One Week as a Microcosm for the Year
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This past week has made quite an appropriate ending for the year.

I'm grateful for generally good health, in the grand scheme of things: I don't have Alzheimer's, cancer, or other big health issues. But in the less grand scheme of things, 2010 was a horrible year for my health, with multiple bouts of fairly extreme arm pain, and other stress-related ailments along with the random “getting old” issues that seem to beset me, like bouts of back pain and such.

So, how was this last week an appropriate ending? Let's look at the day-by-day playback...

Dec 25th   Christmas Day. Had a wonderful day. In the evening, got slammed by a sudden cold.
Dec 26th Don't remember the day. Had fever and slept, apparently.
Dec 27th More fever and more sleeping, but had enough energy to be beset by a sudden attack of crippling back spasms.
Dec 28th Getting more energy as the cold starts to subside. Back very painful. Spent the day being a zombie in front of the boob tube.
Dec 29th Recovered enough from the cold to decide to go ahead with a short trip we'd been planning, which involved a few hours of driving and a two-hour boat ride. Arrive in the evening feeling mostly better (both the cold and my back) and hit the sack exhausted.... that good kind of exhausted.
Dec 30th Get only one hour of sleep despite crushing tiredness. My cold seems to have been replaced by insomnia. Fade in and out from being a zombie all day, and in the evening take NyQuil to try to put myself to sleep.
Dec 31th Got five hours of sleep, which is not enough but a heck of a lot better. Feel mostly okay all day.

I really hope 2011 is a better year, healthwise.

But the last week was also an appropriate ending for the year on the non-health front as well. Christmas (prior to the cold) was wonderful, the trip was fun and included things like looking at the stars from the middle of nowhere on a frozen mountaintop with Fumie and Anthony, and we returned to Kyoto this evening to find more snow than the city has seen since at least WWII. We dumped the luggage in the house and Anthony and I went out for play in the snow, including a snow fort, snowball fight, etc.

The snow's still falling, so I'd like to head out early in the morning to see the Heian Shrine with a pristine snowfall (such as this, this, and this from prior years' snowfalls). However, tomorrow being January First, the shrine will be open all through the night and nonstop for the next few days for hatsumode (“first shrine visit of the year”), so it will be crowded and anything but pristine, so I'll sleep in. Sounds like a wonderful start to 2011!


All 4 comments so far, oldest first...

Apart from the “aliment” (=food, I suppose you mean ailment?;-) ) that sounds like something happening to me too. Sudden cold to the point of fever and shivering, gone for the day. Then pains all over and getting back to normal. Perhaps something in the air?
Get better! (So we can enjoy your posts again). Have a Happy New Year!

Oops, fixed (the misspelling, that is), thanks. Here’s to a good 2011…. —Jeffrey

— comment by Henk on January 1st, 2011 at 12:11am JST (13 years, 3 months ago) comment permalink

Seems like a mild dose of flue rather than a bad cold. Look on the bright side; you are immune to that particular strain for the next year or two.

I don’t know the difference between “flu” and “a cold” (they’re both generic “not feeling well” words to me). Whatever it was was not fun, but I’ve certainly had worse. I used to only rarely get colds/flu… once every few years… but now I get them several times a year. Could be because I’m getting old, or perhaps because I now have a kid who returns most every day from the petri dish that is school. Whatever the reason, it sucks. )-: —Jeffrey

— comment by John on January 1st, 2011 at 2:22am JST (13 years, 3 months ago) comment permalink

Happy New Year from the Wild South of Germany!

We have the same interchangeability of words for flu and cold (“Grippe” in German). But strictly speaking “influenza” is a much more serious (potentially lethal) disease than the common cold. I caught the H1N1 virus in the 2009 pandemic, and I could tell the difference …

May 2011 see you in better health than 2010; and please continue to show us your world!

— comment by Andreas Weber on January 2nd, 2011 at 6:07am JST (13 years, 3 months ago) comment permalink

Dear Jeffrey, a Happy New Year to you and your family! May your wish for better health will come true. Thank you so much for all the effort you put into your LR plugins, for your amazing photos from Japan, and for sharing a portion of your life with the world right here on your blog. Best from San Diego, CA.

— comment by Alexander Kunz on January 2nd, 2011 at 1:39pm JST (13 years, 3 months ago) comment permalink
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