Work from Home, Call It "Rest"

​September 28, 2016
 
Beloved:

            “Awwww, the rain sounds so sweet and gentle,” I thought to myself at least three times before I remembered the dogs were still outside.  They bounded into the kitchen and took turns shaking off the water.  By the time I mopped the floor and walls they were asleep on their quilt.  We’ve been home together all week while I nurse some kind of nasty cold-allergy-sinus affliction.  I can’t remember the last time I was sick enough to stay in pajamas for three days.  I even went to the doctor, who gave me one medicine I take by inhaler and another I snort.  Up the nose isn’t so bad, but I have to psych myself up for the inhaler one.  Like I’m my own baby.  Then I have to remind myself I’m actually just a little bit sick, that other people are dealing with real treatments for real diseases, and maybe I don’t need to be so dramatic about two tiny puffs of steroid gas twice a day. 

            I’ve had time to read and knit.  Jeff Shaara is one of my favorites.  I’m halfway through To the Last Man, learning the context of WW1.  I’m down to sleeves on a blue wool sweater and have started a purple cotton one.  Sometimes I just sit here and watch the dogs watch cars go by.  How do they decide at which ones to bark?  And how does a body heal, I wonder?  For my particular condition, a simple prescription.  The doctor explained the medicine and said, “But mostly I want you to go home and rest.”  Like most people, I was hoping for something a little more instantaneous so I looked it up.  Turns out, sleeping is what sick bodies want to do most which might explain why I keep dozing off and dropping stitches.  [For more information: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11332773/The-art-of-being-ill-why-you-should-really-just-stay-in-bed.html.]

            It’s pride of course, an inflated sense of self-importance, that makes me resist the resting part.  So that if the doctor says, “pump this nasty stuff into your lungs twice a day,” I’ll force myself to do it.  But if he says, “rest for at least three days,” I stay in pajamas, work from home and call it rest.  Fooling nobody, of course, my own body least of all.  I could take a lesson from my golden girls.  Apparently they sleep all day without regret.  Hilariously, Rosie just woke herself up with her own snoring and then fell right back asleep.  Maybe I’ll join her.  Enjoy your day and I’ll see you later. 

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Sulky Wet Dogs

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Happy Dry Dog