No I’m not singing along with James Brown…

but compared to last week, I feel great. It’s probably only average, on the feel-O-meter in the long run, but I was so sick the past four or five days, it becomes superlative by comparison.

<philosophical waxing on>I guess it really is true, that to feel the good times in life, you have to have the bad. Pain/pleasure, Love/hate, Joy/despair.<philosophical waxing off>

Hmmm… <wax on><wax off>…

Last week, after a long week and weekend of work with the Robotics Team, we finally shipped the robot off to FIRST Limbo, the place where the robots go from the time they leave the team’s hands until they are given back at a competition. On Monday, we went to Penfield NY for a sort of scrimmage event with a bunch of Rochester Teams where we could finalize the robot and get in some much-needed practice. We could actually play in a simulated game with other robots, so it was really good for the drive team.

It was a long day and I could feel this cold coming on. I had fought it off a week earlier and a number of people on the team were also sick. I got home and went almost straight to bed.

For four days.

Well, I did get out of bed once in a while. To move to the couch. I couldn’t stay in bed. I got tired of it, too congested to sleep well, too awake to sleep, but too out of it to watch TV. I did a lot of time just lying down and listening to my mp3 player. Even using a computer was tiring.

Wednesday, I forced myself up and out to my ski club meeting. I had to go. I was in charge of running a ski trip coming up soon and had to be there to accept sign-ups. So a hot shower and a shot of Day-Quill, and I got through it without a problem.

While I was there, I signed up for the club’s trip to Bristol Mountain this past Saturday. I hadn’t planned on it before because I had planned on going to Toronto for Podcamp that weekend, but I cancelled that for financial reasons. That and I really didn’t want to spend another weekend on the run.

Surely, I would be over my cold/flu by Saturday. That was the plan on Wednesday, anyway. Well, I just made it. By Friday night, I felt reasonably good and got ready to go early Saturday. I had a good time. Since it was a bus trip, I didn’t have to drive, so it was an easy trip: I could just relax on the way out and back if I wanted.

We skied pretty hard. I took a break early about 10:30 and then skied through the lunch time. But I sure could feel that I had been out of it all week. I definitely wasn’t 100%, and I could feel my legs tiring out. By 1:00 pm it was time for lunch. When my friends got ready to go back out afterwards, I just couldn’t do it. I undid my boots and relaxed in the lodge until time to go.

I had a good time. I didn’t mind sitting in the lodge. I put my mp3 player on and caught up on some podcasts. People think you’re listening to music, but since it’s talk, you can still hear what’s going on around you, even if they assume you can’t. It can be entertaining at times.

I didn’t party too hard on the bus ride home. I think I had one beer, but I was far from asleep. It was a good trip and we had a lot of people from the club I’ve known for ages and it was good to see them all again. We used to have 3-4 of these bus trips a season. This was the only one this year. I miss them.

I even felt good enough to go out afterwards for some wings and beer at a local watering hole. But by midnight, I was beat and was glad to get home and to bed. Sunday I felt good and today I feel even better. It’s amazing what being able to breathe does for you 🙂 Now if my sinuses would just finish draining out I’d be 100% again. I would have liked one more day of rest before skiing, but the fresh air and exercise did me good.