Those with whom I work will testify that I almost never take sick days because I am seldom sick, and when I am sick, I’m not very sick.

My current illness, however, while “only” a head cold, is a bad one. It came on Sunday, then got worse on Monday, normally my day off. Tuesday I called in sick, then again Wednesday. Today I went in, only to be scolded and sent home, which is unprecedented. In fact, until now, I hadn’t taken more than one sick day in a row since I took two weeks when Abby was hospitalized with pneumonia in 2008. Abby is home sick as well.

In our convalescence, we watched several movies. Among the most interesting were The Quick and the Dead  (not very good), Lost Highway (incomprehensible and self-indulgent) and Se7en (quite engrossing), none of which I had seen. We own Lost Highway on DVD because it was cheap on Amazon and David Martin and I think the soundtrack kicks ass. We watched Se7en and The Quick and the Dead because Netflix suggested it to us.

I have several assignments on the book tomorrow, including two high school playoff games, so it looks like I’ll be slamming Day-Quil and trying to stay upright. Tonight, though, we are on a no-holds-barred, balls-to-the-wall OTC medication binge. Abby has a brass bell by her bed, and rings it when she needs me. Since she seems to have caught what I am carrying, I know she is ten times worse because it flares her arthritis.

This is as miserable as either of us has felt for a while. Muh.