The unpleasantness of the week that was

Oh me! Oh my! What an unpleasant week! Since Monday, I've suffered with an upper respiratory infection. When to the doctor early Monday, as indicated earlier, who gave me enough antihistamines and antibiotics for ten days. Stayed home Monday afternoon through Wednesday. Went to work Thursday morning but knew by ten it was a mistake. So I wound up staying home the rest of Thursday and all of Friday. Even this evening I still don't feel alright. No doubt, a lot of this is caused by the weather and pollen to be mentioned in more detail in the paragraphs below.

Although I feel I've done nothing this week, I did watch the Pavarotti Gala at the Met on Wednesday eve. What must it be like to have a voice that ranks as one of the greatest of the century? Over the years, I've caught bits and pieces of the Met's Saturday broadcast, but my understanding and appreciation are limited by a lack of experience and knowledge.

Pollen is everywhere. A thick yellow pine dust covers everything. It has a cloying, nasal-irritating smell that makes you feel as if you've been trapped inside a vacuum cleaner bag for a week. It reminds me of the "Red Weed" in H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds." "...covering fields and ditch and tree and hedgerow..."

I thought Spring was suppose to be a respite between winter and summer. No such luck, it was in the 80's today. A hot, muggy, sultry day that most would call high summer, but here is but a prelude to months of dry, sullen, stiff, mirage-producing heat. (I'm sure all this is the result of Soviet nuclear testing in the 50's. I remember a sci-fi program from long ago that explored a premise that those Russkies were manipulating the weather with their A-and-H-bomb testing. Maybe they really did cause weather shifts but in a delayed way!)

I missed the Great Vigil of Easter service this evening. Really wanted to attend but was so drowsy that I went to bed around 5 and woke up at 6:30. Am definitely not up to being shoehorned into a pew at the regular services. People come out of nowhere for the pomp and circumstance of a Cathedral Episcopal Easter service. I keep thinking they should have a tag line that reads, "...everything but the Rockettes."

PAX!