Cedar Sick

I thought I had the most brilliant idea yesterday -- to take my walk over the lunch hour, when it would still be cold, but not bitter cold like first thing in the morning.  I walked to the lake, did the whole four-mile loop around it, and walked back to the office, and it was a good thing I came in at 7:00 that day, because I was gone for close to two hours.  There were times when it was pretty sedate, and times when I almost got blown off the trail and into the water. 

All in all, it was a pleasant but ordinary walk.  Then about 3:00, I started asking people around me if they were cold.  Everyone said no. About 15 minutes later, I was shaking and couldn't stop.  I put my jacket on, and it didn't help at all; I still felt the chill in my bones.  By 4:00, I was emailing my book club and telling them I was coming down with something, and there was no way I could join them tonight and infect them with whatever was fermenting inside of me.  All I could think of was getting home, getting under the covers and sleeping it off. 

On the way out, Michelle told me it sounded like cedar fever.  Really?  My reaction to cedar has usually just been headaches, and besides, cedar wouldn't create the fever that was already starting, would it?  She said these sound exactly like cedar reactions.  She reminded me that I'd walked around the lake, with all of those trees, and that's probably what accounted for the shape I was in.  Add to that the high winds which were blowing the stuff around like crazy.

I think she was right.  I slept it off -- well, most of it, my throat is still a little scratchy today, and sleeping from 4:45 to 1:15, then from 3:00-6:00, has thrown my schedule off a bit.   Tonight is Steve's (Chicago Steve) annual Christmas party, and I want to go.  I'm going to take my walk after work, with a diaphnous scarf around my neck to block out most of the pollens, and take my chances.

Three hundred and six walks down, seven to go.