I have been down and out with the flu all week. Have you had it yet? It sucks. The media is referring to it as The Super Flu. Media’s gotta media. But there’s nothing super about it. It’s just the regular old flu. “Super,” in the context they are using it, refers not to its powers or strength. It’s not faster than a speeding bullet. Nor is it more powerful than a locomotive. It’s not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Well, I don’t know. I may have to revisit that whole “may be more powerful than a locomotive” line. It’s been a miserable doozy for me personally. It’s called The Super Flu because it has been able to evade immunity for the most part since this year’s flu vaccine went after the wrong strain. Swing and a miss. It has spread rapidly, far and wide, as a consequence. Here’s an article from Stanford Medicine rightly calling the media out (subtly) that The Super Flu is a made-up term.
I didn’t go to the doc and get tested. Didn’t make much sense to spend a small fortune. Gotta love the old health insurance deductible. It was in our house. This was confirmed a few days prior when my son was diagnosed with lovely Type A. We did take him in. My symptoms have roughly been identical to his.
I missed three days of work. I probably could’ve (and should’ve) taken two more days. If I worked in a traditional office setting and had to be physically around other people, I would have. Otherwise, my co-workers may have thrown me out of the building. But I work remotely from home. So, I sucked it up, logged in, and coughed my head off while pecking away at a keyboard for nine hours.
It wasn’t like I was going to get sleep during the day anyway. That’s been the most problematic part of having the flu: the lack of sleep from coughing, especially at night. Waking up every couple of hours, if not every hour on the hour, with non-stop coughing. My chest and throat in sheer agony. The pain of swallowing alone. Despite NyQuil’s claim that I’d be able to “power through” my worst symptoms, the NyQuil was not NyQuiling for me this time.
The only thing that’s really alleviated the sheer suck of the flu has been steamy showers. I’ve tried everything: this medicine, that medicine. I’ve drank every type of tea you can imagine. Throat Coat tea from Traditional Medicinals has been nice. Popsicles a plus. Fisherman’s Friend cough drops, a welcome relief that had to be ordered via Amazon because the one pharmacy around here that carried these shuttered its doors a year ago.
Oh yeah, and humidifiers. I’ve got a hot steam humidifier from Vick’s in my living room and a cool mist humidifier from Dreo running non-stop in the bedroom.
Anyway, that’s been my life the last week or so. As a man, and I tend to think all men are like this but maybe there are exceptions, I’ve been pitiful. Fairly certain my wife would agree. Isn’t that right, honey?
Movies I watched while sick with the flu
I did watch two new movies I’d like to recommend, however. These were like movie-movies. I take that back. Films. They were art. They are everything a movie should be in my opinion. I feel like it’s been forever since I watched two movies I’d call excellent. Two of the best since Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and Burn After Reading. Is Hollywood finally making real movies again?
Caught Stealing
Black comedy crime thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky. Based on the 2004 novel by Charlie Huston. Stars Austin Butler (Hank Thompson), a former baseball player who gets caught up in NYC’s 1990s underground after agreeing to watch his neighbor’s cat. Also stars: Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Matt Smith, Bad Bunny, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Liev Schreiber.
One Battle After Another
Black comedy action thriller written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson about an ex-revolutionary and his teenage daughter being pursued by a corrupt military officer. Based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, and Regina Hall. It’s not easy to translate Pynchon’s work into anything, but PTA has now done it twice (Inherent Vice). Is Gravity’s Rainbow next? Is it even possible to turn that into a film?
Until next time. Stay well. Wash your hands. Go into hiding until summer when flu season should be well past us.