I made it through Air Canada's marathon flight from Vancouver across the North Pacific, over Hawaii, across the South Pacific, over Fiji, growing sicker and sicker. But this year, I moderated the alcohol, made sure I had a ton of sleep, early to bed two nights before I left. When I came back from Yosemite I knew my lungs were not right. I had been swimming in a glacial melt river on a scorching summer day, sleeping next to an open mesh window in a cot with hardly any covers, where the temperature plummets every night, then living at a cabin at the River, taking showers outdoors every day. I was Hauling 85kg of crap through airports on five flights in two weeks, up and down, up and down. So what's gonna happen?
Nina called it. She's adventure traveled a lot (Antarctica!), and she could see how my body was disintegrating, but was holding out for the final bit of holiday fun. Just like in Burma. This time I played it smart. Sure, I got home, had to sneak into the garage, grab my hidden key and bring my 85kg of bags up three flights of stairs, unpack the fresh fish right away into the freezer, love my kitties, and start the assembly line of laundry. Two hours into it, I had made amazing progress, but my body was ice cold. All of the bags were put away, and all of the laundry was done or in queue.
I made the bed, got a blanket and two heavy duvets and hid in bed with two instinictively concerned and helpful warmer-than-humans felines, certainly warmer than ill me. I woke now and then to swap laundry. A nice thing about a 16 hour flight is that time is meaningless on the other side.
My nephew Will had done a superb job looking after my apartment this year, and he even came after work to check on me and brought me soup and some veggies. I threw in two fresh cloves of garlic and ate the whole thing, lot of water, and went back to sleep for ten hours.
The next morning I smartly headed right to the doc, who asked why i didnt just go to the hospital if i thought i had the same TB symptoms.. but I think I took excellent care of myself this time. She threw some antibiotics at me. I am not coughing as much now- gallons of sludge were coming out of my lungs- so I am on the mend, I hope, and no Canadisn SARS or Russian TB.
I am just gonna watch the footie at home tonight, and maybe have Phil over for wild salmon steaks. Sydney plays Richmond tonight, for whom my trustee's son Matthew plays. I was totally out of touch with the Swans on this intense busy trip, but I saw the moment when the Swans found their magic: coach Longmire had experimented with lots of scenarios in the first five games, with some tragic losses, to see how to best use new superstar player Lance Franklin's amazing skills. I remember saying, yes, they are going to win the premiereship now. And now they are on fire, an unprecedented ten wins in row. I love Aussie rules football since on a given day, any team can win; it's not just about individual talent, but how the players operate as a team, more so than other professional sports, I think. Maybe like ice hockey.
Is this the end of the road on a 35,000 km trip? I'm not quite there, but I feel my life is settling back into my old routines, painstakingly set up my my care team to keep me productive with a nasty head injury. I know my kitties are happy to have me to themselves 24x7.
Beautemps is a smart talkative creature. His brother Kimba is more basically feline but loving.
Bear watches pile after pile of laundry get sorted and folded. Now's the time to sort out the closet, getting rid of stuff that is worn or that I dont use and starting from scratch. I will not become fat again!!
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