I actually don’t know if it was Influenza or something else but everyone in the floating home office got sick in the past week except Richard.
Our Managing Editor, Brian, fell first. He stoically came to work anyway but I told him to quickly disembark, and to take some sick days to convalesce on his boat. I was a nice boss. I delivered dinners to him so he wouldn’t have to cook. I would jump on his boat, holding my breath, drop a warm, covered plate of healthy food in his cockpit, and holler “dinner time!” Then, I’d jump right back off again.
Two days later, Max was down for the count. And, two days after that, I was slingin’ snot and coughing up my lungs as well. Richard and Mason, sensing imminent discomfort and danger, headed down to Bradenton, to our daughter and son-in-law’s house…where our daughter was just starting to notice a sore throat. She hadn’t been around us so we didn’t know if it was the same thing or something different. She eventually started coughing as well.
And, two days later, Mason came down with a sore throat, a cough, and a fever. Richard didn’t want to put our grandson, Jack, in danger so he packed up Mason, and brought him back to our satellite office in St. Pete, which has sleeping quarters for emergencies…like, you know, flu season and HURRICANES! I gave him a list of things to buy for Mason: Soft tissues, cough drops, Mucinex (gentler than Nyquil, but just as effective if you want to sleep a bit instead of coughing all night), Chamomile tea bags, and extra C and D vitamins.
As of today, Brian, Max, and I all have residual runny noses and coughing, but no fever. I still wake up coughing several times each night. I sit up, drink some water, pop a cough drop in my mouth, wait for it to dissolve, and then lie back down to sleep. I woke up this morning to find a big, red glob on my pillow. At first, I freaked out, thinking I’d coughed up blood in my sleep. But, no. On closer inspection, I discovered it was a half melted cherry cough drop. Apparently, while half asleep, I laid back down with the cough drop still in my mouth and I guess it drooled of my mouth it out at some point. Gross!
I peeled it off the pillow case with a tissue, put the pillow case in the laundry bag, and got up to start my day. It’s VERY dangerous to lie down with a cough drop in your mouth. My ex-husband choked badly on a cough drop once and I had to give him the Heimlich Maneuver.
Mason’s fever broke last night but he’s still coughing. I’m no longer contagious so I’m hanging out at the office with Mason today, working and watching videos with him. He is hoping to recover because he and Max have a church camping trip this weekend. They are super excited about that! I am hoping to recover as well because I have FEMA training this weekend so I can help out locally when, you know, the next hurricane hits.
And, Richard is still completely healthy! Not sure how he escaped the floating home office pandemic but we’re sooooo glad he was available for frequent trips to the grocery store and CVS!
RELATED
Vacation in Key West with…the Flu!
SWINE FLU IN THE HOY HOUSE – Part II
Digging Out, Leaving On A Jet Plane, And Ha-choo!!
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
Follow Angela: twitter | facebook | linkedin
Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/
90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy
Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.
We know what you're thinking. You're an author, not a marketer. Not to worry! We have more than a decade of successful online book selling experience under our belts and we're going to teach you how to promote your book effectively online...and almost all of our techniques are FREE!
Online book promotion is not only simple but, if you have a step-by-step, day-to-day marketing plan (this book!), it can also be a very artistic endeavor, which makes it fun for creative folks like you!
Yes, online book promoting can be EASY and FUN! Let us show you how, from Day 1 through Day 90...and beyond!
HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY
Angela Hoy's popular online class is now available in book format!
Remember Your Past
Write It and Publish It
in as little as 12 weeks!
Angela Hoy's book will get you started!
- Using Angela's MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years
- Record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook
- Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography!
- Also works for biographies and memoirs!
Read more here:
https://booklocker.com/books/4764.html
TRAVEL WRITING 2.0: Earning Money from your Travels in the New Media Landscape - SECOND EDITION
Completely revised edition of the ground-breaking travel writing book that provides a road map to success in the digital age. It dives headlong into the entrepreneurial world of blogging and digital books, while still acknowledging the real money to be made in declining print forms.
Drawing on interviews and survey responses from more than 100 successful travel writers and bloggers, this is the definitive guide to creating success instead of waiting for permission. Written by a veteran, award-winning writer with two decades of experience as a book author, online publisher, freelancer, and blogger.
Read more here:
https://writersweekly.com/books/4814.html
Hey Ang didja get your flu shot eh?