Michele Mercati hospital ward

It had started off as a normal Thursday. Charlotte and I had our Italian lesson. Then, I went to run a few errands. But before I could make it home, I got the call. Charlotte was running a fever and had a swollen gland, could I come and pick her up from school?

I was already in the car and in the neighborhood, so I was able to pick her up within a matter of minutes. On our way home, I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up the same Z-pack that I had started taking on Tuesday. Once we were home and I had Charlotte settled into bed, I got the second call. Olivia had a tummy ache and a slight temperature, could I come to pick her up?

Since Josh had just gotten home, I asked him to get Olivia. It wasn’t until they were almost back at the house that Olivia told him that she really didn’t feel that bad. She had just mentioned to her teacher on the way to lunch that her tummy hurt and the teacher immediately sent her to the school doctor without asking any questions. In fact, she hardly had a fever just ½ a degree above normal. Oh well, she was home now, and since she never had her lunch, she could join us for ours.

An hour later, Josh returned to RIS to pick Avery up. Avery has had a cough for almost a week now, but no other symptoms of illness. Still, it seemed a good idea to put him down for a nap. For the time being, it’s just Charlotte for the time being with the strep-throat.

I took Olivia to AquAniene and did some walking and stretching in the gym during her lesson. I don’t know if it’s age or the recent illness, but boy the body just hurts if you don’t move it around for a few days. I sorely needed to stretch it out. After her lesson, I promised Olivia that she and I could to the steam/sauna/ shower combo together. She really likes going with me to the adult locker room and we both needed the healing of the heat. Of course, she prefers the steam room with its changing colors, but she stuck it out a few minutes in the sauna with me too. We had a lot of fun together.

On our way into the locker room, we had bumped into Luca, Charlotte’s swim coach. I told him Charlotte was sick, and he and I spent a few minutes talking about the meet last weekend. It turns out that the touch pads were not “broken,” rather they don’t exist. In fact, Aniene doesn’t own an electronic timing system, nor do any of the other teams. Electronic timing systems are owned and provided by “The Federation.” Luca explained the systems are expensive and “unlike America” there isn’t a lot of money. He thinks for the next meet in February the federation will provide them. He too complained that many of the manual times given to the athletes were inaccurate. He said there were actually five timers on deck, so one for every two lanes. The times for many of the 50 meter distances, as well as for some of the 100’s were off. As for the scoreboard for the spectators, “it isn’t like America” where all the pools have them. He said the only meet where they guarantee a scoreboard is the National Championships! Hmmm.