I still have a cough and some congestion, but I am otherwise feeling about as well as I did before I got flu.

I am still fighting the flu that I reported here on the 7th. The symptoms have varied somewhat, and have generally been less during my waking hours than when I sleep. Most days have seemed to represent gradual improvement, but this morning was very wretched. My throat was especially sore and it hurt quite a lot to swallow. I had other symptoms, typical of a flu: headache, fever, sinus and nasal congestion, and body aches.

Last night, I got some saline solution with which to flush my sinuses. Because I wanted to do that, instead of just to moisturize my nasal passages, I needed an ærosol. At the Hillcrest CVS/pharmacy, the only ærosol saline with the right sort of nozzle for spraying the stuff into one's nose was mentholated. I cannot say that I enjoyed the experience of a mentholated solution in my sinuses.

Also, the can had some blatting on it about homeopathic principles. I was especially amused by the note that, since the ostensible curatives were only present in homeopathic amounts, there would be no side effects. Indeed. I figure that, because of the hydrological cycle, if homeopathic principles were correct, then we'd all be in perfect health.

As I was buying one thing of saline to spray in my nose, it occurred to me to buy some saline for my mouse first-aid kit. Fortunately, I didn't need a special nozzle for that.

I managed to scald the lower front of my right thigh to-day.

Most of the length of the hose to my shower-head was made of three concentric layers: an inner-most layer of a relatively soft plastic; a middle layer of plastic mesh, apparently designed to keep the inner layer from expanding outwards; and an outer-most layer, apparently designed to protect the inner two layers and to help the middle layer contain the inner-most layer. Some weeks ago, the outer layer started to fail near the shower-head, where the hose was most stressed. Then the middle layer began to fail. The inner-most layer began to bulge in the area of failure, like something out of a Hal Roach comedy.

Relatively early in this process of decline, I stopped at the Hillcrest Ace Hardware and bought a new hose. But I decided to keep using the old hose until I I expected it to actually rupture. Yester-day, I told the Woman of Interest that I thought that I should replace the hose before my next shower.

But, to-day, I procrastinated, not wanting to delay my shower. Well, as you anticipate, the hose ruptured. In fact, it ruptured as I was rinsing the shower stall with the hottest water that I can get from the tap, which is really quite hot in my apartment. I got sprayed various places, but the part that hurts most noticeably is that part of my thigh.

I guess that I should have got a flu shot earlier. In any case, the minor congestion and sore throat of yester-day is clearly flu to-day. The throat is much worse, with the lymph nodes in my neck sore and swollen, and I have a fever. I hope that this illness is something that I can throw-off within a day or so.