Cold
Yep, now it’s official. I’ve got a cold. Running nose, sore throath and my temperature is rising again!
I always see a cold as a failure, a failure at taking good care of myself. When I’m rested, eat well and exercise regularly, my immune system is at it’s top on handling things like common cold viruses. As far as I understand we have them in our bodies at all times. No getting rid of them. It’s when our immune system drops it’s shields, goes over to backup generators with only life support left, there’s no dilithium mine in the vicinity and it has to try to power up the deflector array to attempt to break the space time… Uh, perhaps too many Star Trek references there! Can there be too many?
When the immune system weakens for some reason, that’s when a cold can get a real good foothold. Now remember, I’m not an educated physicist, I’m only using what I’ve gathered from the Internet and by exercising my intelligence on what I’ve learned. This has many times proven a good approach for me, since my hunches on how things should work have later been proven by scientific methods 
Long before people started talking about ‘a too clean environment is perhaps a reason for more allergies’, I already had formulated that theory and tried to impart it to my grandmother, who shrugged it off and continuted to meticulously clean her appartment. Long ago I also thought that it wouldn’t be good to go on a diet for a long time, because then perhaps the body adapted to the low intake of food, which would lead to a lesser effectiveness of the diet, if your goal is to lose weight that is.
I’m not happy with seeing it as a failure, that’s kinda harsh on myself. Perhaps I would be better off regarding it as a sign of fatigue, of me needing to look over how I’ve been taking care of myself, and try to improve on the places where my effort has been lacking.
Now that I look back on the past weeks I see that I’ve been drinking too many weekends, eating way too much sugar on the weekends and have not met my need for sleep! The usual stuff, that is! 
JenEriC wrote,
Life isn’t that simple; there’s too many unknown and factors we don’t have control over. And honestly, if you had too choose between not having a cold and seeing friends who might infect you, what would you choose?
(and yes, there can be too many Star Trek references.
November 21st 2006 at 09:07 (9:07 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
Well, my wonderful midwife told me that we should be grateful when the kids are sick (with common colds and other non-threatening diseases), because then they take the time to process all the stimuli they have received and develop it into new knowledge. To this day, they have always come out on the other side with new abilities (flight, x-ray vision and telekinesis are but a few).
That might as well be the case for us grownups as well, but the changes will be smaller and smaller the more we learn throughout our lives. And we also have to be our own observers to spot them, since at least my parents lost track of the finer nuances of my development somewhere in my teens.
November 21st 2006 at 10:40 (10:40 am) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
…and no, there can’t be too many Star Trek references.
My kids go “Oweee, oweee, oweee” when we watch STNG and there’s a red alert. Go figure.
November 21st 2006 at 10:41 (10:41 am) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP
Caroline wrote,
I agree with Mari there can never be to many Star Trek references. NUQ DAQ YUJ DA’POL?
Oh, and while I agree pretty much with your opinion of why we get colds, I’d like to cheer you up with the fact that the immune system actually needs to get some exercise every now and then to keep it working at its best. (That’s supposedly why the hyper-clean environments bring out more allergies in people - their immune systems are “bored”.
)
I’ve gotten a slight cold myself. Again. But what else is new.
November 21st 2006 at 12:18 (12:18 pm) — Using
Firefox 1.5.0.7 on 
Ubuntu Linux
Mari wrote,
I do like the by-product of not being too tidy: not having to clean as often. I like my pet dust bunnies!
I wish my spouse was polyamorous and bisexual so I could have my own harem of men and get away from all household chores.
November 21st 2006 at 12:23 (12:23 pm) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP
Mika Perälä wrote,
Jens: Hahaha! Ooo, you of clean faith! There is no such thing as ‘too many’, I’ve come to realise. My trust in the Lore is great! Star Trek will prevail! :sw: Eh, ooh, hmmm. What would I choose? A rested, well fed, and happily exercised Mika who hugs infected friends and gets away with it!
Mari: Hahaha! You’ve been watching Heroes? If not, I really recommend it!
Kids with super powers… Now THERE’S a scary thought! And I agree with you, being sick gives me the opportunity to rest. Actually, today I rested for the first time in ages. Really rested that is, I actually managed to drop away every shread of worrying, fear and stuff and glided away to limbo land.
Carro: Dirty clingon! There IS no chocolate here! ‘oy’ DaSIQjaj! Oooh, I see! Then I’m very happy for my cold! I don’t wanna go and get miself some kind of allergy because of a bored immune system! :pom:
November 21st 2006 at 17:14 (5:14 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
Nope, haven’t been watching Heroes, do I have to down load it or is it showing on any not too obscure channel?
November 22nd 2006 at 10:53 (10:53 am) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP
Mika Perälä wrote,
You’ll have to download it. It hasn’t reached our obscure channels yet
November 22nd 2006 at 13:42 (1:42 pm) — Using
Firefox 2.0 on 
Windows XP
Mari wrote,
Ok, then I won’t watch it until it does. I need a harem participoant that do my electronic chores for me as well.
eeg:
November 22nd 2006 at 14:30 (2:30 pm) — Using
Internet Explorer 6.0 on 
Windows XP
malte wrote,
Having a cold not to be sniffed at. Many’s the time a cold has cured me of other, stress-related symptoms. The reason? Because it’s hard for me to concentrate on anything else than having the cold, so by the time it’s blown over, the back or stomach or whatever it was has fixed itself.
November 22nd 2006 at 21:20 (9:20 pm) — Using
Firefox 1.5.0.8 on 
Windows XP
Mika Perälä wrote,
Mari:
A TV-slave!
Malte: Hehe, I see, when I have a cold I can still do a lot of things, so it doesn’t cure other ailments. On the other hand I’m blessed with very few ailments. I had problems with my stomach, but after reflecting on it, most of my problems vanished once I started training Aikido. Coincidence? I dunno.
November 25th 2006 at 01:34 (1:34 am) — Using
Firefox 2.0 on 
Windows XP