'm wondering what to expect regarding our trip to Florida. We leave on Monday. I don't have time to get sick and get better.

Hopefully Dave will have time to recover and if I get this bug, hopefully it will be less severe with me, and over by the time I fly overseas. Some of Dave's coworkers have had it, and it seems to differ substantially with each person. Dave's entire department is run-down, having just come off an insane two-week period of almost nightly concerts and performances, and in fact Dave was sick at this same time last year.

But seriously. I cannot believe this timing. We can't bring all our family members a mysterious European flu for Christmas! Fortunately when we first get to Florida we'll be staying in my dad's guest house, which is a separate structure unto itself and I suppose if we were sick we could hide out there until we're better, without fear of infecting anyone else.

Honestly.

I stole that little sunrise/sunset symbol from a Web site I visited yesterday, just to show you how dark it is in London right now. Even after the sun manages to crawl above the horizon, it's almost never very bright. Which is another metaphor.