Waiting

This time last Friday Penelope and I were returning from a WellStreet  clinic. She had a fever from an ear infection and my throat hurt. I’m much better now though still congested and Penelope doesn’t have a fever (though she is coughing more). Somewhere in the week Jenn’s health deteriorated due to the fluctuating weather. I’m amazed the entire city of Atlanta and all surrounding areas didn’t shut down.  Yellow as far as the eye could see. Yellow from pollen that is. Before me moved to Atlanta I’d never heard of a pollen count. Little did I know. Now I know that a pollen count of 1500 is high. When they announced Thursday the count was 8000 I didn’t wonder why my eyes felt like they were being crushed in my head or my fellow co-workers were encouraging me to go home. I wondered how I was still vertical. The first couple of years in Atlanta everything was normal. Three years later it crept up on me. I started to get sick more often, my throat so tender and raw swallowing became a chore. The congestion got so bad I could only breath through my mouth. One year I was off work for a week, staying in the living room at night so Jenn could sleep. I watched a lot of movies that week. “Being There”, “Harold & Maude”, “Black Dynamite”, “Boondock Saints”, and many more. If youth is wasted on the young then health is wasted on the healthy. Just the nature of things I suppose. There were days this week when I felt so drained I wondered if this is what life would be like when I’m say…100. If it were just Jenn and I not feeling well it would be one thing. But it wasn’t. Penelope was coughing and sneezing. And she still wanted to play. Do little girl things. How I don’t know. Girl super powers maybe? Jenn took her outside (not on the 8000 pollen count day) to play. In the evening I would put puzzles together with her and play with her wooden train. If we were feeling better it would be just another week. In the spirit of Howard Jones this is what I have to say about next week: “Things Can Only Get Better” Whoa, whoa whoa whoa oh oh baby!

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