Brave, or stupid?

On Thursday, The Kid threw up while she, The Lady and I were at Uni. Some sort of stomach bug: she's been better, and worse, since then; sometimes running a fever, sometimes not; sometimes chipper, sometimes lying on the bed in a stupor (well, watching ''Postman Pat'' or ''Dora the Explorer'' DVDs on the bedroom t.v.

This morning, while the Lady did some quick errands, I watched The Kid. I dozed in and out until about 10am, and actually **slept** from around 11am-1pm -- not normal for me, unless I'm sleep-deprived (which I wasn't). Felt a little fatigued, too.

**But** -- had done some yardwork yesterday, to prep the building site for the workers laying the water mains, and wanted to finish it off today, before the work-week started. Didn't feel crummy enough to stay in bed, and I was getting bored (couldn't find a comfortable reading position), so I changed into my work clothes, and just tried to pace myself.

Worked from around 3pm to 6:30pm (slightly after dark). At certain points, I knew I had hyper-ventilated because my molars and gums were tingling (for me, a sure sign). And when I went next door to see how Next Door Brother In Law and his wife were doing with some yardwork, I found I had to sit down, as I didn't have the strength to stand comfortably.

But, I pushed on.

Once it was too dark to work, and I had put away all my tools, I shuffled in to the shower. To take off my pants, had to sit on the stepstool The Kid uses to reach the sink: hmm.

Felt a little better after my shower, but still feeling fatigued. Had eaten two bowls of cereal for breakfast, but only two bites of hamburger and a handful of fries for lunch (just not hungry) -- so, that could be part of it.


Did I make myself worse by going out and doing yardwork. I don't think so, but that's a mild possibility.

There's a fine line between being brave and stalwart, and being just plain stupid. Not sure which side of the line I ended up on -- but there's a strong family trend on both my parents' sides of just doing what ya gotta do. So: part masculinities, part family socialization. ;)


--GG