Week Nine - Day Two

BIKE: Eastwood
TIME THERE: 27 min.
TIME BACK: 30 min.
WEATHER: overcast with very light rain, 3C, 28km/hr wind there; overcast, 7C, 20km/hr wind (up to 30km/hr gusts) on the way back.
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, turtleneck, waterproof shell, scarf, running gloves (scarf in panniers on the way home)
NOTES:

The Carrier Monkey and my Constant Disease

My daughter is just about 18 months old now and she's in daycare. If you have children yourself, or know anything about children, you must know that children are essentially carrier monkeys in adorable fur-less packages. Even during my pregnancy - a time where just about no over-the-counter remedy is safe for the baby - I had one viral sinus infection after another. I could do nothing but gargle salt-water and try to get as much rest as I could, but since I was simultaneously rushing through the last of my coursework and preparing for the candidacy exam that was scheduled 3 weeks before she was born, the rest thing wasn't happening. So, salt-water, my friend, you were the only one there for me.

I was still suffering from the latest sinus infection when I went into labour. This, to me, is sign #427 that there is no God. Throughout the first year of my daughter's life, she and I bonded over the various illnesses we caught and shared together. For a time, my daughter and I spent more time sick than healthy - two weeks of a cold, one week healthy, then three weeks with a sinus infection, then one week healthy . . . the pattern went on something like that for months. Again, if you're a parent, you'll understand the agony of being devastated by illness and still having to take care of a baby - especially if that baby is also sick and therefore more needy than ever. All I wanted was a break, some rest, the freedom to take a long, hot bath and then go directly to bed. I was grateful for the help my Mom gave me when she could outside of working full-time, but she could not protect me from the grave realization that parenting is one job that doesn't allow for sick days.

And so, as the last of the leaves fall from the trees and the cold wind blows wintry omens in from the northwest, I pin my daughter to the floor and torture her with the administration of antibiotic eye drops before I bike to work with a sore throat and a dry, hacking cough. Once again, we are sick, and I can't recall a single day of feeling perfectly well since the last time I was sick over Thanksgiving weekend two weeks ago. So far I've been convinced that the biking helps boost my immune system - helps me fight off the colds and sinus infections that threaten me at every turn. And yet, today as I rode home directly into the westerly wind - felt my lungs burn with the cold air, my ears ache from the wind rushing past them, my head pound from the sinus pressure building up behind my eyes - I wondered if biking may not be helping. Maybe I need rest, relaxation, and warmth more than fresh air and exercise right now.

Then again, maybe - just maybe - all I need is a good night's sleep. Here's hoping I finally get that tonight.