Kage Baker – I’ve got no obvious link between Kage, my perpetual background theme, and what I’m whinging about today. Maybe the hope that she would have indulged me in my feeling like road kill (as I do), and tiptoed round my groaning self, and brought me soda crackers and cool water. The rest of you Dear Readers must be getting tired of my being sick – God He knows I am.
I have healed like a superhero from my surgery; the incision is completely closed, and judging from the paucity of twinges from the inside, that’s healing well too. The rest of the family had a horrendous cold sweep through – even the cats were sneezing – which I shrugged off with ease. But third time pays for all, as the old saying goes, and I have fallen prey to a plain fit of gastritis.
My stomach hurts, I’m feverish, and I’m fighting off D-Day waves of recurring nausea and heartburn. I want to be up and doing nifty useful and creative things, but once I achieve a vertical position all I can do is concentrate on is not throwing up. Life is yucky today.
It’s amazing how relatively brave and determined one can be in the face of big, scary ailments, only to revert to a peevish 5-year old when afflicted with a tummy-ache. I want Kage to read to me. I want ginger ale with a bendy straw. I want the special old cut-work and embroidered pillow cases Mamma used to give us (once she was sure we wouldn’t throw up on them) to aid our recoveries. I want a giant box of crayons, a fresh pad of construction paper and an empty Quaker Oatmeal box to turn into a cylindrical castle or space ship … I want fudgesickles and apple sauce and butterscotch pudding.
To tell you the truth, though, I’m not sure these old talismans have retained their magic, here on the edge of my sixth decade. They all worked well enough when I trotted them out desperately for Kage – but Kage was not fixed in time like most people, and possessed the magical ability to imbue her surroundings with the ambiance of vanished times. In my case, the bendy straw would promptly suck flat, the pudding would be sugar-free, and the crayons would be lacking all the old, old colours in favour of modern crap like Banana Mania, Fuzzy Wuzzy and Screamin’ Green.
So I’m going to go to sleep. Sleeping through this will be nearly as good as not having it at all. Maybe I’ll dream about Kage, and the days when illness could be ameliorated by crisp sheets and a brand new crayon sharpener.
That would be nice.
Kathleen, Kage and the Company 
Getting really sick should be like jury duty; once you’ve done it in a year you should be able to consider your duty done. Sleep well and dream of Peacock, Chartruse, Blue-Green and Green-Blue.
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Oh wow, Lynn – good old beautiful colours!
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And there’s always bacon when you’re feeling up to it! We’re rooting for you to bounce up, bushy eyed and bright tailed! (you can winge all you want – it doesn’t even take God to know that *I* do and you always listen)
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Thank you, Becky. I know it’ll go away eventually – I just feel very sorry for myself today. The bacon bow tie was cool, though.
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And my personal favorite, a very deep teal, was Midnight Blue. Which sounds like how you are feeling, you poor thing. Where you pick up these dreadful bugs, I don’t know. I have little pest bearing kids trooping in and out of my office all day long, so I deserve what I get. But you aren’t roiling around with the general public very often, and yet the nasty bugs keep scuttling in, wearing camo, and making you sick. No fair!
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Kathy: oh yes, Midnight Blue was my favourite, too. The loveliest night-sky colour … I’m feeling better now, because I have been very careful all day, and not even stomach flu can last forever. As to exposure – well, my sister Kimberly teaches Kindergarten. She is with darling little plague bearers all day, and inevitably some it comes home. I can usually shrug it all off, but right now I am not at my sturdy best. Still, things are getting better!
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Sweet monkey Jeebus, you really have had the luck lately, haven’t you? Are you sure you haven’t angered some deity? Perhaps a virgin sacrifice is in order, or at least spilling some goat entrails.
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That;s a great idea, Laura, but virgins and goats are in short supply her in Los Angeles. My sister gave me a book on casting spells several years ago. I will dig it out later and see if I can find something suitable with more accessible required items–like eye of newt.
Kathleen, I hope your are better this morning. It’s really difficult being sick on top of being not well.
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Live sacrifice is always such a problem, especially if you have any sense of morality … As Mary Lynn notes, virgins of the age of consent are not in great supply here is Los Angeles. I *like* goats, and newts are endangered animals. And I suspect that sacrificial brownie points are not garnered by sacrificing things that you’re glad to see go. You know, phone salesmen and yappy dogs and political candidates …
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I was thinking we might use the eye of Newt, but you are probably correct that we won ‘t get the necessary brownie points for that.
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Thanks for finally writing about >Kathleen, Kage and the Company <Loved it!
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