My Spring Colds

As soon as I note the finches and robins outside of my cabin marking the coming of Spring, I am beset by my Spring affliction: a cold. And as I get older, these colds seem more oppressive and debilitating. Children walk around with them all of the time: snotty running noses, caked shirtsleeves coated with mucus wiped off almost unconsciously from those same running noses, and unused boxes of tissue stuffed into backpacks. No cold would keep a child from frolicking in the cold rain and snow, and even more happily on snow days! No cold would keep a child from wanting to be outside during the burgeoning Spring. Me, I just want to take to my bed with a careless novel and plenty of liquids.

I recall a time in my life when a cold was a seven day affair: three days for onset, one day of absolute debility, and three days of recovery. And then it was over until the next seasonal affliction. I would come down with two colds a year: one in the Spring and one in the Fall. Both were caused, I believed, by the rapidly changing weather: in the Spring I dressed in the morning for below freezing conditions, but by noon the sun had warmed to forty or fifty degrees—experienced warmer because of the change in the earth’s angle in relationship to the sun, and I was overdressed, sweating and removing clothes. But by the time I left the buildings, the temperature had changed again, and I discovered I was underdressed. I shivered in the cold. I suppose I could have begun putting on all of my clothes before leaving the building, but the feeling of warmth was too enticing to diminish its length. And besides, I thought, it was such a short walk to the car. Ah, now that is the excuse of a younger person. I walk slower now.

The opposite pattern occurred in the Fall. I developed colds in both seasons. Never in Winter and never in Summer. Only in the Spring and Fall. And since real the Spring is such a brief affair in Wisconsin, I feel unwell sick the whole season.

And so this week, alas, and probably next, I’m experiencing the usual. Its Spring and the robins and finches are singing, and they are keeping me awake as I take to my bed!!