The sniffling, sore throat and fever all came on about the same time. Even though sickness always comes on as a surprise, I wasn't all that pleased with the timing. It was Monday and I was heading into the busiest part of my schedule. But, come to think of it, there really isn't a good time to get sick. The last time I fell ill was back in July, as I recall. I would just as soon have waited until the following year, if it were up to me. I don't know which is worse, being sick when the busy part of the schedule strikes or being ill on a pretty weekend day when I could be out working on something. One thing was for sure, the weather wasn't all that pleasant for being outside last week when I came down with the most recent case of the creeping crud.

My cabinets were already stocked from last year with an ample supply of various medicines. And since I had a good supply of last season's leftover cough syrup, I was more than ready when the hacking cough kicked in. Sadly though, it makes my brain attain even less than its normal level of sharpness and clarity. The sinus medicine only adds to the fun.

The way I feel when taking medications like that kind of reminds me of the way I feel when I haven't been getting enough sleep for a good while.

Even without the medicine, being sick makes me tired enough to feel like seeking rest. So I pretty much went home and went to bed for at least two of the first three days of the week, including resting for most of the evening Wednesday and going to sleep for the night at around 8 p.m. on two nights.

By Thursday, I was finally feeling like my recovery was coming home to roost. My throat was less sore and, other than nagging fatigue, I felt much better than I had in several days. That gave me an opportunity to reinforce my positive thoughts about the world.

I try not to say negative things when people ask me how I'm doing. I generally answer with, "I'm getting better all the time." That's a much less convincing thing to say when my eyes are drooping, my nose is running and I'm hacking like a four-pack-a-day smoker.

I've been told that a positive outlook is up to 50 percent of the battle in trying to recover from any illness. The other 50 percent? It must have something to do with tissues and cough syrup.

I've made up quite a cocktail of medications for myself, including a decongestant pill, an antibiotic, acetaminophen and ibuprofen and a variety of vitamins, including a multi-vitamin, a vitamin E, vitamin C and a pill containing magnesium and something else mixed together. It's no wonder my throat's been sore after taking all those pills, I thought the other morning.

The bad part is that I'm not sure that I get that many positive effects from the medication compared to negative affects it has on they way I feel most of the time.

I can remember when getting sick was more like a vacation than a hassle. When I was a child, it usually meant getting special treatment at home, staying out of school and watching television for several hours in a day.

The doctor always suggested getting me frozen treats, along with whatever I wanted to drink and eat. Of course, the good stuff was easily counter-balanced by the liquid medicine that always tasted horrible.

Added to that were the other possibilities, like Castor Oil, that could come along with a sickness. That stuff tasted bad enough to make a body feel better even before the dose was taken.

That was like using alcohol as the treatment for cuts and scratches. Just knowing that someone was going to cover a cut with alcohol gave a child the tendency not to whine about it nearly so much.

These days, I still use alcohol on all my cuts, but the doctor says it kills a lot of skin cells along with the infection. Mecurochrome, my other general choice, isn't exactly all that popular either, with its burning sensation and ugly orange color.

Sitting home and watching television isn't the same today as it once was. It's hard for children today to imagine growing up in a time when there were no VCR tapes or DVD players to turn on and only three channels to watch most of the time. I think I spent more time reading.

No, there wasn't always something pleasant for a child to watch on our three-channel antenna service. These days, the television has 50 channels and there's still seldom ever something fit to watch.

Even when sick, I've noticed that children can still have more than an ample supply of energy. They can run, climb, yell and fight, sometimes simultaneously. I used to be the same way when I was a dapper young lad. But these days when I come down with something, it seems to suck the strength right out of me.

I had a few of those days this past week when the roof could have been caving in on the house and I would have said, "Let it fall, I'm too tired to run away."

The children? They can have a fever and still find the ability to destroy the house, throw toys around and play all sorts of noisy games. When one has responsibilities, it isn't nearly as much fun to try and suffer through an illness and keep up the tasks that must be done. Besides, I'm to the point now that I'd rather go to work than suffer through several hours of daytime television.

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