My Apologies as Unavoidable as Was the Outcome | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Let us begin with the outcome.

    The unavoidable outcome is that much that I wanted and needed to do this week did not get done, and Beaufort County NOW did suffer, except for the traffic - it was remarkably decent this week.

    And what was the culprit to my own and BCN's decline?

    It actually began Wednesday night, March 26th, when I remarked emphatically to my wife, "I now have a cold. I just realized that. It's not my usual bout of allergies."

    The cold was bad, and raged on through the weekend, yet under my diminished capacity to achieve anything constructive I did so, even writing a resolution that spoke to Mr. Obama giving away the internet to international control. On Friday night, all of my Washington family, which included both of my granddaughters, were at my middle daughter's home, so I walked down a few doors to her house, and sat miserably in the corner and watched and conversed from there. I needed to get out, regardless of my condition, which was well past the worst of it.

    On Monday, I saw my wife and middle daughter walking in front of our house in Mac'swood, with my oldest granddaughter pushed in her poly-constructed traveling car, so I couldn't pass up joining them. My work was nearly caught up, and I was remarkably feeling great, well, in fine health. Once I joined their traveling troupe, my daughter blamed me for giving my granddaughter, Mira, a cold - even though I had no contact with her on that Friday night, and even then, to heap on the blame, accused me for giving herself a stomach bug.

    So, I did what any good father would do. I gave her a big hug, looked into her big blue eyes, and pronounced, "Meredith, looks like I can't get you sick now."

    Such irony was yet to occur in just two short days - let's just call it 'Meredith's Revenge'. On Wednesday evening, April 2, I was attempting to upload posts from others to BCN, when I noticed my server was barely functional, and for that inevitable, unforeseen disservice, I apologize as well to our readership. BCN rarely sleeps, so we re-cycled the server, but still no success, so I took a break, in my total frustration, and went to the TV, grew quickly bored, and immediately went to Netflix; I can usually find a documentary that suits me, which I did - National Geographic's 3 episodes of "Amazing Planet".

    My wife had already gone to bed about an hour earlier complaining of her stomach, and upon my checking on her, she was tolerable, so I laid down upon the sofa to enrich my mind and sooth my frustration with my noncompliant BCN. Again, I apologize to our readers for trying to use our facility that Wednesday night, and being similarly unrewarded.

    Sometime later, I awoke to the strains of Narrator Patricia Clarkson's smoky voice, somewhere in the middle of the 3rd episode (46 minutes long), feeling unrefreshed, no, downright miserable in my stomach. I checked on my wife to see how she was, and guess what? She had full blown abdominal agony! I was no help; she didn't want my help, and I well understood that soon enough.

    Nausea is one of my least favorite conditions - one which I am not conditioned to. I rarely get stomach viruses, and all the other conditions that would make one regurgitate: eating too much, drinking too much, or outright eating disorders ... well, I can control that. What one cannot control is the virus, and not a 24 hour virus was this one, no not this one, which I am coming to learn is the Norovirus - the "cruiseship virus".

    The Norovirus is a highly contagious, mean little bug that, which I will affirm, has the symptoms of: chills, aching, low-grade fever, nausea, diarrhea, cramping, headaches, dizziness, and so much more. And what is worse, this is not a 24 hour bug; it can last for 72 hours. And let me add one item to that 72 hours, you will be weak, because eating is not an option. My wife, who first came down with the malady, is still not back in total health as of this writing.

    While my Thursday was shot - I could do nothing, but call as many as I could to advise that I would be a no-show. My Friday, however, was a full work day; but, on Friday, I did my best to keep my distance from everyone, and worked at about half-speed ... well half-speed for me, which is still decent enough for 'government work'. This weekend, I will start catching up.

    Earlier, I stated that our traffic was remarkably decent for the week. I would like to thank our readership for suffering through a slow-one-night-server, and then my off and on infirmities. Now, I am pledged to give you some new stuff to read: recent news, opinions from across the state of North Carolina, a veritable Moderated Informational Platform for the community.

    Today, my work and my immediate good health begins anew.