Merry Christmas, everyone.

He says while managing to stiffle a laugh. I had to stiffle the laugh because it would have triggered a painful coughing jag. Influenza ran roughshod through my family during Christmas. I was the only one sick on Christmas day, but 3 more cases had appeared by Sunday night.

They say that the flu shot can't give you the flu. Probably true. But in my case at least, it activates the same defense reactions as the flu. Thus, I get the sweats and aches and sometimes the headache that I normally associate with the flu. So I tend to avoid flu shots.

But I normally pay attention to the news. In some years, the flu strain is so bad that they hold a second round of flu shots. In these years, I weigh the pros and cons and sometimes decide to take the shot rather than risk the flu.

This year, I got hit by a double whammy. I've been too busy to follow health news. Just too dadblasted much to get done before the end of the year and Christmas vacation and …

So, not only did I miss hearing how serious the flu was doing out in California (where I spent my Christmas), but I was also really beat from long hours at work before vacation.

It's too late to revise my thinking about flu shots for this year. But spending Christmas in a black haze and watching my Mom throw away the vast majority of the turkey, and dressing, and pie, and cookies, etc., just because no one was hungry for 5 days is definitely going to weigh in heavily in the pro column next flu season.