Halfway down the Danube

Fever

Today is the day after Christmas, sometimes called Boxing Day, though not by anyone I know since my dear grandmother passed away.

Here in Germany everything is closed. But then, almost everything in Germany is only open five and a half days per week anyhow. You never saw a country in such painful need of a 7-11. Belgrade and Bucharest are both more shopper-friendly than Germany.

Anyhow. Yesterday was grey, sunless, bitter cold, and dreary. Today is grey, sunless, just warm enough to turn the snow to slush, and dreary. I do like Ostheim but a little of this goes a long way.

Alan has suddenly come down with a fever. Emphasis on suddenly, emphasis on down. He was fine this morning. Feverish and listless by noon. Early afternoon he vomited extravagantly and his fever spiked at... well we don't have a thermometer on hand, but: high. Right now his fever has gone down a bit and he's sleeping restlessly, curled up in Claudia's arms on the couch.

If you're still following the Ceausescu story (is anybody actually reading this stuff?), you'll know that I wanted to post the final episode -- Ceausescu's trial and execution -- on Christmas day, fourteen years precisely after it happened. Whoops, not gonna happen. Looks like it'll be fourteen years and a few days; sorry.

More in a bit.

Posted by douglas at December 26, 2003 04:34 PM