Infirmary

Flu season is in full swing and there's seemingly nowhere I can go to escape it. I go to work, and people are coughing and sneezing. I get on a flight, and folks are hacking into the oft circulated air, throwing their heads back and letting the phlegm fly or if they do cover their mouths, quickly touch the seats/magazines/armrests to subsequently spread the sickness all over the place. I go to the gym and, inevitably, somebody wipes their nose and then picks up a barbell or uses one of the machines. I can't get away.

I could make like the Rabbi or the Boss (Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman, respectively) in the Paul McGuigan film Lucky Number Slevin and never leave my house again. Sure. I could keep up with the outside world by looking out my window, but I wouldn't get too close to it, in case somebody wanted to pick me off. Unfortunately, I neglected to stock the cupboards like a fallout shelter, so I'd have to come out to get some food at some point. Yeah, I know...I could order some groceries online and have them delivered, but what if the delivery guy has a cold? What if he doesn't wash his hands? He could very well delivery the common cold right along with my cold cuts. I guess I'll just have to man-up and keep washing my hands every four and a half minutes.

Both of my children are sick this week. Neither of them have been to school yet this week. I had visited them at their house the last few days, feeling like I could see the germs swirling around in the air and surrounding me like a swarm of killer bees readying for the attack. Today, they had to come to my house for a few hours so that Mom could go to a meeting. They got out of the car coughing. They coughed in the elevator. They coughed in the hallway, and they coughed once inside my door. I tried the divide and conquer theory, not so much to keep the concentration of germs down in one room (because conventional wisdom would suggest that I want to leave at least one "safe harbor" like my bedroom to retire to and be safe from all the contamination), but rather to avoid them fighting over the couch and the TV. I set my son up on my couch with Animal Planet's "10 most Extreme Killing Machines" (the female mosquito took the title) and I put my daughter on my bed in the other room, watching Hannah Montana. I set them up with their own pillows, so as to keep mine from getting touched. I gave them their own blankets to hack all over and then retreated to the kitchen to make them some dinner. This pair ALWAYS comes calling for a meal before too long.

I made some Cuban Chicken Soup, and it was pretty good if I do say so myself. I've made it before, but not in awhile. With the health of this crew, it was just what the doctor ordered. I slaved over the stove for more than 90 minutes, chopping onions, de-boning chicken, cutting malanga root into the requisite small cubes, and seasoning everything while troubleshooting with one of my Australian customers that noticed I was still online as my day wound down (and his just began). He finally let me go at about 830pm even though I still hadn't fixed his issue. My kids took the majority of their soup home in a tupperware container since neither of them really had much of an appetite.

When their mother picked them up, I proceeded to wash the aforementioned pillow cases and blankets, and opened the windows (despite the 45 degree temperature) to let some fresh air get circulated in here. Hopefully my precautions will not be in vain. Yes, i'm aware that I've got some issues.