I am still feeling pretty sick and only slightly improved since I started taking antibiotics Friday night. I started getting concerned about possibly having a drug-resistant bug, so I called the doc's office today and just got a call-back from her.

She said it was still too soon for me to really be feeling a positive effect from the meds and it would be a few more days. Keep hydrated and stay the course, she said.

So oh well. I'll have been sick a full week as of tomorrow. What a waste in so many ways.

The 2 most bothersome things are 1. The infection is squarely located in my middle ear and my hearing is totally clogged in both ears, to the point where I can barely hear the phone ring. And 2. When I lay down to sleep at night, I start coughing within minutes and cannot stop coughing. The only thing that helps is sitting up in bed and waiting for it to pass, but then as soon as I lay down again, it starts again. This continues all night long. The funny thing is, I've been laying in bed all day without coughing. It's only at night.

I did get 2 deliveries of groceries from dear mom in the past few days, but she got each of the "orders" partly wrong, and I will be returning a good portion of each bag of groceries. I asked for soup and she got me soup at an expensive grocery store called Caraluzzi's where the 4 cans of soup came to $16. Kind of a crazy price.

I also asked her specifically for cough medicine, but she wound up getting me a multi-symptom pill (non-drowsy formula) which is not really what I wanted. Oh well. There's a ton of product on the shelf and a lot to read, I guess.

I did also get 2 very nice emails from the guy whose book on business ethics I edited. It's possible he may be "interested" in me, or at least curious. He has, in fact, proposed we meet after the holiday. He's too old for me, I would say, although he's a few years younger than my friend Ron, who was one of my signficiant relationships when I was in my 20s. The age difference seemed to matter less then but now 12 years would be a kind of a yawning chasm. With this person, I think the age difference would be 9 years.

Anyway, he's managed to get a customized pitch out with the manuscript to 8 or so targeted textbook publishers. Now he's onto setting a closing date....this month...to move into a very old home in a very good town nearby. And he's cooking T-giving dinner for his ex and 2 of 3 kids.

My accompishments today consisted of informing the billing company responsible for my mammogram that they billed the wrong insurance company. It took 3 phone calls to get to the right place, but I will be relieved not to be responsible for a $443 radiology charge! I also paid my phone/Internet bill online. I read the Sunday paper and I got my Amazon delivery that included 2 books, so I certainly have reading material now.

I have a feeling we're going to have to postpone our Thanksgiving dinner due to my illness.