the daily grind

I awoke this morning at 2AM with a runny nose and then again at 5:48 sneezing. I stayed in bed for the remaining twelve minutes until the coffee was ready. Now I am sitting here drinking my morning cup with a box of tissues, hoping that the sneezing and nose running will either stop or lessen so I can get this day started. I have my bike bag and gear by the door ready to go, but I get the feeling that I need to stay out of the elements and drive. If the nose dries up before it’s time to leave, I’m riding. Screw it!


This has been happening on and off for about two weeks now. Usually the symptoms go away midday and return in the middle of the night to disturb my sleep and/or make my morning an endless internal dialogue about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of going to the office. The sneezing fits are brief but violent, leaving me groaning, hunched over and breathing through my mouth. This has been screwing with my already questionable mental state by burning through my PTO hours. On Monday, I sat here and did almost a full day’s worth of work from home, which I will not get paid for since I signed a contract stating that my participation in the 9/80 work schedule makes me ineligible for telecommuting. I have more work that needs to be done today. I am not using vacation hours just to sit at home and do that work for free. I don’t have a fever therefore I am going to work. There’s also the matter of finishing up the kitchen cabinet job over at the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. It’s only a couple of hours work, but who else is actually going to show up and get it done?

I think my body is telling me that it needs more than eight hours of sleep a night to kick out this cold virus. Now all I have to do is find those extra hours each day. Getting home after 8PM isn’t helping. I realized when I was on the phone with KB last night that I needed to multitask almost everything that I needed to do in order to get my ass in bed before 11PM. I still only made it to bed by 10:30 (giving me almost 7.5 hours had I slept solid through the night). How do people with children do this? It’s insane!