Zombie Juice!

Influenza! Yes, that time of year has come to our neck of the woods when influenza, also know as the “flu”, is making the rounds. Unfortunately, this year I was the only person in my household that received the vaccine, so the rest of my family has been suffering for the past 2 weeks. This year’s strain is a rather nasty one which includes a fever, congestion, coughing, and even an upset stomach.

The path of travel started with my oldest son, Aiden. After knocking him down pretty well, it spread to my wife. As bad is it was for Aiden, it was about 5 times worse for her. The last stop on the infectious disease railway was Connor.

Connor first started to show signs of influenza late last week, I think about Friday. Overnight, it turned into a full fever. Saturday was not the best of days for anyone, as my wife and Aiden were struggling to get ahead of the evil virus and Connor was running head long into it.

Now one of the most interesting aspects of the human mind is the ability to find humor in some of the most miserable of times. Saturday was no exception to this. In the midst of it all, Connor’s nausea got the best of him and the un-natural upward flow of stomach contents associated with it played out. As I was cleaning up the mess that unfortunately comes with such an unexpected moment, Connor announced that he knew what had happened.

In particular, he stated that his orange cup was broken and needed to be thrown away. At first I was a little confused, but he continued on and clarified it for me. “My cup is broken dad, it must be dirty or something because it made me sick to my stomach!” he explained to me. I laughed to my self at the simplicity of his deduction. It was simple really, he drank from the cup and then vomited… it was cause and effect.

I tried to explain to him that the problem wasn’t the cup, but was related to the virus that was plaguing him and the other members of the family. He seemed to accept that answer after a little coaxing… or so I thought. I was proven wrong when later that day he accused my wife of replacing our water with Zombie Juice, thus causing him to vomit. My wife and I had a good laugh about that as we, once again, explained that this had nothing to do with the undead and was merely a side affect of the influenza virus.

The good news is that the family is finally shaking the last few symptoms of the virus and getting back to our daily routine of abnormality, with the addition of a new term for a drink that is less than desirable… Zombie Juice!