Regular flu
Swine flu
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest…

I can’t remember the last time I had a cold. Maybe a couple years – I’m not quite sure, but I do know I haven’t had a cold in at least the past year. I wash my hands religiously, use those Purell anticeptic gels and such. This morning I had the word ‘cold’ on my mind, but I didn’t feel like one was coming on.

After spending a couple hours catching up with the new posts on my blog pals’ sites, updating reports and a couple meetings…

Then it happens. 3:00 o’clock – the post-nasal drip begins. I know something is coming. My colds usually start with a frog in my throat, but this one feels different. After work I headed directly to the store for defensive solutions. DayQuil/NyQuil combo pack, zinc lozenges and the fixings to make sloppy joes.

My blog pal, Jeanne wrote about an incident with sloppy joes today and that got me thinking – I haven’t had a sloppy joe since I was a teenager. I remember the day vividly now. My parents and I went to visit my sister who was in college at the time. We had a picnic and mom made sloppy joes. I wore a black Hard Rock Café t-shirt (even though at the time I had yet to visit an actual Hard Rock Café) and a red and white checkered painter cap. Don’t ask me how I remember such details, some things just stick in your memory. Thanks Jeanne for the flashback.


The dogs were circling the stove like vultures and wouldn't stay out from beneath my feet - just waiting for some delicious joe drippings to fall.

So, this evening sloppy joes are on the menu and I know that the next seven days I’ll be nurturing a cold. If I lose my sense of smell on Thanksgiving and I can’t taste the turkey, there’ll be hell to pay to the karmic gods. I’m a good person, dang it! I don’t deserve this!

(Who knows, maybe it’s life’s little way of saying, slow down…take a break.)