Barney stayed home from school yesterday with a fever and cough, and slept. And drank juice. And slept. And ate apples. And slept. And drank water.

It was after 10 last night when I finally found my thermometer and took his temperature. It was 39.7, which is almost 104 F, and Loverboy asked me what I wanted to do.

He suggested that putting Barney in a tub of lukewarm water would cool him off. I gave him two Children’s Tylenol, put a cold wet cloth on his wrist, and gave him a drink of water.

Then I ran a bath and got him into it.

His temperature went up to 39.8.

Loverboy phoned his sister, who is a nurse. She said it would take the Tylenol about a half-hour to bring the fever down.

I made a bed for Barney on the couch downstairs so he’d be close to me throughout the night and I could get to him quickly if he called out or I heard any peculiar sounds. Then I settled in on the other couch to watch several episodes of Coronation Street, which I tape during the week.

I wasn’t about to go to bed until that fever was down, and Loverboy tried to stay up with me for support, but couldn’t keep his eyes open.

“Go to bed. I’ll call you if I need you, don’t worry,” I told him.

“You’re a good mommy,” he said, and squeezed my hand.

By the time there was no more Coronation Street to watch, Barney’s fever had gone down and I felt comfortable enough to go to sleep. This morning his temp is closer to normal, and he is in good spirits, sitting in the rocking chair just three feet away and chattering to me about L’s nephew Zander, who turns six today, and Air Farce’s comic sketch showing Osama bin Laden running into a wall, and how he thinks Saddam Hussein is a “b.i.t.c.h.”

I am keeping one eye on him, and one on the cows.

All the farmers who live in this yard are away for the day, and someone has to get help if a cow has trouble expelling her calf. That means every two hours I have to truck out to the corrals and look for a foot sticking out of a cow’s hind end, and if I see one, phone Loverboy’s cousin to come and make sure things are progressing naturally. If not, he will know what to do about it.