The night before that painful morning when I was walking Scrappy I had a bizarre thing happen: as we got back to our neighborhood after a good 45 minute dog walk, I had to rest on a rock wall- laying down, before I could walk up the hill to the house! My calf muscles were "burning" in a strange way. After a few minutes of that we finished the couple blocks to the front gate. Boy was I happy to flop on the pillow wall with my feet up.

Next morning my back hurt bad. And knees too. I could hardly move. With all the stuff I've been going through coming off 8 months of prednisone therapy in June this year I figured this episode must be part of it. Whimper Whine for real. Ouch again.

I spent 2 days sleeping and not moving much except for one dog walk a day. Bob took Scrap for his evening walk to check his pee-mail. Yesterday I was able to do the two walks for the first time, and this morning I walked up the hill for the first time since my back started to hurt.

A friend came around the other day and said something that crystalized in my mind what was going on this week. He said, "It sounds like you have the Flu. There's a Flu going 'round you know."

No, I didn't know. He has a school age kid. That makes you really aware of these things because kids pass them around at school, and the school sends a little note home warning the parents. I don't have regular contact with school kids.