Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Five

The sniffing and throat clearing is getting to be a bit much. It is like the fiftieth time already this morning. Ugh... This had better not be the start of a cold. Probably it is just the pre-race sniffles. That's a thing, isn't it? But there has been something making the rounds at work. 

Five minutes until the first meeting of the day. Water. That will help. Go get some water. Then sit down and read any email that showed up last night. 

Oh nice. It's flu clinic week. You had forgotten that was going on. A flu shot? Really, now is not a good time. De-lete... hey wait... this email is different... it's a reply-to-ALL... oh man, someone's gonna be in trouble!  "Before you go take the flumist vaccine... something something... shedding live virus... something something... 20% [of everyone who gets one] is going to be contagious... something something... self-quarantine to ensure the safety of the immunocompromised [and the mental health of those running a Marathon this weekend]"

You wish you hadn't read that. Should have known better. Any other week, and it wouldn't have been a big deal. Now everyone you see today is going to have Pig-Pen-esque clouds of flu virii swirling around them. Relax. Breathe (but not too deeply). Drink some water. 

Sigh. Well, that killed three minutes. There's not actually enough time to do anything useful before the meeting. Wonder what the weather's going to be like on Sunday. Ha! "don't think about the weather again until Friday", my ass! Still looks nice. Good. No, great! That's great news! Speaking of news, it has been a couple days. You peek at the headlines to see what's going on in the world. 

EBOLA ARRIVES IN DALLAS

You let out a big sigh, close the browser and pull your PC off the dock. Then you grab your water and take another swig. That's how it is going to be today, is it? All right, then. There's a quick pit stop in the break area to turn on the hot tap and put your hands under the water for as long as you can tolerate it. Then, it's off to confine yourself in a room with a small group of adults for the next hour.