The Gift of Health

Uh oh... I should have known something was up - or shall I say about to come up.  Peter wasn't feeling too good when we went to bed and sure enough ... around midnight... "THE GRIPPE!" struck.  After a final up and down at 4 am, Peter finally fell sound asleep.  At 9 am, I slipped out to find some Zwieback and ginger ale. On a Sunday morning in Germany, this is not an easy task since stores simply don't operate on Sunday. Fortunately, the gas station in Traunstein was open for business and lodged between two kinds of cookies and above the beer and wine (always available), there were two packages of mini-klassic Zwieback.  I took them both and later felt guilty when I realized that someone else might need some today too.

Our landlord, Walter, is a doctor and when he returned home from church this morning, I asked him to come up and check on the Sweet Pete.  After a few minutes consultation, he assured us that Peter would live (whew!) and that the entire house had experienced this inconvenience during the week - even the good doctor.  This explained why Katarina and her brothers had not been up to see us since last weekend.  We thought it was because their mother worried that they had interrupted us too much (something we overheard her say to them last Sunday).  After Walter went downstairs, little Katarina tip toed to our door - at least as much as a 3 year old in ski boots can tip toe - so that she could see "the Petschauer" (her name for Peter).  I took her to the bedroom door and let her peek in.  She smiled sweetly and waved to him - no doubt improving his life expectancy seven-fold.

Homemade chicken noodle soup and Zwieback.