Clearing the fog

Since the middle of last week I have been spending the majority of my days hacking, coughing, blowing my nose and - for good measure - sneezing.
It kinda snuck up on me. I noticed last weekend that my nose was a bit stuffy.
By Monday, I had a cough that seemed to have no meaning. Just a cough.
On Tuesday, the intensity of the cough had increased to the point that Brian, whose cube is on the other side of mine, commented on all the racket I was making.
By Wednesday, the cold had settled in like slow-moving summer storm.
I had a meeting after work on Wednesday, one that went from 5 p.m. to 9. As the evening wore on my voice dropped several octaves.
I don't know how the Ump slept on Wednesday night because I kept jumping up and down, coughing, blowing my nose, getting something to drink.
Thursday was a sunny morning, but I certainly had a cloudy disposition. So I stayed home.
In the old days I probably would have dragged myself into work and tried to get things accomplished despite my stormy health situation. Many times I shut myself in my office at the paper and warned people away.
Nowadays, however, I work in a cube farm with lots of folks around me. It didn't seem very fair for me to drag my colony of germs into that environment.
Plus I felt like crap.
The coughing kept me from being able to sleep, so through bleary eyes I watched daytime television. Awful stuff, daytime TV. I felt like I had eaten a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. It seemed like a good idea, but in the end it's only fluff and empty calories.
I stayed home Friday too. It killed me to burn up PTO - especially since I had to take a week off in November for my foot.
So now it is Sunday night. Today is the first good day that I've had. The cough is quiet and only occasionally do I sneeze.
Back to work, I guess.
Cough, cough. Achoooo.