Sick again

I am sick again. Some of my symptoms are disturbingly like those experienced by my mother two weeks ago. Consequently, on the most beautiful day of this summer (blue skies, low humidity, temperatures in the 70's, cool breezes), I spent the entire day indoors.

I have some theories as to what is wrong with me:

1. Food poisoning. I almost always blame this first for any digestive disorder. Most things people think of as a "stomach flu" are actually cases of food poisoning. My first sign that things were not quite right with me was about three hours after I had a meal at a restaurant with a friend Thursday evening. (Coincidentally, this was the same restaurant where I ate - and the same friend I ate with - the last time I was noticeably sick. But that was something completely different.)

2. I picked up whatever my mother had from my mother. This is disturbing, because it suggests a one- to two-week gestation period for whatever she had. It also suggests a lot more people might be infected. It may also mean that I have a hospital stay in my future.

3. I picked up whatever my mother had from my father. This is also disturbing, because it suggests that visits to the nursing home are a bad idea. Something like this loose in a nursing home could easily result in multiple fatalities, so I am curtailing any plans for visits in the near future.

4. I got a bad batch of water from Sam's Club. I stopped at Sam's Club to get my tires rotated (resulting in a lost hubcap during the drive home), and while I waited I bought something like $160 worth of stuff, including a case of Deer Park bottled water. I drank my first two half-liter bottles on the way to work Thursday morning, and my second two Friday morning. I'm going to lay off the water for the weekend and get my hydration from another source. But I'll be hitting the bottle again Monday morning, and we'll see what happens.

5. Something else, not particularly serious.

6. Something else, serious.

I'm not heading to the hospital just yet. I'll wait this out for a while and see what - shall we say - comes to pass.