Do you get Flu shots? I do. I haven’t always, however… I got my first one while in the Army, and I got at least one each of those three years. I could count on a mild case of the flu each time I did, too… For that reason, I stopped getting them once separated from active service.

Fast forward a couple of decades… I was retired from work and divorced from matrimonial bliss, and I was living a dream… Riding around the continent with no plans, no destinations, no time lines or commitments… Just ALI and yours truly wandering and wondering at all there was to discover… and I started getting the flu every year.

I labored under the assumption it was better to rely upon my own immune system to combat that distraction, than it would be to let it atrophy by relying upon external ‘chemicals’ to do the job. I was persistent… and I suffered each year, once usually each year, but then twice…

This was a major inconvenience to say the least! I not only felt really bad, I was forced to just stay put for several days at a time while trying to recuperate… It was torture to have to go to a drug store and buy over-the-counter products… and meals, when I was actually able to eat, became a major undertaking… Something had to give.

In time, I came to buy a house in Alabama, and my life returned to a more traditional regime… but no change in the predictable annual flu bug episodes. It all came to a head when I came down with pneumonia.

Napper took me to the emergency room of a local hospital, and four days later I was allowed to go home. That was it! From then on, I got an annual flu shot, and things definitely got better for this non-medical person… no more bouts with that dreaded malady… (Got pneumonia shot too.)

I’m currently in No-Head City, NC, visiting with my cousin/brother. Last month he had some back surgery, and all went well. I’d expected our visit would be a celebration of surgical success, a renewal of our life-long friendship, and the overall wonderfulness of life… Not quite…

Shortly before I arrived here, Nick came down with a roaring case of the flu… Despite the fact he gets annual flu shots like I do, he somehow became really ill. Our time together has been me driving him back and forth to doctors, running errands, cooking – I even made some chili for the first time ever… really mediocre stuff, but that’s often the outcome whenever I stand at a stove… No celebrations this time, just suffering for him and patient care for this presently idled trekker…

We’re now waiting to see if the antibiotics he was prescribed will enable him ‘to turn the corner’. He’s really discouraged and tired of feeling bad… He’s lost weight, has no appetite and no energy. I can’t blame him, and I can surely relate to his condition…

Neither of us are particularly sanguine learning the hard way that flu shots won’t make us bullet-proof. Must be some truth to the information that there are indeed different strains of that ailment, but the shots usually only combat one strain… Spooky, but… I’m just mighty glad I haven’t come down with any flu-like symptoms myself… so far!

I need to get back on the road, and I do need to return to Florida soon to start rounding up information to file my taxes. Before I will do any of that, however, I want to see this through.

I’m glad I get those flu shots nowadays, and I will continue to do so. I’m rocked back on my heels, however, at learning there is no guarantee I’ll be free of that illness in all cases. Life is risky, and the best we can do for ourselves is to tilt the odds in our favor as prudently as we can… then to deal with what actually comes our way. It’s also true that all ‘bugs’ can’t be destroyed by riding a Valk…