Waking Up To Brisket

I woke up this morning still not feeling well but I couldn’t keep myself in bed past 9:30 as I was already beginning to feel a little achy and my nose was not being receptive to oxygen. Once I was able to get on my feet, stumble to the bathroom, and clear my head I caught the slightest whiff of brisket in the air. As it turns out, my wife was having, as she puts it, a domestic day. Brisket was only the beginning of the cooking for the day as a duo of soups were also on the menu.

I don’t understand why my wife gets in these moods but I find it best to stay out of her way and just enjoy the outcome. It was nice to not have to make lunch and dinner on the weekend especially when there is still a hint of plague on my breath. However, while I was only asked a couple of times for small things, I did offer to assist her in the kitchen and even provided some time saving appliances long forgotten in the closet. Plus I didn’t have to worry about my wife losing a finger by finding a few easier and safer cutting options.

With a full dose of cold medicine in my system, I did make the decision to venture outside a few times. Not surprisingly, it was snowing again. Actually, the weather was a bit bipolar today as the snow started and stopped on several occasions throughout the late morning and early afternoon. By the time dusk came around the cars and streets were covered with an additional two inches of fine white dust. Just enough to cover your shoes and spin the tires.

With the arrival of early evening, dinner was ready to go and my wife’s sporadic study sprints had come to an end. As we sat down to eat some split pea soup (my mom’s recipe) and brisket (two separate courses not one strange concoction), I noticed the reversal of roles that my wife and I had throughout much of the day.

 

Much of my time is spent working, cooking, and generally trying to get something done either at work, at home, or somewhere else (usually lodge). Today, my wife was the one shuttling between the kitchen and the office as she made enough food for at least half the week and studied for her grad class. While I got a couple of minor things done here and there, the majority of my day was centered on recovery. It’s nice to change things up every once in a while.

Pushing Through Level Four

 

Have you ever noticed just how different of a person you are when you’re sick? Some get mad, some become mean, and others just kind of stair off into space. Today I was a different person. I wasn’t really any of the aforementioned, my sick demeanor is more along the lines of dull tunnel vision. Basically, when I’m sick I lose much of my creativity (you can probably tell at this point) and am unable to multitask. I have to focus on one thing at a time. Anything beyond that project simply wouldn’t process.

This doesn’t happen every time that I feel under the weather. It happens more on the top end of not feeling well when I have to motivate myself to move. Basically more on the plague end of the spectrum rather than the sniffles. For those of you unfamiliar with the sickness scale (similar to Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias’ five levels of fatness), here is the breakdown:

1. Sniffles – You cough once and feel that is enough to call out sick from work. Also applies to hangovers.

2. Sick – The time when you might want to consider taking something. This is when you usually start going through the list in your head of who you can blame for what you know is inevitably going to happen.

3. Crap on Toast (also known as crap on a cracker) – As the name suggests, at this point you are more than likely spending more time than you would like passing legislation through colon congress while weighing the nuclear option from your seat in the oval office. This also applies when you eat too much sugar free candy (especially Gummy Bears).

4. Plague – You have nothing left and your body seems to laugh when you take any sort of cold medicine. While you are no longer in solitary confinement in the porcelain prison, it takes considerable effort to just get up let alone get out the door.

5. Dead – This is when you have no other option than to call out of work and stay home moaning like a wounded cow. If you can only eat broth and really soft foods you might be dead. Stay home.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it is now the weekend and I have the luxury of dying without missing any work. However, if you were expecting to read about any exciting trips this weekend there is a good chance that will not be happening. It will give me time to thing though and you know how entertaining that can be so stay tuned for a couple posts resulting from an overabundance of time to think and cold medicine.