Disaster Cat is an ex-patriot Californian, living in rural Ireland with husband, dogs, horses, chickens and many, many cats..
Lets just forget the last week....
Published on April 4, 2005 By Disaster Cat In Home & Family
Thank goodness April is here and we can start over and maybe even enjoy are sort of cleaned up house. A visit from my mother-in-law insured that Kilmurry House got the most intense Spring cleaning it has ever had, at least since we moved in. Sadly, we didn't quite get finished, so you can't tell by walking in the front hallway, that is still full of stuff. But many other rooms are cleaned, swept and even tidy. Those who know us well are amazed....now if we can just see how long we can keep it that way?....

Then, last week, just as we were almost done with Spring cleaning, the Spring Flue arrived,

Husband, to Disaster Cat shivering with a fever,
"honey, didn't you get a flue shot this year?"...

Disaster Cat:
"Of course I had a flue shot, but that was in the fall, I suspect this is a new strain.....argggg!"

Next morning, Disaster Cat goes to the doctor (again, after just getting over the kidney infection) and comes home with four different sorts of pills. Any of which can make her a bit of a fuzzy headed cat. No problem, a great excuse to sit down and watch TV...oops, picked the wrong time to be sick. The viewing is constant updates on the Pope: All Papa, All the Time. After listing to one enterprising network interview with a real live doctor who described in vivid detail how bad the Pope must be feeling, I decided to give up and watch the All Waltons Weekend on the Hallmark Channel. The last thing I needed was some TV doctor describing how it feels to run a fever with muscle aches and chills. Not when I'm getting my own private experience right then and there. Obviously the Pope's case was much worse than mine, after all, he died a few hours later. But then I don't think he was listening to the broadcast either. In some ways, it really showed how silly the news coverage had become when the brought the doctor on in the first place. I don't think I've ever met anyone alive who hasn't had a fever and muscle aches sometime in their lives. They know perfectly well how it feels to be that retched. If the doctor felt he needed to say anything at all, that's all he needed to say.

"The Pope has a high fever and muscle aches..." any further explanation is redundant.

And speaking of redundant, I don't want to step on anyones religious toes or anything, I know the Pope was a great man and all that, but do all four full time news channels, on both sides of the water, need to talk of nothing else for 48 hours straight? The first night of course, maybe part of Sunday, after all its the Christian holy day, but by Monday afternoon they were starting to repeat themselves. While I appreciated the break from the Sky News daily dramatizations (with real live actors!) of the Michael Jackson trail, I couldn't help wondering if something else, somewhere was happening? You know, in places like say Iraq? The UN or even The Oil Market...

So, after several hours of the Waltons on Hallmark, I graduated to to watching about six re-runs of Time Team excavating all over the place. Now, I really like Time Team, and unlike the Waltons, they really are digging up history not just re-inventing it, but after six hours I'm starting to really get testing about the ugly sweaters some of the cast are wearing. I beginning to think that perhaps its time to give up on TV and go do something else, like read a book. Which I try for awhile and promptly fall asleep.

Thus passed the last four days or so. By late yesterday I had graduated to knitting baby hats for a friend, while watching more of Time Team. I mentally start re-designing the sweaters for the cast and wonder just who gave them those colors of yarn? Then, I realize I am either going to have to find something else to watch or I will soon be knitting pictures of pot shards on the baby caps. Not that my friend would mind, she does Viking re-enactment (the serious BBC sort) for fun on the weekends. But, the baby might look a bit odd to strangers, better stick to kitty cats and teddy bear sorts of motifs...*sigh*

News reports still giving no relief from The Life of John Paul, I find something called Earth Story on Discovery channel and enjoy a brief Disaster Cat hour of exploding volcanoes and other fun. By which time I could go back to bed again.

By now, you are probably getting as bored reading this, as I was living it. Thankfully, this morning I noticed that I was no longer running a fever or felt quite so much like a walking piece of cotton wool. I actually enjoyed getting out of bed, going downstairs and making a cup of tea. Reading was fun again, and I was no longer a TV sofa victim. I could even cook a family dinner! I'm almost well....And its just in time too, hubby is looking pretty pale around the gills, and I KNOW he didn't have a flue shot this year...

Looks like the Kilmurry Hospital Ward may still have a few days to go, I'd better go get some orange juice and stock up on soda crackers...

Stay Tuned
Disaster Cat


"Dear, didn't you forget to get a flue shot this year....?".


Comments
on Apr 04, 2005
Good story I too wondered why the pope was the only story out there, certainly there is other news, it is a big planet after all. I'm glad your feeling better now.