Hello, lads and lasses, and welcome to another thrilling installment of...

Bet For A Day

Today was shaping up to be pretty good because I had the afternoon off, then a Sauerkraut Band benefit performance tonight.

I left work promptly at 1pm, headed to a the last local store remaining in which I'd not looked for a nice fall door hanging for the Poderosa. Didn't find one there either. Came back home via the fueling station (again), and had lunch about 2. Soup.

Mr Pouchy, who liked Packet One of this soup a couple of days ago, wasn't at all fond of Packet Two. I started feeling quite ill almost immediately, and spent a good deal of my afternoon in the Comfy Chair trying to feel better. Finally 4pm came and I knew I had to start getting ready for the trip to B'burg and the band concert. Oddly enough, that was the precise time (or maybe it was the standing up, I don't know) The Pouchster picked to start rejecting the soup.

I spent about 20 minutes in the bathroom heaving and retching over the bowl and losing what little was still in my system. My sides and stomach were sore from all the heaving. My eyes were watering, my face was red. My hair was standing on end. And now I had to get dressed to go!

Which I did, after a fashion, anyway. I didn't want to wear my normal Oktoberfest outfit because it was all newly cleaned and pressed, so I picked the red jumper and white turtleneck I wore last year. It hung on me like a sack, but I felt like I belonged in a sack, so I didn't really care.

I drove to B'burg, knowing I needed some water because all the heaving dehydrated me, but the thought of water was just nauseating.

So of course, once I was there at the concert, every time I stood up I got dizzy (my main dehydration symptom). I played, well, not great, I couldn't see the music because the lighting in the room was glaring on the plastic coverings on the music pages. Yeah. That's the excuse I'm going with, anyway. Also, the concert being in a retirement home, it was relatively ten degrees hotter than it should have been and I was in a massive sweat.

So then came time for "The Clarinet Polka." Ed introduced the clarinets, then went to introduce - Sherman. And he looked at me. "Did you bring Sherman?" he asked. I was stunned.

I'd forgotten to bring Sherman to the concert!

And to make matters worse, he asked again. "You didn't bring Sherman? Well, did you bring Peabody?" Like if I'd have forgotten Sherman I wouldn't have forgotten Peabody?

Well, this development still has me floored. I must have been sick when I left here.

The only good thing that came out of all that was that on my way into B'burg I stopped at the store I was at last weekend where I found a fairly acceptable door hanging, and they still had it, so I bought it. Well, that and the fact that the folks seemed to really enjoy us tonight.

Of course, Sherman wasn't there to see that.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Oh, and after the concert I went by Mr M's. He had pizza. I was wary, but I was also starving, so I took a piece and ate it, but not before dropping it topping side down on my white turtleneck and red jumper. I'm so graceful.