Tuesday, August 01, 2006
A COLD DAY IN AUGUST
It always begins with almost no warning. I always wake up stuffy, so there’s no tip-off there. If we dusted more often, or didn’t own rabbits or owned an air filter, maybe it wouldn’t happen every morning, but I’m pretty used to it and usually it’s not so bad. However, when it happens, it happens with a very specific progression every time: I feel fine on the drive to work, I enter my office, sneeze once or twice, start dripping, and by the time I get around to popping a couple Sudafed my handkerchief is already soaked and the realization has descended. I’m not having an allergy attack; I have a lousy summer cold.
I’m not all that surprised, really. I’ve spent the past month hopping in and out of a public pool rehearsing and performing a physically taxing water ballet. It’s gotten so hot that I’ve been taking a cold shower right before bed, where I lay in front of a window fan all night. Fine, I deserve it, but I do things to maintain a healthy immune system. I eat plenty of fresh vegetables, mostly from our garden. If I don’t have Total for breakfast I always take a vitamin supplement. I do take Echinacea every day, although not as many as the bottle directs (twelve pills a day? No wonder vitamins are such an industry). But everyone gets sick sometime, so I can only hope it doesn’t stick around for long.
The smart thing to do when you have a cold is to go home and rest. Your co-workers appreciate it and you’re going to feel like hell trying to do your work while you feel like hell. If the only thing your supervisor compliments you about on your annual review is that “you’re always here”, then you both know you’re a pretty pathetic employee and there’s no use in pretending. No one admires your fortitude when they’re afraid to pick up anything you’ve touched that day. Me? I’m probably going to stick it out. I don’t have that much contact with other employees anyway. I could say I’d like to save the time off for when I’m feeling better, but who spontaneously takes a day off when they’re feeling good? All in all, I’ve felt worse.
It always begins with almost no warning. I always wake up stuffy, so there’s no tip-off there. If we dusted more often, or didn’t own rabbits or owned an air filter, maybe it wouldn’t happen every morning, but I’m pretty used to it and usually it’s not so bad. However, when it happens, it happens with a very specific progression every time: I feel fine on the drive to work, I enter my office, sneeze once or twice, start dripping, and by the time I get around to popping a couple Sudafed my handkerchief is already soaked and the realization has descended. I’m not having an allergy attack; I have a lousy summer cold.
I’m not all that surprised, really. I’ve spent the past month hopping in and out of a public pool rehearsing and performing a physically taxing water ballet. It’s gotten so hot that I’ve been taking a cold shower right before bed, where I lay in front of a window fan all night. Fine, I deserve it, but I do things to maintain a healthy immune system. I eat plenty of fresh vegetables, mostly from our garden. If I don’t have Total for breakfast I always take a vitamin supplement. I do take Echinacea every day, although not as many as the bottle directs (twelve pills a day? No wonder vitamins are such an industry). But everyone gets sick sometime, so I can only hope it doesn’t stick around for long.
The smart thing to do when you have a cold is to go home and rest. Your co-workers appreciate it and you’re going to feel like hell trying to do your work while you feel like hell. If the only thing your supervisor compliments you about on your annual review is that “you’re always here”, then you both know you’re a pretty pathetic employee and there’s no use in pretending. No one admires your fortitude when they’re afraid to pick up anything you’ve touched that day. Me? I’m probably going to stick it out. I don’t have that much contact with other employees anyway. I could say I’d like to save the time off for when I’m feeling better, but who spontaneously takes a day off when they’re feeling good? All in all, I’ve felt worse.
# posted by Renfield @ 9:50 AM 
