Chapter Thirteen: The Land of Counterpane

When I was sick and lay a-bed, 

I had two pillows at my head, 

Good old Robert Louis Stevenson.  Trust him to have the right poem to describe the occasion.  Except... wait...I don't have all my toys beside me, to keep me happy all the day.  Dang!  Sometimes growing up is such a bugger.  Well, wait, I guess that isn't entirely true.  I do have one toy beside me.  It is called an iphone.

So here I lie, with the flu, reduced to creating my own version (in pictures) of the above classic.

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I saw my counterpane of red,

 (I like to call this "field of red"  and as a work of fine art I believe it will be worth millions one day, and will be loathed vociferously by a young person I know....  just lying here waiting for the money to start rolling in.)

And sometimes two long hours would pass,

Staring at pencil and a water glass,

(pitiful really, not nearly as entertaining as lead soldiers.)

And sometimes as I lie there sick,

My mind plays psychedelic tricks.

( I like to call this "delirium", oh wait, no, this is the painting hanging on our bedroom wall.)

I am the whale, great and still

That wallows on my pillow-hill

I fear a diet I must greet

when once I'm risen off these sheets.

(I attribute in part this last morose desire to lose weight, to the depression that comes with illness.  I also blame the doctor's office which weighed me with my coat and scarf and shoes and everything, resulting in a horrifying figure.) 

Oh, and by the way, Tamiflu is possibly the most expensive medicine out there...at least in my experience.  Am I the only person who didn't know this?? Now, that is a scam.  Sheesh!  Those drug companies have sunk to new lows... there you are at the pharmacy counter, feeling achy and feverish, and they dangle a medicine in front of you that might help ease your discomfort. But in order to have it placed into your sweaty palm you must first give them either your life savings or your first born child.  I did offer them my second born child who was all I had with me at the time, but they wouldn't take her so I had to pay out my life savings.  It better work.