A Cold Atop The Cold

Dearest Rachel –

I had fully intended – and had even begun – a second letter to you for yesterday, regarding the fact that I wasn’t dealing with a case of the ‘Sunday Scaries’ that some of the others were anticipating upon their return from Honduras. I think you know what I’m talking about, even if you might not be familiar with the exact phrase (or for that matter, had to deal with the concept personally); that feeling of having to get back to the regular workaday world after a mountaintop experience such as this one. It was meant to have been another installment in an ongoing series of ‘thank yous’ to you – and spouses are supposed to express appreciation to each other on a regular basis – for allowing me to retire, and thereby not have to face that return to the grind of “real life” on Monday.

Less uplifting in that draft, though, was the acknowledgement that I hadn’t felt – and rarely do feel – that I had been to the mountaintop like some of them had. I was just fulfilling a role that (especially in certain cases) only I could play, and that not particularly well; I will never be able to stand in front of a classroom and explain a topic like I could do so by just sitting with a small group of students, and explaining the subject at their level. So I don’t feel like I’d accomplished much in my particular area of expertise, but at least this precludes a crash from high to low today.

But as it turned out, other factors intervened upon returning home shortly after midnight on Sunday morning. Daniel greeted me at the door – like you, staying up until midnight and thereafter comes almost naturally to him – and while he was pleased as he was to see me safely home, he wasn’t keen to offer me his customary hug of greeting. Apparently, he’d caught a mild cold over the course of my absence.

Now this isn’t all that surprising, honey. I’ve mentioned obliquely – and I’m sure those reading this over your shoulder can confirm vehemently – that there has been something of a cold snap that has covered most of the country in my absence. It’s been positively polar throughout the nation, with the only exceptions being the Pacific coast and the Florida peninsula (the panhandle, on the other hand, has apparently gotten it as bad as the rest of the southeastern states). Even on the connecting flight back from Miami, I saw numerous cancellations for destinations in the southeast, and as we were boarding, I met a lady from Charlotte who told me of a 100-car pileup in her area due to the snow there that they have no means to mitigate against like we do here; as a result, rather than heading home, she and some friends of hers were going to visit a mutual friend here in the Windy City, where at least we know how to deal with the cold.

Granted – and you would be among the first to point it out to either of us – just because it’s cold outside doesn’t mean that one is going to catch a cold. While cold viruses do thrive that much better in the winter, what really allows it to spread is being in proximity to other people who have a cold at the time; although the cold outdoors does encourage us to congregate inside, where that becomes that much more likely. Still, I tend to think of Daniel as not one to leave the house all that often, especially in these circumstances, so his odds of coming into contact with anyone would be fairly low.

However, it would seem that there was a fair amount of “can’t miss” activities that he was engaging in over the week, polar vortex be hanged. Between Sparks on Monday, Pastor Joel’s Bible study on Wednesday, and Meema’s taco bake on Thursday, he was getting out on his own a surprising number of times. I don’t even have to encourage him; indeed, when I texted him about the situation while en route home, I expressed an assumption that he’d sequestered himself in the house for the duration, only to be met with this list of places that he felt he had to be at. I was actually pleased at his initiative.

But, it does mean that he’s been coming into contact with a lot more people than I’d expected, with the unsurprising result that he wasn’t feeling his best when I showed up. Honestly, he didn’t look too bad, though, and so I thought nothing of it when I bid him goodnight after partially unpacking, and pouring myself into bed.

Likewise, when I got up in the morning, I didn’t notice all that much unusual about things. I took it easy starting the morning, as the two of us had agreed to sleep in and take in the last service of the day. But somewhere between leaving the house and driving to church, something changed. I thought it was just a case of my not being used to the cold; sure, it had been chilly in Honduras (especially since we hadn’t prepared for it to be), but these sub-freezing temperatures are a whole other level. Then again, things are almost always below freezing here in the winter, but the sub-zero stuff that I’d left behind last Sunday had dissipated, so it shouldn’t be such a big deal.

But I was so cold in the auditorium that I kept my gloves on, except when I had to write my notes on the sermon. Either there was a fault in the heating system (which has happened before, but in such cases, they canceled the service), or my own internal thermometer was malfunctioning. This was not a good sign.

Daniel was interested in checking out a new Korean restaurant after church, but upon discovering that it didn’t open until four, we were forced to retreat to the car and find one of our more usual fallback locations, which you would remember from back in the day. Instead of their soup, I got chili and a sandwich, while Daniel ordered his usual plate of nachos, and we drove it home to watch videos in the bedroom. Given how cold I was, I bundled myself into bed to do so; the layers of bedding did wonders to warm me up, but at the same time made me too comfortable, as I could barely stay awake through a couple of episodes.

Fortunately for Daniel, Logan arrived home at about that time, and the two of them reconvened in the family room, while switching off the remainder of the lights in the bedroom for me. And that’s what happened to the rest of my day, honey, along with any thoughts of writing you a second letter; somewhere between fugue state and full unconsciousness from mid-afternoon until this morning.

The irony is that, while I’m feeling a little better, I’m still running a slight fever (98.9ºF), which means that I wouldn’t be experiencing the Monday blues in any event, as I wouldn’t be particularly welcome either at my old office or my current ‘office.’ I’ve got the day off, whether I want it or not. Pity you can’t be here to enjoy it with me (and don’t remind me that I’ve got a cold atop the cold itself; you and I were constantly sharing microbes, and you’d be dealing with what I had, just as I’m probably dealing with what Daniel is).

But in any case, if you could keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, I’d appreciate it. After all, you can probably guess that I’m going to need it.