just john

It's been quite a few weeks lately with mom here and the travelling. She's off alone in Paris for a few days so she can wander through museums unfettered by bored me. At present it would also be sick me. Somewhere along the way, I've managed to pick up what I hope is a harsh cold virus that has kept me down for about a week now. I even got the gravelly voice accompanied by raw throat pain for a few days. It did lead me to a new experience though. My throat finally got so raw I had to go to the pharmacy. "The pharmacy" is of course a little different here and you can't just walk in and buy a 1000 capsule bottle of Tylenol. Having just come from a pharmacy museum in Heidelburg, I at least knew the history of the trade. The pharmacist in Germany is still responsible for mixing and dispensing all medications including aspirin so you go in and tell them what's wrong with you and they give you the appropriate medication. I managed to croak out in hoarse German that I had a bad cold with a mild fever and sore throat. Very sore in response to further questioning. I ended up with some numbing lozenges, up to three at once, and some capsules I have never seen before that were for everything else. Vitamin C and paracetamol (famous in UK) were the only two active ingredients I recognized. They did get me through the next couple of nights and I feel (hope) things are clearing up today. Otherwise, I am required to go to the doctor by my job. 2 days of sick from work is fine but three requires a doctor visit and note which will likely order you to stay out even longer. Having already been on vacation for two weeks, I'd rather go back to work even if only to see what it's like again. It's been a stressfull couple of weeks altogether. Bill's having some health issues that we are fretting about some. Nothing to do but wait though. He did manage to pull a couple of A's from his MBA course so one more thing down.

Mom gets back tomorrow and we have about 5 days left of her visit. I'll be working so we'll probably be confined to Stuttgart and surrounding for the remainder. Heidelburg, by the way, was cool in spite of my illness and the following day mom had a date??!! show her around some more of Stuttgart.