Everyone’s Getting Sick Again

[cough] [cough] [sneeze]

I have spent the last four days absolutely waylaid with a head cold. It’s one of those head colds that isn’t debilitating —I’ve been working as usual, and going about my business as if nothing is happening — but boy oh boy is it annoying. I’m blowing my nose constantly, I’m waking up in the middle of night with congestion, I’m in a perpetual state of sniffle. I’ve got a cold. I’ve got a full-on cold.

Can I say that I kind of missed it?

This is my first cold since the fall of 2019. I can actually track it back that far — I remember, because I’d just gotten over it in time for Thanksgiving that year. It has been three years since I had a cold. Three years! I’ve had to bring out all the old big guns: Mucinex, Sudafed, I even went nuclear one night and revved up the Severe Strength Nyquil, which knocked me out so much that both my children had to hit me with a polo mallet just to wake me up the next morning. It felt like a throwback. It felt like revisiting an old friend.

The reason, of course, is that for me, like for many people, the pandemic brought along the best run of health I’ve had in my entire life. And why wouldn’t it? We’ve all spend less time around other people than we ever have, we’re all wearing masks, we’ve all been using hand sanitizer and been hyper-aware of…