WAITING ROOM

Tonight's Skype session was akin to watching two people sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office with my uncontrollable sneezing and his painful ribs. He took some pain pills; I took my allergy pills. The Claritin proved rather useless to alleviating my symptoms. Next season I will have to look into getting the allergy shots as suggested by a friend of mine as I would like to get back the month of January next year.

Today was fairly warm for this time of year, with temperatures around 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). I had planned to get out of the confines of this house and get some shopping done. I made it as far as the bookstore and Whole Foods before I decided to go home. Fatigue set in and the sneezing had commenced. The much needed fresh air would have to wait until next month's trip to Ireland.

The ribs were causing him much pain - more than the previous back pain as a result of his having to be on his feet all day long at work. Apparently the pain started three days ago but became progressively worse today. Thankfully he has the next two days off from work to recover and has a few soccer games on television to keep him occupied in addition to our chatting on Skype.

Doing anything productive today proved useless. I finally gave in an read for a short while before I could no longer concentrate. Then I decided to turn to German television on my iPad and catch up on Lindenstrasse as I had already watched all of the past week's new episodes of SOKOs - the ones from Köln, Wismar, Stuttgart, and Leipzig.

Tomorrow I will be staying indoors. I look forward to the days in Ireland when I will be able to walk outside, albeit in the cold of winter, without suffering the consequences. When I return to Austin later in February, the cedar allergy season should be over by then and my productive life will continue.