speeding tricycle collides with pedestrian

Last night I got slammed with a bad cold that hit me like a fast tricycle, one of those good-sized metal ones we rode until a bike got handed down. I don't want to exaggerate lest you begin to mistrust my report of things. A tricycle would hurt enough, though -- it would be enough to knock me off my feet, as this has done. But it's not like the cold hit me like a bus, a truck, or even a full-sized bicycle. Just enough of an impact to keep me in bed all day, trying not to think about my pounding head and stuffy nose.

I just want you to know that I will never say "she threw me under the bus." If you're going to use a metaphor, it's best if it's newish, birthed for the situation at hand, don't you think? Otherwise, it's just an expression, and it doesn't illuminate things like a good, fresh metaphor will. Okay, I say "I'll eat my hat" now and then. I do say that. Some expressions should not die. But I worry that "she threw me under the bus" is reaching the shores of other continents, and, once it gets translated to a different language, folks are saying, "what is wrong with those people?"

I've gotten up only to hydrate dutifully, manage the outcome of that hydration, or to do another neti pot. Boy, is that unpleasant, the neti pot. I hope it is helping me clear things up. The sensation of pouring water into your nostrils reminds me of getting tossed into the Yale pool, where all four of us had swimming lessons as kids. What a nightmare -- ask either of my beloved brothers and they will tell you (try Kev, who was more traumatized) about how there was some cultural thing back then that said boys needed to learn to swim naked, with a dozen naked strangers. Girls got to wear bathing suits and bathing caps that gave me the identical headache I am sporting now. But we were literally thrown into the pool. None of us has ended up strong swimmers; it's no coincidence.

The insta-cold, now already a sinus infection, is my "low counts" at work, I suppose. Everyone else who was here this weekend could fight off whatever this is, and I couldn't. Now I have a fever. Now the doctor says I have to start antibiotics. Have to cancel tomorrow's appointments. The kid on the tricycle is turning around and coming back, picking up a little bit of speed.