Ah-Choo!

I wish I could say that I accomplished all of my goals this past week and a half.  I'd even settle for saying that I completed one of those goals.  But as luck would have it, I got sick.  The head cold with the alternating runny/stuffy nose, throat so sore it hurts to even THINK about swallowing...  Headache, sneezing, coughing...  Two ear aches, muscle aches, and chills...  Then I developed a chest cold and now every time I take a deep breath my left lung hurts.  At some point I developed an intestinal virus and on one of my many frantic trips to the bathroom, I accidentally kicked the scale that Ray left in the middle of the floor, breaking the index toe on my right foot.  There's nothing you can do for that, just limp and suffer until it heals on it's own.  Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I woke up with a toothache this morning.  I was lying on the bed, my head on a heating pad trying to relieve the ear aches, my hair in a tangled mass, face slightly swollen, lips dry and cracked from dehydration, cheeks flushed from fever, red nose, breathing heavily and trying not to cough, and balancing an ice pack on my broken toe.  Ray looked over at me and smiled.  "My poor baby", he whispered.  "I feel so guilty leaving you like this and flying off to Spain..."  Ray is temporarily laid off from work.  His niece is an exchange student in Madrid, and Ray's sister invited him to go along with her to visit her daughter this week.  I wouldn't have been able to get any time off from work at the last minute, and I don't have a passport.  But it's a great opportunity for Ray and he might as well do it while he has the chance.  Besides, if I ever feel better I'll be able to accomplish a lot more while he's gone.  It may be the fever but I keep dreaming about renting another dumpster...  He looked down at me with his rugged features.  "Do you think it's too big?", I asked him nervously.  "NO!", he almost shouted.  "It may not be big ENOUGH!"  He backed the dumpster into my driveway.  It was huge but I knew he was right.  If I threw away all the things that should be thrown away in this house I would probably need two dumpsters...