Yes, recovering. Somehow Bud developed bacterial cellulitis on the left side of his head. He thought it was a spider bite he got while out fishing with Gary that made it hard for him to sleep Saturday night. Sunday night was worse and when I called him Monday afternoon hoping he could take a break from boat work and talk to me, he was on the boat and resting because he felt too ill to work. He was alternating between sweating and shaking with the chills and the whole side of his head was swollen and sore. His intention at the time was to wait until his appointment for a physical yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon before seeing a doctor about it. I persuaded him to go to an urgent care facility immediately.

He called later to say they found no insect bite marks, but diagnosed bacterial cellulitis. He was then waiting to get prescriptions filled for antibiotics and hydrocortisone. He was almost ready to pass out, but he got the medicine and managed to make it back to Gary’s. He spent Tuesday in bed. Wednesday morning he woke up and his left eye was nearly swollen shut. He went back to the urgent care center. Happily, the eye was swollen from drainage from the infection and not because the infection had invaded his eye orbit. That would probably have resulted in hospitalization and IV antibiotics. But the fever was gone and it seems the oral antibiotics are working. Karen took this picture of him last night. The general swelling was down, but you can see the redness on the side of his forehead and you can see how puffy it is around his eye.

Today Gary, back from his business trip, took Bud to the boat. He still doesn’t feel well enough to work on the boat on his own, but they retrieved the toilet parts he was working on and brought them back to Gary’s to paint, and hopefully tomorrow he can install them. After that, if he’s well enough, he plans to try to work on our windlass. We saw once when feeding out stuck chain that the windlass was arcing. Bud got the terminals fixed to stop the arcing, but one of them had been damaged. He’d like to do a better repair and replace the damaged terminal if he can. I think that’s the last thing he’s going to try to fix on this trip.

I am an optimistic person. I must say my optimism is being severely tried lately. Sitting in Texarkana while Bud is sick in Florida was not how I pictured our retirement life. I’m sure we’ll get through this; we’ll get the boat to Galveston, Jamie will finish her residency and we will be back out on the beautiful blue seas again - but it seems a long way off from here and now.