Well that should have sparked a little fire...but before you get too outrageously angry with me, please, allow me to continue.
Here I sit ...eyes watering, nose running, throat sore, headache, sinus congestion...feel like crap warmed over...yeah...you guessed it...I have a cold.
Now there is nothing that garners less sympathy from a wife than a man who is feeling sorry for himself...especially if the self pity is the result of something as insignificant as the common cold...right? We've all heard the girls cackling about their "
poor little husbands" and how "
pathetic" we are when we get a "
little sniffle"..."why, they should just try giving birth to a child...that would change their tunes"...right? We men may pretend to not hear that cacaphony of callous cynicism from the women...but really girls...we are sick, we are not deaf.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
I have a cold. I rarely get colds. At least up until the arrival of our grandchildren I rarely caught colds. But now that has all changed. I have had four colds already this year. And through each malady runs a consistant thread.
We made our first trip to Regina in early January to capture our coveted "
granparent fix" from our children's children. The little darl'ns had coughs and runny noses. We returned home after a glorious weekend of cuddling little Mooneys and shazam...the first cold of the year. And it was a "lillipaduzer", if you get my drift. Why, it was so incredibly debilitating that I lost my voice for an entire month. The best I could do to communicate for the entire month of January was a feeble whisper. And to top it off, the entire time I was so greviously afflicted my loving wife's face sported the most gratified smile...what's with that?
Then in early May we used our eldest grandchild's third birthday as an appropriate excuse for another trek to Saskatchewan. This time those eight beautiful little eyes (four little boys - two eyes each - nothing strange here - OK) were oozing gooey secretions...and days after returning home...wham...another cold for grandpa Mooney.
Hey, I'm no dummy. I started to put two and two together and, after a well crafted statistical regression analysis, concluded that there was a 95% probability that grandpa's colds were directly correlated to cuddling little grandsons. So we employed our ingenuity and began quizzing our grandchildren's parents to determine the grandchildren's medical condition in the hopes of securing the desired cuddle time without the resulting illness time.
In mid June, after getting the all clear on the grandchildren's sniffle meters from their parents, we made another weekend excursion to Regina. This time there was no evidence of sniffles. And, upon returning home we were smug at our prowess at outsmarting the cold bug. So there it was...a strategy to get what you want (snuggles and cuddling of grandchildren) without paying the price (weeks with a chafed nose).
Then in early July grandma strayed from my well crafted strategy. Judy made a flying trip to Saskatchewan to share the weekend with her mother to celebrate Gladys' 81st birthday. She flew into Regina and just couldn't resist a good dose of grandson loving, both coming and going. Apparently there was some evidence of oozing during this visit. Grandma seemed to be immune....but she must have transported some of what was there home to me because days after her return...yup..you guessed it...kershplatt...grandpa's whimpering again....and this time I didn't even get the satisfaction of playing with those four little gaffers...how unfair is that?
So...what, you ask has that to do with my current grievous condition? It may just be a coincidence, but I was cuddling my grandsons over the past weekend. And yesterday...wham...afflicted. Hence the title to this blog posting.
Actually, come to think of it...I have two beautiful grandaughters right here in Calgary...and I cuddle them every chance I get...and I don't ever remember getting sick from either of them....hmmmmmmm...
I guess the title of this post should be "My grandsons make me sick!"
And you know what...it really is worth it.
