I don’t get sick. Hardly ever, at least. The last time I had the flu was about 25 years ago. My college roommate was down with it for about five days. I was over it in twenty-four hours. Oh, I get the occasional headache and I’m far from immune to the cold, but those are just par for the course.
This weekend, a virus has been kicking my ass. My temperature went as high as 100.5°—not terribly high, but more than I’m used to—and as low as 97.8°. I’ve had no appetite, night sweats, a sore throat and cold sores on one side of my inner mouth, gums and lower lip. Not fun. No nausea, though, nor congestion. At first I thought maybe it was strep throat, but the test was negative and the fact that I was having both high and low temperatures indicated a virus rather than a bacterial infection. All I can do is combat the symptoms and ride it out. I’ve taken the day off from work to regroup, but I’ll probably be back at it tomorrow. My temperature has stabilized, at least. Needless to say, it wasn’t a terribly fun or romantic Valentine’s Day. We had a nice dinner, but I didn’t eat more than about a third of it. Someone needs to get to work on anti-virus software for humans.
Remember Hunt For Red October, where absolute silence in a submarine would prove to be a threat to the balance of world power during the cold war? Because technology had advanced to the point where a submarine could be detected if someone sneezed. Well, I guess the technology isn’t quite that advanced after all, as demonstrated by the recent fender bender involving two nuclear submarines. My favorite quote from the article says that the accident indicated “a failure in the submarine’s systems for tracking other vessels.” Oh, really?
We watched Nights in Rodanthe the other evening. Sob story with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. A tad manipulative, and the fact that Gere’s car survived being on a beach in a hurricane without so much as a bent windshield wiper (and with the car window apparently rolled down!) challenged credibility, but not a terrible movie. The bit about the doctor’s former patient was especially nice, and Lane is fun to watch in anything.
The Amazing Race got off to a rousing start last night. The cheese challenge was just about as grueling as any I’ve seen on the show. Those Swiss slopes are deceptive. I remember walking up one when I was about 27 and having to sit down to catch my breath a few times before getting to the top. I just hope the Swiss don’t export any of the cheese that rolled down the slope, through the muck and through fences. What a disaster! The flight attendants started out smart, finding a faster train to Locarno, but then they got dumb when trying to get a taxi. The deaf man and his mother were the real surprise. I thought for sure that she was going to have to spend so much time interpreting for him that they would fall behind but instead they won the first round. Phil, cool guy that he is, learned at least enough sign language to tell them they had come in first. And his raised eyebrow is in fine form. The self-described “hicks from the sticks” probably won’t last long. The older couple is probably going to fly under the radar—I barely noticed them during the cheese challenge, but they came away from it in a respectable position and got absolutely no mud on themselves.
