This past week hasn't exactly gone the way I planned. My last post in this column was a week ago today - the day before my wife, Diana, and I left for Ohio to visit my mother (who will be 97 in February)! We were also looking forward to seeing the fall foliage up north where I grew up.

Diana and I on the sidewalk in front of my mother's house in Delaware, Ohio Sunday.

I didn't mention anything about the trip in that last post because I had planned to do an article or two from the road during our stay in the Midwest Friday through Monday. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. We wound up running here and there all four days so I never got a chance to write. 

Oh well, plenty of time to catch up starting Tuesday. At  least there would have been if I hadn't started feeling very weak just as our plane home approached Tampa Monday night. By the time we landed and were in the car for the drive home everything hurt - it even hurt to turn the wheel of the car or turn my head in either direction. No doubt about it - Flu.sucks! 

I spent a lot of my childhood playing on these railroad tracks near my mother's house. 
By the time I got home Monday night I felt like a train had run over me!

I rarely get sick but almost every time that I have air travel was involved. I figured that part out years ago so have been meticulous about washing hands, wiping nearby surfaces with anti-bacterial wipes, etc.  Doing that has pretty much eliminated getting sick when I travel - but not this time - no one bats 1.000. I get a flu shot every year too. I had actually tried to get the latest one a week before last Thursday but the line was too long at the pharmacy. I finally got the injection on the day before we left but it tales a week or two to become fully effective (if it works against a particular strain of flu at all). 

Long story short, I've been feeling a little like Jerry Quarry after fighting Muhammad Ali the past few days! The only thing I've been able to get out before now is the weekly domain sales report last night. There's light at the end of the tunnel though (and I'm hoping it's not another oncoming train)!  I'm starting to feel semi-human again this evening and planning to be fully back in the saddle Friday - and I'm hopeful those plans will work out better than the ones I had a week ago!