February 14, 2025: Back home and ready for that Columbo rewatch!

Well, I made it back home.  But barely!

Although I was up all night the day of my flight, I was feeling b better in the morning.  The nausea was gone and while I didn’t have much of an appetite, I was able to consume a third of a plan white rice onigi as well as a couple of bottles of Pocari Sweat that my wife had picked up for me.  On the advice of Dr. Grok and my buddy Ivon, Akemi picked up a medley of Asian meds that would hopefully quell my stomach for the duration of our flight.

I was pretty worried as we checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport.  Even more worried when we received notice that Toronto had been hit by a snowstorm that could delay our flight but, fortunately, we departed as scheduled (although I heard the next day’s flight was delayed by 4 hours).

My appetite slowly returning, I managed a few bites of airline rubber chicken and a few leafs of lettuce, but didn’t want to hazard any further.  As it turned out, those Asian meds worked.  At first.  And then not so much.  The flight was, in a word, “hell”.

I kept dozing off and waking up (which helped).  At one point, I woke up, checked the time on my phone, and saw that we were an hour from landing.  I couldn’t fall back asleep, I just kept checking the time, agonizing, watching the time tick down.  It was the longest 30-some minutes of my life…at which point my phone updated to local time and I realized we still had another 3 hours to go.

I finished the first Asian meds that Ivon recommended, that tried another one that, well, smells (and frankly tasted) like it had once been used in ancient Chinese households to dissuade moths and evil spirits.  I had to swallow there of these tiny black pearls that, our friend Dr. Blackjack assured me, contains all natural herbal ingredients.

Anyway, finally landed in Toronto.  The plane taxied for another twenty minutes before we were permitted to disembark.  Then we had to wait 30 MINUTES for our luggage!  We caught a cab home and, I’ve got to tell you, I have never been so happy to be back.  After doing some unpacking, we caught an uber and picked up Sharky who was well taken care of by his home-stay family – yet clearly happy to see us, but mostly Akemi.

Speaking of Akemi, she has been mostly unaffected by whatever felled me, although she does admit to feeling some limited stomach upset.  But so far, fortunately, it hasn’t hit her as hard as it hit me.

Last night, I had my first uninterrupted night’s sleep in a few days (although I wake up at 5:00 a.m. due to the time change – to find Akemi already up).  I had some miso soup, some Power Ade, and a teaspoon of manuka honey.  I’ll be taking it easy today…and then tomorrow I’m off to Montreal for a week.

A reminder that our Columbo rewatch commences on Monday with the first pilot, “Prescription Murder” followed by the second pilot, “Ransom for a Dead Man”.

Here’s the full schedule.  Hope you can join!

Monday, February 17th: Prescription Murder
Friday, February 21st: Ransom for a Dead Man
Monday, February 24th: Murder by the Book
Friday, February 28th: Death Lends a Hand
Monday, March 3rd: Dead Weight
Friday, March 7th: Suitable for Framing
Monday, March 10th: Lady in Waiting
Friday, March 14th: Short Fuse
Monday, March 17th: Blueprint for Murder
Friday, March 21st: Etude in Black
Monday, March 24th: The Greenhouse Jungle
Friday, March 28th: The Most Crucial Game
Monday, March 31st: Dagger of the Mind
Friday, April 4th: Requiem for a Falling Star
Monday, April 7th: A Stitch in Crime
Friday, April 11th: The Most Dangerous Match
Monday, April 14th: Double Shock

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