Dentists, Lawyers and Other Pains

It was kind of an interesting day today, in a sort of out-of-the-office kind of way. I spent the morning at the dentist, probably my first appointment since late in the summer of 2003, but I can't even get myself to blog about that yet. Just suffice it to say that I can still taste rubber gloves in my mouth.

In the afternoon, I had a meeting with some lawyer clients of mine. Now, despite the title above, I'm not going to make lawyer jokes. I get a lot of my work from lawyers, and I'm one of those apparently rare persons who actually likes lawyers. I guess that what we have in common is an enjoyment of arguing.

But anyway, the meeting was a sort of good news/bad news affair, at least professionally (and also personally, at least a little). I was planning to drive down to Brunswick, Georgia (four-plus hour drive) immediately following the meeting for two days of environmental sampling, but learned that the trip was cancelled - the litigants apparently decided to mediate instead of allowing me to obtain my samples. That was bad professionally - I could have used the two days' billable work - but nice personally - as I said, it's a long drive and I wasn't going to get back until late Friday evening. However, there was more good news - the attorneys had well over two days' worth of billable work for me preparing a quick-turnaround report on another case, so the long and short was I walked out of the offices with even more potential billable hours than I had on backlog walking in, all without a long and tedious drive to Brunswick.

Well, as long as I was in Midtown, I met with some colleagues of mine for some happy-hour drinks and appetizers (I stuck to the tapas, since I don't drink). Upon settling in, though, I was dismayed to discover that we were apparently seated directly below an air-conditioning vent spewing ridiculously cold air out onto us. I started to get seriously cold and rolled down my long sleeves, but the others didn't seem to mind as much. Sure, one woman eventually put on a sweater, but it got to me to the point where I finally had to excuse myself - I was starting to shiver and just wasn't enjoying myself, so I said my "goodbyes" to everyone and drove him.

The sun was still up and the car felt nice and toasty from the thermal energy as I drove home. However, when I got back to my nice shady home, I felt the chill inside and wanted to sit outside just to stay warm. Eventually, however, I found myself in bed, fully dressed and under the covers, when the obvious finally dawned on me - was I coming back down with a fever from the flu again?

I don't know. Suddenly, I started to get exceptionally tired, another symptom of the flu, but fortunately I didn't experience the excruciating muscle pains that were the illness' cruelest touch. I fell asleep by 10 o'clock.

Obviously, I'm writing this the next day. I felt fine in the morning so I still don't know if the chills and the fatigue were yet another, albeit short, relapse of the flu, or just too much time under an air conditioner and not enough sleep the night before.

I once read somewhere that the ages of 50 to 52 are a sort of "Bermuda triangle" of your life. If you can make it through those years healthy, you'll probably live to a ripe old age. But it's also when you're most prone to injury, illness and bad luck, and if anything is going to shorten your life, it manifests itself in those three years.

Well, I'm fighting my way through the first year of the Bermuda triangle, and damn if I'll let this flu rob me of me golden years. But as if that were all I have to worry about . . .