sans voce

So my voice is still gone, it's Thursday, and I'm still teaching. The good news is, the NyQuil and DayQuil are working. I still feel human, except for the last 30 minutes or so before it's time to re-dose. Still, I'm pretty sure that this is no meek virus that wanted to just pass through my throat. I'm fairly certain I've got a squatting bacteria that intends to stay in my sinuses, throat, and chest until forcefully evicted. So I'm going to a (thanks to my girlfriend for this phrase) Doc-In-The-Box tonight to see if I can't get some antibiotics. Hopefully, they'll make the pressure-change inherent in airline travel a little more tolerable tomorrow.

Bonus, my co-workers have stepped up and done some pinch-hitting for me in the lecture department. These classes are a mixture of Power Point presentations and hands-on workshops. I can cover the workshops plenty well with my wispy voice, but lecturing to a full room over the white noise of 20-some CPU fans is too much. So we set up a web conference and three different folks have stepped in to deliver a presentation here and another one there. It's getting me through, and I'm grateful to have that kind of support. Yea for good coworkers!

I was pretty pitiful when I had the flu last year and was alone in my apartment. I've decided it's marginally worse to be alone and sick in a hotel room. Do you know how hard it is to find a salt shaker in a hotel? I can't very well gargle warm salt water without salt, and I'm damn sure not going to McDonald's so I can raid their paper packet condiments for it. I'm drinking lots of hot tea and sucking on Hall's cough drops and trying to make the best of it until I can get home.

**Late-Breaking Update: I have Strep throat. I'm now on antibiotics and hope to return to normal soon.