Geek Sick?

There are those among my readers (most of them) who would aver that the title of this article should be "Sick Geek!".

However, it is not my purpose to reward their intemperate canards.

Rather, I regret to report that I seem to have caught the Common Cold.

It has been slowly impinging upon my Co-Workers for a week. Andy had the cold last week, and continued to come to word "regardless". He makes his presence known by the occassional Ka-WHOOP!.

Deb missed Monday, and came in to work on Tuesday where she was immediately dubbed "Coughing Woman". She lasted for about six hours, finally yielding the the gentle advice (Geek in origin) to "Go home!". She hasn't been back yet, yielding three sick days and one sick-but-shoulda-stayed-home day.

This afternoon Mark started clearing his throat -- loudly -- of congestion every few minutes. I realized that every time he HrrrUMPPed!, I HrrrUMPPED immediately afterword. This continued until, about 4pm, I realized that my HrrUMPP was changing to a robust Ka-WHOOP!

And then my nose started to run.

I finally left the office about 15 minutes early, unable to further ignore the undeniable evidence that I was Catching A Cold.

There are more than the usual number of down-sides to this, quite apart from my own discomfort and loss of work-time:

• I can't be around SWMBO when I have a cold. Her immune system has been entirely suppressed by the chemotherapy, and she isn't really strong enough to deal with a cold.
• The redoubtable Hobo Brasser had planned to come down to visit us this weekend. His Lady Wife, the estimable Mrs Hobo Brasser (aka, in her own right, "Spicey") had planned to furnish dinner ... her made-from-scratch Macaroni and Cheese is reputed to be The Stuff that Childhoods Are Made Of. I am gonna miss this, but they did want to have dinner and visit with both of us, and I am temporarily rendered Hors d'Combat.
• A co-worker has recently purchased a new pistol. I had tentatively planned to take him to the range this weekend to both provide him with an opportunity to shoot it, but also to make sure he has the gun-handling instructions which will help him to use it safely.

(Break: Now I'm sneezing, and my nose is running worse than it was when I started writing this. Ha-CHEW!)

I really don't appreciate it when people bring their Winter Colds to work. It's like "Take Your Daughter To Work Day", only with fewer annoying squeaky voices and more disappointment.

Here's a personal hint, from me to you:

If you have a cold, please stay home and enjoy it. You may feel you are an important contributor to your office (jobsite, whatever) efficiency. In reality, you may be willing to "play through the pain", but the rest of your co-workers are probably going to end up spending some work-days at home. They will not thank you.

Hmmmmm - I'm not sure I got the message through to everybody. Let's try it again:

If you have a cold --

STAY THE #*@& HOME!!!

Thank you for your kind attention.