Sick and Tired

I have a cold. Normally this would just be miserable but we have started calving heavy and this is a real problem, I simply don’t have time to be sick. I noticed the tickle in my throat yesterday, then came the headache followed by the stuffy nose. Luckily there were no ewes close to lambing so I took some cold medicine and went to bed.

When I woke up the tickle had gone to a full-blown irritation and my nose and sinus were completely clogged. I want to blame it on my daughter, she has been fighting the crud for better than a week and I am sure she is the one who infected me. After all there is no one else sick around that I could have caught it from. Really it is probably Dad’s fault since he mentioned yesterday with all the sickness going around that neither of us has time to be sick.

Am I telling you this to get sympathy? Maybe, but I suspect that I will get about as much sympathy from any of you reading this as I did from my family. Basically, the message was “suck it up buttercup”. Why would they be so unfeeling? I am not sure, after all, I am sure that I catered to their every need when they were under the weather, despite what any of them might say.

After failing to get any sympathy or care from my family I decided to do the only thing I could do. I called in sick. I am rarely sick and can’t remember the last time I used a sick day, so I called my boss. When the phone started ringing I remembered that I had made that fateful decision to be my own boss and I had cut sick days from the benefit package. I guess that makes me my own replacement.

Without the prospect of sympathy or help I decided to make the sacrifice and drag myself out to do chores, maybe the animals will be more caring. Boy was I wrong. The bottle lambs didn’t seem to care if I was sniffling and coughing and the ewes were even worse. They took advantage of my weakened state and tried to knock the buckets of grain out of my hands. The dogs did seem to care, or was that hunger? It must have been hunger, because as soon as the food was dumped in their bowl they focused on eating not on my obvious affliction. I didn’t even look to the cat for support and the cows were relatively unmoved.

The cool fresh morning air did seem to help and proved to me just how supportive and caring I had been to the rest of my family. I often tell them if you just get to moving and get a little fresh air you will feel better. Don’t get me wrong, all I could think about was collapsing in my easy chair with a hot cup of coffee, but I did feel a little better.

While resting, and drinking my coffee I did have a little time to reflect upon the recent state of my health. I guess I am lucky that it is me that is sick and not one of my animals. The way the weather has been so extreme and the temperature has been up and down, it is a wonder that every one of us and every animal is not sick. I know it is late winter in Kansas and this manic weather is to be expected but it does not make it any easier physically or mentally.

Of course, my sniffles could also be due to the crazy schedule I am keeping, a lack of rest and an even bigger lack of good nutrition.  I have learned over the years that eventually all of that does catch up to you. What I have not seemed to learn is not to put myself in that position to begin with. Nobody has ever accused me of being a quick study.

What I am quite sure of is that this is karma, payback or whatever you want to call it. My daughter has had a terrible cold for the past week and I insisted that she continue to do her chores and keep up with her homework. She told me this was a lot to expect out of someone who could not breath. Then throw in FFA week and the start of softball practice and I guess she was having trouble feeling sorry for my sniffles.

Then I started thinking of friends of mine who are dealing with health conditions much worse and more serious than a little cold and they don’t ask for sympathy or help. Maybe this runny nose isn’t so bad and I guess if I keep moving I do feel better. I might live until everyone gets home tonight and maybe then I will get a little sympathy and care. Oh great, now I am delirious.