Read Me to Sleep

So we've decided that Mike may have the flu. Regular old flu season flu. At this point, I'm crossing my fingers and looking up voodoo spells to ward it off. I mean, c'mon! We live together and my immune system seems to go on vacation the minute anyone even says the word virus around me. Colds last for months and develop into bronchitis, food poisoning that doesn't effect others will leave me out cold for a whole day and stomach viruses rumored around local schools hit me without fail.

But the flu? I can't say that I've ever had it. Strep, yes. All the time. Every year up until a couple of years ago when I had it with almost no symptoms and just plain didn't believe the doctor until he showed me the test results.

My ex had the flu once while we were together. He was laid up for a week. Mike seems to be better after just three days, maybe four 'cause we really thought it was just a cold. But of course, he's been at work all week and then in zombie mode when he gets home. Oh, and did I mention he's eating anything and everything he wants and I'm finally going home for a week, the first time since Christmas?

Yeah, it seem inevitable that I catch it. If I don't I'll consider myself having dodged a big bullet. It really wouldn't matter except that it's just a really inconvenient time! Can I call up the flu devils and reschedule? And I know I won't be eating anything if I get it. Yet another reason I still want to believe that it can't be the flu in the first place. But, I understand some people (apparently my SO) do not have stomach issues with the flu. News to me.

Anywho, I got an e-mail about a great offer that I wanted to share with you. Iain M. Banks's latest sci-fi tale Transition hit shelves this week and Orbit is offering a free podcast of the abridged audio version of the book. So, if you end up down with the flu this season, I would suggest signing up and letting someone else do the reading for you while you're sick. And here is everything you need to get started (or the link with all the info you need to get started).

Oh, here's the product description from Amazon for you:

There is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light. But does it need the Concern: an all-powerful organization with a malevolent presiding genius, pervasive influence and numberless invisible operatives in possession of extraordinary powers?

Among those operatives are Temudjin Oh, of mysterious Mongolian origins, an un-killable assassin who journeys between the peaks of Nepal, a version of Victorian London and the dark palaces of Venice under snow; Adrian Cubbish, a restlessly greedy City trader; and a nameless, faceless state-sponsored torturer known only as the Philosopher, who moves between time zones with sinister ease. Then there are those who question the Concern: the bandit queen Mrs. Mulverhill, roaming the worlds recruiting rebels to her side; and Patient 8262, under sedation and feigning madness in a forgotten hospital ward, in hiding from a dirty past.

There is a world that needs help; but whether it needs the Concern is a different matter.