Crud report

I think Miss D. and I are finally over the worst of the crud that's going around.  It's taken us a long time to work through it - she's been off work for almost a full month (thank heavens for FMLA!).  I've been sick for a shorter period, but more intensely, because I had both flu and a bronchial infection to deal with.  (Miss D. lost a month's income thanks to having to take unpaid leave;  but thanks to you, dear readers, who've supported my latest book so well, we've already been able to make up that and more.  Thank you all very much!)

I've warned before about how nasty the current crop of crud is, but I'd like to re-emphasize that.  This stuff not only makes you feel like death warmed up, it can literally be deadly.  I've heard reports of some victims dying within a matter of days due to systemic overload caused by the flu (if you already have a pre-existing heart or respiratory problem - and you may have one but be unaware of it - this crud can make that much worse, very quickly).  Younger people aren't any less prone to it - in fact, the CDC has stated baldly that:

"the virus is causing severe illness in younger- and middle-aged people. Approximately 61 percent of flu hospitalizations so far this season have occurred among persons aged 18-64 years ... People 25 years to 64 years of age have accounted for about 60 percent of flu deaths this season."

There's more at the link.

Miss D. is now back at work.  We hope she's improved sufficiently that she'll be able to cope with her usual load (although I expect her to battle a bit until she reacclimatizes).  I'm back to writing Maxwell Book 4, but slowly, and interspersing that with sorting out boxes that I still haven't unpacked four years after moving here.  (We'll have to move again soon, thanks to our housemate's forthcoming wedding, so it's a good time to discard everything that's been unused since the last move.)  We're both still coughing and wheezing more than we'd like, but it's a whole lot better than it was.

Peter