Sicker Than Imaginable/Old Soldiers

Yuck.

I'm home, laid low with the flu. Good to see that $30 copay I spent on getting the flu shot was SO worth it. Ive got the whole nine yards - more mucus than can be believed, a raging headache, sore throat and a burning fever. And just for fun, I had to go to Newark with a coworker for a hearing.

I had been fighting some heinous bug for the last week, but I guess whatever contagion Luis picked up wasn't going to give up so easily, so here I am... NOT at work. I miss it but on the other hand I'm too tired to care.

The hearing went well, especially since the idiot in question did not show up for his part of it. I find that amusing - all the time. Danny and I had a good time, and we had enough conversation going that I was quite distracted and wasn't constantly thinking about the agonising time I was having... getting comfortable in those chairs designed by Torquemada was not fun!

I'm home now, I got in around 1130. I stopped and picked up a slice of pizza on my way home. I'm having tea now and hope to fall asleep shortly. That was the hardest part of this. I had to be up early to finish the payroll process (just dealing with the checks) when I've had maybe at most three hours of sleep. Danny drove in, thank the gods!

I'm watching the end of yet another M*A*S*H episode, and this one, Old Soldiers, is a special one. It has to do with one of Colonel Potter's old buddies from WWI dying, and he is the last survivor of the group of them that made it through that war. They had been hiding out in an old abandonded chateau when they came across an old case of brandy. When they got to the last bottle, they made a tontine that whoever survived to be the last of the group would get the bottle and drink a toast to them.

He got the bottle.

And he explained how he got the bottle and then said, "I have been sick the last couple of days... feeling sorry for myself, knowing that I'm getting up in years... But I'm looking at things a little differently now. I've been very lucky man. I've had some wondrous joyous times, that's what counts.

"But, as much as my old friends meant to me, I think you new friends mean even more. So... I'd like you to share this bottle with me."

They pour the drinks, and he continues: "Just one thing: I'd like to make the first toast solo to my old buddies." He raises his glass. "Here's to you, boys: to Ryan, who died in WWI, the war to end all wars; to Gianei, who died in the war after that; to Stein, the joker of the crowd; and to Grusky, my best friend, who just passed away in Tokyo. You were the friends of my youth, my comrades through thick and thin, and everything in between. I drink to your memories. I loved you fellas, one and all.

"OK, that's the old, now for the new: to love and friendship."

Oh, my gods. I don't know how many times I have seen this and it still makes my eyes tear. Of course, today, it might be illness!