Sick Time

I’m writing this under the influence of Tylenol severe cold and flu medicine. It’s not that I have a severe cold or flu. But I do have an upper respiratory infection that has me coughing through the night as well as most of the day at work.

So I’m very public about taking my medicine so people around me, including my wife and my colleague with whom I share a small office, know that I’m doing my best to fight this bug. I’ve already gone through one bag of cough drops but yesterday found me coughing so hard at work that my manager expressed her concern.

“I rubbed up with Vicks today,” I said. “Can’t you smell the Vicks on me?”

She said, no. But I think she was prudently keeping her distance from me just in case I was still contagious.

It's tough when you're sick and you still have to carry on because, well, for one we're so backed up at my job I could work straight through my next life and still not be current.

And then, after work my wife and I had to stop at Sears to pick up a new mower to replace the one that I finally gave up on last fall. The grass has no sympathy for the ill.

While at Sears, an elderly gentleman was making a purchase just ahead of us. He seemed fairly confused at the process. He had to take his sales slip to the pick-up desk, scan it, then they would bring out his package. Since it was heavy, Sears staff had to load it for him.

We had to do the same with our new mower. I pulled the car around and waited for Wendy to come out with the Sears guy carrying the big box with our mower. He threw it in the back and Wendy and I drove off.

She mentioned that when another Sears guy brought out the older man's box, he asked where his car was. The man explained he was parked on the other side of the building. The Sears guy explained that he would have to drive the car up to the pick-up spot before they could load his box into the car for him.

"I thought he seemed a little confused," I said.

"What's scary is that he was buying a chainsaw," Wendy added.

Sick or not, I had to chuckle at that.