When I finished up my last parish interim assignment at the end of January -- it was actually February 2nd, and included an Annual General Meeting and a potluck lunch as well as the regular Sunday Eucharist -- I came home and resorted to the Couch of Sunday Nappage, as is my wont and certainly seemed to be my due, at that point.
"Aha, " I said, "I will catch a couple of hours here under my fleecy throw (and a strategically placed cat), and then I will Rise Up and see about supper and the week to come."
I got right up off that couch -- eighteen hours later.....
"Hark!" I said, "I must have been more tired than I realized... and perhaps probably I could be Coming Down With Something, judging by this here sore throat..."
And I was. Not to dwell on misery, but sore throat, congested head, nose running like Alph the Sacred River, and presently a rattling heavy "productive" (as they say) cough.
"Yes!" I said, "the well-remembered end-of-assignment, adrenalin-shut-down, immune-system-vanished, COLD. Well, we'll just ride this out, and not be pestering the medical profession for a trifle."
That was about February 3rd. Yesterday, having grown very very tired of the infinite loop, see paragraph #5 above, that I have been apparently stuck in, I went to my doctor. "Six WEEKS?" I said. "I don't think so..."
Diagnosis: bronchitis, probably pneumonia, possibly reactive asthma.
A FISTFUL of requisitions and prescriptions and a half day of running about in response -- I have an antibiotic (2 big pills daily WITH FOOD) -- I have Puffer #1 (red) (once daily and be sure to rinse mouth afterward) -- I have Puffer #2 (blue) (four times a day if necessary on a "rescue" basis) -- I also have the continuing threesome of pills combatting the usual blood pressure and cholesterol -- and I have a new bone-density medication (one pill weekly with plenty of water on an empty stomach, NO FOOD for an hour, and remember to stay upright after taking lest it LODGE somewhere).
You will be able to hear me coming because with all these meds in me I shall rattle like the bones in Ezekiel.
But the SCHEDULING involved in all this medication !!!!!!!! What happened to the Merry Spntaneity that was supposed to characterize my Golden Years????? Eh?????
Maybe this IS my Lenten practice.
Meantime it is officially SPRING, saluted in these parts by a fresh fall of snow, plunging temperatures, and high winds.
In other news, I have a new parish assignment 90 km away, half-time...again, interim.
In other news, I have a vegan cookbook (no, but I have dear vegan friends)...my last purchase before Lent.
Well, the last purchase until I found R. N. Whybray, The Making of the Pentateuch: A Methodological Study on the sale table in the theological library. It was only 50 cents -- and signed by the author -- and dedicated to his son and his two stepdaughters -- and the stepdaughters are second cousins to the Rambler. So how could one resist? (Yes, it's a VERY long story -- some other time).
Time to pay some bills. "Today we have Paying of Bills"... and some overdue correspondence... also LAUNDRY... and cookery toward the end of the week...
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Good heavens! I had no idea you have been so ill! But I know just how it feels to have a lingering hacking productive cough that is really something else....I hope by now, a month later, you are feeling your self again. When do you begin that new assignment?
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