Yes, I am full of cold. Is it because of the idiot young doctor who I think gave me stress fractures in my better arm? Is it because I had been shut away so long I succumbed to everyone else’s germs as soon as I was set free? Is it because the OH is permanently sneezing? Or is it just December?
I had a cold two weeks ago. I was supposed to be going to hospital for day surgery to investigate a problem. The previous week’s booking had been cancelled by the hospital. Then, coughing, I cancelled one. Then last week I sat in a freezing cubicle for four hours until the surgeon came to apologise that he had run out of time. This week if I cannot stop sneezing I might have to cancel. I originally went to my doctor suspecting a problem in October. October, remember that? Two months ago.
Am I sneezing because the problem I thought I had has taken hold and is undermining my immune system? Is worry about the OH and his disintegrating toes compromising my immune system?
Did I get the germs out, finally, in my car, hooray, doing the Christmas shopping? Thank goodness I did. Haven’t any food yet but I have the presents.
The S&H and family have had theirs. He wanted a plumbing/electrical/computery thing that switches the heating on when they are not there so the house is warm when they get back. Instant heat.
We had that in the Fifties. My mother laid the fire in the lounge in the morning. When we got in she doused the sticks with paraffin, held a newspaper over the fireplace and chucked a match behind. Surprisingly often the newspaper caught light. And for lo! Instant heat. Also scorched wallpaper round the fireplace but lots of people had that. Hence non combustible marble fire surrounds and hearths. In the winter the cat used to sleep actually on the coals that had gone out in the grate in the morning room. After which I used to wash her in a dolls’ bath in the garden. I got scragged regularly. We all got dirtier in those days but my grandmother put Omo in your bath and you were clean as a whistle.
Did we ail less because we had a protective coating of filth? I remember my grandmother examining my fingernails and asking me who I was in mourning for? If I had black nails now would I still be sneezing?
Wushu.
Maybe. Maybe not. Ash! Washu! Whoosh!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone will have to go out in the cold for more tissues. I gave some fabric hankies to the charity shop in the seventies and made the rest into doll’s house bedding in the eighties.