What a Drag It Is Getting Colds..

My friend Charles, who has launched his very own blog, commented this morning about his current bout with a head cold. That got me thinking about the infrequency of my own illnesses in my post-retirement-from-teaching life.

During the two-and-a-half decades-plus that I taught, I seemed destined to have a minimum of two severe sinus infections each year: one in the fall, the week after the first prolonged run of cold temperatures, and one int he spring, the week after the first round of warm temperatures. Now I know that sinus infections aren't supposed to be infectious or contagious per se, but it happened so regularly that I became convinced that my illnesses had to be linked to (a) my exposure to pretty much every disease known to mankind through sick kids who came to school because their parents wanted the school system to watch over them so the parents didn't have to, or (b) the wretched and abominable condition of the heating, air conditioning, and ventilation in every public school. Whichever contributed to it, the end result was the same: I was destined to experience seven to ten days of fever, sinus drainage, sleeplessness, sore throats, hoarse raspiness, and general discomfort.

Since March of 2000, the last year I was in the classroom, I have had only two respiratory infections of any sort. One of them, which began as a severe cold and turned into walking pneumonia, was quite unlike anything I had before; the other was a simple three-day run of sinus congestion, sore throat, and cough that went away of its own accord.

Since I own a comic shop, I still cross paths with a large number of people, both adults and children, but I just don't get sick the way I did when I taught. I have no amazing revelations as to why, just an observation that I happens.

Meanwhile, I commiserate with Charles insofar as his head cold is concerned, and I want him to get well before I see him on Wednesday!...