A Summer Cold

Well, as I predicted in an earlier post, I caught Sena’s head cold. I have not had one of these in over 3 years, believe it or not.

It was easy to distinguish my cold from Covid-19, influenza, bubonic plague, and abduction by extraterrestrials. I usually get a dry cough, which causes a headache, a runny nose, mild fatigue and general achiness.

When I’m abducted by extraterrestrials, they usually just want directions to a decent rib joint.

I also had mild nasal congestion, for which I didn’t bother to take phenylephrine. I didn’t take aspirin, or acetaminophen. I didn’t have a fever. I did finally take some cough medicine, which I usually hate. I tend to think the guaifenesin makes me gag, although it’s more likely coughing itself causes that. Raspberry is definitely not my favorite cough syrup flavor.

I took a quick look at the CDC website about colds and found a page on how to distinguish colds from influenza. Colds aren’t that big a deal, but you can get pretty miserable. I don’t know if a summer cold is different from a winter cold. Rhinoviruses cause the common cold and infections tend to cluster in early fall and spring.

The head cold cramped my style. I was too busy sneezing, blowing, and coughing to practice juggling or exercise. It also interfered with sleep.

Interestingly, it didn’t stop me from watching the Men in Black trilogy on TV this week. Funny how that works.

I think we just caught a late summer cold. There was an old Contac commercial about it in the 1970s. I can find the jingle but I can’t find a video of the original commercial.

“A summer cold is a different animal, an ugly animal, ooo…cause it hits you in the summer, when you got a lot to do.”

I don’t have that much to do—but I’d rather not be down with a cold.