You're a lot more important than a bunch of pixels.

That way lies much pestering, & frustration on all sides.

I have the same e-mail autoresponse for when I'm out of town and when I'm hiding to catch up on work: "I am not in constant e-mail contact today. If this is a life-and-death emergency, you can use the form at http://awayfind.com/xxxxxxxxxxx -- otherwise, please expect to hear from me in a few business days." Blah blah, signature.

And that we are glad that you are feeling better!

"Bankruptcy" is what I've heard it called mostly. But whatever the name, it can be the right thing.

Signed, someone who had bronchitis for a month, complete with codeine-laced cough medicine. While on jury duty.

The good news is, I thought I had permanently damaged my lungs but they did recover fully.

The bad news is, even though the worst of it is gone, you'll still be a bit shaky for another few weeks. Do NOT tempt fate: if you are even a little tiny bit of a smoker ("One cigarette/reefer a day can't be all that bad") you must quit altogether ("Oh, yes it can"). And, yes, for a while even 2nd hand smoke will trigger a bronchial spasm.

Been there, done that, sympathize completely. Hope you keep on getting better.

A few years ago I had a cough that got so bad I damaged a rib and had to sleep half-upright for the next week. And then my HMO took several extra days to diagnose it as the walking pneumonia that it was because I didn't have a fever (or some other single missing symptom from a longer checklist).

But who's counting?

I've done the email Inbox DMZ thing, and it worked great. Go for it!

This really has been the winter for lingering lung crud. I've escaped (so far), but had some of that sort of thing last year. Inhalers made me a lot better, but it was looking like I might have low-grade asthma -- but that cleared up as soon as the warm weather arrived. I now believe that people like yourself should hop a plane to a warm climate for 2 to 4 weeks. I'm sure that's feasible, right?

In 2003 or 4, I had reserved a table at a local SCA Christmas Big Event, which usually led to a nice amount of dough to buy Christmas presents. I'd had some virus or something that had caused me to have sneezing and coughing spasms so bad that I tore some rib muscles.

I had loaded the car the night before (and before I had the event that caused the injury). When I woke up I realized I was going to have a lot of trouble even walking, much less unloading my car, etc.

I rolled E out of bed and said, "You're coming with me. M will be here later to take you home." I did not know he'd been up until 5 a.m. playing with his gameboy or whatever. He had been conditioned to just do what we all told him so he got up, slept until we got to the event and helped me unload.

He spent the next four or five hours asleep in a steel folding chair, head propped up on his hands but sound asleep. Ahhh youth.

The best thing for me is that Jim came out too, and was able to stay and help me pack up to go home. (Well and I didn't have to deal with my own tables.

The tear hurt for a month or so too. Which was Very Annoying,

I've managed to keep up with email for years -- but that's a combination of filtering and a rule that says that a scrollbar is not allowed to appear on the inbox -- if it does, it's stop, respond and file.

However, that's me, and I know I'm a fast reader -- and I probably get much less email that you, and I have no life.

It was surprising to learn that watching an episode of House on an iPhone in the hallway of the ER can be an oddly comforting thing to do on a stressful night, but it really was.

Patrick Says "Atchoo!!"

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* Sorry, Earl

Not to worry, this has been particularly splendid, Abi.

And a-one, a-two, a-three, a-four and Boomdeyada boomdeyada boomdeyada boomdeyada

Post-Scarcity Anarchy
Post-Singularity Attitude
Poly-Specific Association

I do know that the first "Higgledy-Piggledy" line is probably going to be "PSA: Pee Essay!" but don't know if there is a suitable six syllable word that fits the PSA theme. Each other line was going to consist of a three word phrase with the words starting with the letters p, s, and then a.

That many structural restrictions ratchet up the difficulty level quite a bit.