I Ain't Gonna Let it Wreck My Day

Way back in the fall, we took both Monkeys to the veterinarian doctor for their annual physicals. After scheduling the appointment, SweetPea tells me that they would be able to get their flu shots while they're there.

You probably have no reason to know this, but I'm kind of anti-flu shot. For a number of reasons that I'm not interested in debating, but suffice it to say that, for the most part, we don't really get the flu. As I told SweetPea, when they get a strep or a bronchitis shot, we'll talk. Our Monkeys are much more likely to come down with something requiring antibiotics.

As if to prove my point, MonkeySee, who is the only person in our house less likely to get sick than me, got sick recently. It started the last week of March, when he complained of a sore throat and was coughing. He finally felt ill enough to stay home that Friday, April 1st, but was mostly well again by Sunday. This past weekend, he started feeling poorly again, until Monday afternoon, when he declared himself very poorly. This is so rare a phenomenon in MonkeySee that SweetPea pretty much immediately schedules an appointment with the doctor.

Tuesday, after a round of blood and urine tests, as well as xrays, MonkeySee is diagnosed. With pneumonia. He's been given two different prescriptions and warned off school until at least the middle of next week (which is Spring Break, anyway, thank goodness). Which is the other "normal" thing for our household: whenever Monkeys get very sick, it involves at least one week off of school and is almost always directly before or after a one week vacation.

Timing. We gots it.

You can tell MonkeySee is Very Sick because he's not really eating that much. When a teenage boy only eats the green beans out of dinner, clearly something's wrong. And it's not my cooking. In case you were wondering.

So now I'm sitting smack in the middle of two weeks of not having to drive him to school, which is like a vacation for me. On Mondays & Wednesdays, I go in the morning to the next nearest California Family Fitness and do the morning GST class. On days that I have to drive MonkeySee to school, it puts us behind the "comfort zone", time wise, because the class ends 15 minutes later than my usual classes, and is farther away from home than my other morning classes.

My absolute favorite thing, though, is on mornings when I don't have to drive him to school after class. Not only am I not as rushed for time, but I get to take a totally different route to work.


It's a rural road that leads out to one of the smaller freeways in the area, which leads me to work. It's so small & rural, in fact, that there isn't even a sign at the freeway to let you know that you've reached the freeway.


Neither of these photos show the freeway you come to, but the first one does show the train I got to wait for on Wednesday. Unless you spend a lot of time downtown, waiting for a train is a pretty rare treat these days.

Yes, I said treat. I love trains! Although I still miss the caboose.