FLU

I'm going to get out for a walk today for the first time in two weeks.  For the first time in many years, I lost my annual bet with my doctor over the flu vaccine.  It wasn't severe, but tedious.  I guess I will bow now to my increasing age and take it next year.  The most surprising symptom, by the way, was that I got really constipated, to the point where I was eyeing the little bottle of Fleet phosphate!  I've heard the old saw to 'starve a fever', but I never knew the flu virus subscribed to the same notion.  Still, I did drop a few pounds, so no harm done there.

In related news, my sister confirmed that I did have chicken pox as a kid, although I don't remember it.  (I do remember a severe case of the mumps, but I still have my tonsils anyway).  So I guess I have to also take the shingles shot.  I've never personally known anyone with this rather peculiar affliction, but I do remember it knocked Lou Dobbs off the air for several weeks, back when he was the Squawk Box anchor on CNBC.