Thursday morning I woke up much worse: coughing heavily, weak, dizzy. You know, the typical way a cold hits me. Bummer. It was immediately obvious to me that I was not leaving the apartment that day. I told the Balzottis, who were fine with it. They would later come to get the car keys and head downtown. I never even showered all day. Early on I also decided to cancel Seminary on Friday, because, even if I was somewhat better, I didn't want to share my germs with them.
The Balzottis got to spend the entire afternoon and evening at the campus. Somebody came to replace the toilet seat. I had bought a universal one at the nearby hardware store, but it kept breaking, with the screws coming out and the seat falling off. So I asked the church facilities folks to get a good-quality one, but the guy showed up with an entire new toilet to replace the old one. Anziano Balzotti let him go ahead, but called me. By then it was too late; the deed was done. Oh well. You should know that, unlike in the US, toilet seats here are not standard sizes -- each manufacturer has its own slightly different size and hole pattern, so maybe it was easier to replace the whole thing than just the seat.
I tried to take a nap in the early afternoon, but ended up just resting, because I couldn't quite stop coughing. It was definitely the right decision to stay home. At my request, Dee bought some Delsym liquid cough syrup in LA which really works well for me, so I was anxiously awaiting its arrival.
I
cancelled the AirBNB reservation that we had for the week of overlap
when the Motts arrive, and we will receive a full refund. The lady was
very understanding about the reason why, telling us to take care of my
father-in-law. It somehow feels sad and very final to be making all
these changes, and indeed the end is much sooner than we had planned.
Dee's flight landed a little early, just after noon. She had refused repeated offers to pick her up, because she likes getting around on the public transit. She took the train downtown, thinking maybe she would stop at the campus for a while, but on the way discovered -- surprise! -- that she was really tired. I think that all the walking on uneven Italian sidewalks with two suitcases was harder than she figured, but she made it home by about 3:30pm. She stopped to buy some food along the way, since I hadn't even tried to venture out to pick up what she needed.
With my illness, I just waved at her from across the room. Hopefully we can actually hug each other sometime soon! It is good to have her home. I was feeling pretty sick and was in bed before 9pm. Dee did a good job staying awake, which is important for getting over jet lag the first day here. She decided to sleep in the back bedroom, anticipating a fitful night for me.