Everyone's sick

There's a nasty virus going around the local area.  My two kids are sick. I'm sick. A number of friends, family, and acquaintances are sick.  Ugh.

It's funny how the same virus affects people differently.  My kids have both run a fever and I haven't (or, if I have, it's been mild).  My daughter is up all night coughing and my son isn't coughing much but his nose is running constantly.  I don't have much nasal congestion (at least yet) but every time I cough it hurts since my throat is so raw.  My wife hasn't even gotten it (yet).

So you always hear that the difference between a cold and the flu is that a cold doesn't have a fever.  It seems to me to be an artificial distinction since I don't think this is severe enough to be influenza yet my kids are running fevers on and off over 100 F (we did all get flu shots this year too).

My kids get to lay on the couch and read or watch movies when they're sick.  My Puritan work ethic causes me to go to work and rasp through my lectures spewing viruses willy-nilly around the workplace.  I'm a terrible person.

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Addendum:  Posted the above at 9:30 am this morning.  Now it's 11:00 pm and I've been laying on the couch running a fever and feeling completely sick.  I may be forced to cancel my early class tomorrow (and I really looked forward to lecturing on the geology of the Triassic Period!).