Mrs. Shaw asked me on Wednesday if Box got a flu shot.

Our good buddies arrived Friday afternoon. By Friday dinner, he was down and out.

Just a puddle. Sad and scared and achey. Crying because he was on fire and “too tiyerd to sleep”.  The times his fever came down, he rallied. He came out to play or participate in whatever the activity-of-the-moment was. He even put on all his snow-gear twice to get a couple sled runs in. He was crushed that he couldn’t give his full attention to his friends he was so eager to play with for the weekend. He ate only grapefruits.

we had plans to go a little further. to adventure for the days, and come home at nights. but sometimes, Moose Willow Ranch is plenty far enough.

the weekend was lovely. we did all the things you do on retreat. ate well, played games, read books, skied, sledded, chatted, learned, painted, settled arguments of friend-cousins…the only thing we failed at was sleep. no one was really sleeping restfully.

Crit woke up about 3am Monday morning, a flu-stricken mess. Box was quite trooper. when he was tired, or achey, or miserable, he brought himself back to my bed, or made a little lump of himself on a couch. Brit has more a flare for the dramatic, so i knew what was coming. I too, fell victim in the middle of that night.

Monday we were quite worthless. Team T-Rex departed after breakfast. It began to snow shortly after they left. Crit spent the day in a constant stream of whine-cry-mumble. It would have driven me bonkers if i had enough energy to be affected. The house had never been quieter. The three of us retreated to where we were most comfortable and lied in silence. nothing got accomplished on Monday.

Deep in to Monday night, Box had an intense coughing bout. For the fourth night in a row, he and i sat up together cuddling in the middle of the night. And Crit kept yelling “why is is still night time? I just want it to be morning!!!!”

They drug themselves out of their bedrooms just before 8 (these peeps are up at 6:30 every morning!!!). They were both still in the throes, and Crit was still communicating in whine. It snowed a couple of inches, so we had to go for a plow lap.

The fresh air did us some good (at least it did me). Our mood was lifting. I began to tackle the dishes and the laundry while the peeps watched a movie. We had a Spa and Salon day this afternoon. Box fell asleep at the table before dinner.

We are not out of the woods yet, but i can see the light. DW comes home tomorrow. I thought this whole time that we wouldn’t see him till Thursday. whew.