A cold. Not Covid. Just a cold. People are still getting colds.

[MineralMan]

Go figure. My wife got it first. Marched right into the closet and pulled down one of those free in-home COVID tests. She had no fever, but was sniffling and coughing. And the COVID test was negative. She took another one the next day, just to be sure.

Of course, I started sniffling and coughing a few days later. Stuck a thermometer in my mouth. Under 98 degrees. No fever. No other symptoms. I saved the Covid tests for some other time, though. My wife had a cold, and now I have one. Still no fever. OTC remedies are working like they usually do: sort of.

So, If I get a fever I'll take one of those tests. I doubt that will happen, though.

It seems strange to feel relieved to have a cold. I hate colds. But, when you think about it...

[niyad]

1. Glad it is only colds, however annoying and inconvenient they may be.

[MineralMan]

4. Exactly. Everyone's first thought now is COVID.

It's important to remember that the positivity rate is low. If you feel sick, take a COVID test. If it's negative, repeat it the next day. Then, treat your cold as a cold, like you always have. It'll be gone soon.

[Wounded Bear]

2. And they're gonna get more now that masks are coming off...

[MineralMan]

5. Yup. All that masking has kept other respiratory viruses at bay.

They're still out there, though.

[samnsara]

9. im keeping mine on.....humans are just so buggy...

[llashram]

18. I keep wearing my

mask. Anywhere I go in the public. No colds, sniffles nothing in almost 3 years...masks work.

[Wounded Bear]

21. Me, too for the most part...

though I can't say I've been totally free from sniffles, etc. But it's been a lot better the last couple of years TBS.

[Freddie]

3. "Treat a cold, it lasts a week. Don't treat a cold...

It lasts 7 days.”
Glad it’s only a cold and feel better soon!

[Wounded Bear]

12. The Beverly Hillbillies did an entire episode wrapped around that one...

All about Grannie's secret cold medicine. Come to find out if you take it, in a week to 10 days you'll be feeling fine.

[samnsara]

14. i take it every day........... just in case :)

[Hortensis]

6. :) Covid's nicer cousin, still no one you care to associate with.

We took our first tests a couple weeks ago when our fully vaccinated son-in-law came down with Covid the day after we parted from a house party. Both of us sitting at the table with the little pieces laid out, earnestly figuring out the instructions, which were written wrong. Heaven forbid we do it wrong and have to go buy more.

[MineralMan]

7. Yeah, the instructions for those tests are complicated.

That's probably why false negative results are pretty common, I guess. I read them carefully for my wife when she took her test, and made sure they were followed to the letter. Same thing for her second test the next day. So, now, she's over her cold. I will be over mine soon enough, I suppose.

[Hortensis]

15. :) Sure you will (sniff, sniff). Our instructions

explicitly directed the swab to the correct orifices but left out the step of adding the solution to the tube to swish it in. We figured it out because they did mention swabbing liquid around in the tube, but a person with a runny nose might just assume the swab was providing it.

[MineralMan]

17. The tests my wife used already had the reagent in the tube.

So, that step wasn't needed. We have some others, but haven't looked at those.

I'm a firm believer in reading instructions. Saves time and mistakes. But, then, I've spent much of my life writing instructions for people to follow. I'm shocked, though, at how poorly written most instructions are. I can understand how people screw up and have to start over in many cases.

I often follow instructions in other languages, though, for products that come with multilingual instructions. It's a good test of my knowledge of a language. I like challenges.

[Hortensis]

22. :) Good thing for you.

I've always wondered at the many who can somehow find their way to work each day but can't follow Ikea instructions. Maybe there's a connection to increased drug use and suicide rates, though.

[MineralMan]

23. I detest IKEA instructions. Hate them!

Words. I need words. And hints, so I don't install that panel upside down or inside out. Either better graphics or more words.

I used to design complex woodworking projects for a couple of magazines. Then, I'd build them myself, do the necessary drawings and step-by-step photos. Finally, I'd write step-by-step instructions, including whatever tips were needed to help make things go smoothly. That was my specialty, and the instructions and photos helped people make the identical item with as little stress as possible.

Learning how to write that kind of instructional material translated later into my writing for computer magazines, where I still had to walk people though interfaces to get things done. I was damned good at it, too.

[Hortensis]

27. Yes, but your precision with words seems to be lost on

much of humanity, so your excellent instructions would be as confusing as Ikea's drawings for them. My husband and son can put together complex devices from drawings or just from piles of pieces, which talk to them, but only our son and I will read directions with precision (and give them earned appreciation).

My husband has the normal, "before-beginning,-put-left-foot-in-right-ear" tendency to glaze vaguely over whole paragraphs that fail to engage his interest and miss or misunderstand critical punctuation and/or occasional words at random from the rest. Probably not all that different from the peculiar problems some have with sticking one peg in each of the four corner holes, just like the picture shows.

:

[MineralMan]

28. Instructions are always as difficult as the job at hand.

Woodworking projects start with nothing but a materials list, drawings, and a pile of wood and hardware. For the magazines I worked for, the first question I had was about that magazine's typical readers who might take on the project. What tools do they have? What's their skill level? With that information, I could write instructions that would enable them to duplicate the project.

I remember telling one magazine editor that I could describe how to build the Eiffel Tower in 1000 words, but that it would require a mechanical engineer to build it. My project designs were created to suit a particular audience. It was interesting. I based the entire project on the target audience, always with the goal of increasing that audience's capabilities.

My projects were very popular with those magazine's readers. That made me popular with their editors.

[Hortensis]

29. I can see why you enjoyed it and were good at it.

I assume most woodworking hobbyists would be detail-oriented tool lovers, the average person looking for instruction in making jello shots less so on both counts.

[MineralMan]

31. You're probably right.

If I were a young guy, I'd probably be an "expert assembler," putting IKEA crap together. It's a viable business. A guy could make $50+ per hour doing that.

[Hortensis]

30. Duplicate deleted. My husband and son, and me, have installed

Last edited Wed Apr 20, 2022, 05:59 PM - Edit history (1)

two Ikea kitchens. If you ever go for it, seal the raw edges before assembly. After all, just more billable hours, but among the most valuable.

[samnsara]

8. yeah hubby did the same thing. hes a hospital commissioner so he had cases of tests...

to hand out to the public so he grabbed one and negative. He was positive in Jan so hes just being cautious.

[Demsrule86]

10. This is why I still wear a mask...I was always catching colds which often led to bronchitis and /or

Pneumonia ( but the pneumonia shot helped). I have not had a cold in two years...did have Covid though. When my neighbor's mother died, she was outside crying...many of us came over and comforted her without thinking...most everyone here got Covid...no one died thankfully. I had been so careful. Her Mom had a stroke...not Covid. But the neighbor had Covid. We found out a couple of days later.

[samnsara]

16. hubby and i wear ours into stores...sometimes we are the only ones masked up

..he asked if we should still wear them. I said..you wanna inhale that foul air that all those humans exhale out their nose?


so ours stay on in crowded places....

[Emile]

11. We let our guard down a few weeks ago and went to a dinner banquet meeting

for our rural electric coop. I was a little worried with 500 people in one banquet room. Took every precaution like washing our hands. Two days later I come down with a chest cold, but tested negative. Took me two weeks to get over it. I wished now we never would have went to the annual meeting.

[Iggo]

13. Yeah, we got one slow-marching through our household right now.

Hope I don’t get it. I’ve had one cold since covid began. That was this past fall when the kid went back to school. Thought I was gonna die….lol.

[ChazII]

19. A good reason for me to keep wearing the mask.

I haven't had a cold in two years but my allergies never stopped.

[MineralMan]

20. Yes, it is.

Those who have been paying attention learned something from the past two years. Masks help keep you well.

[greatauntoftriplets]

24. I'm also recovering from a cold.

Did two COVID tests, both were negative. I was relieved. First cold in more than two years, which was something to be thankful for.

[usonian]

25. No fever, no sore throat, sounds OK.

Still recommend Granny's medicine unless you are taking decongestants. Just don't do it. EVER!

P. S. Don't get the OTC decongestant "PE". It's worse than nothing. Sign up at the counter for the real one. Just don't make meth with it. Promise?

[greatauntoftriplets]

26. No fever.

I took Mucinex. And I don't have a clue how to make meth.

[smirkymonkey]

32. I am the same, except I am still in the thick of it (one week in).

I have not been sick at all in over two years, but this one was really bad. I thought I was getting better, but then things "loosened up" and it was awful. I had to take a day off from work yesterday - couldn't even work from home - I was just too sick to do anything but lie in bed and watch videos or sleep.

Still feeling awful. It's so strange being sick again after being healthy for a few years. I hate wearing a mask, but I am thinking that maybe they protected us more than we were aware of.

[greatauntoftriplets]

33. Sounds like you have a bad one.

Hope you start feeling better soon. I'm not crazy about wearing a mask either, but it beats three weeks of coughing, blowing and sneezing.

[smirkymonkey]

34. Thank you!

Luckily I can work from home, however yesterday was so bad, I just took the day off to take Mucinex, Benadryl, etc. and sleep most of the day, since the coughing and runny nose kept me up most of the night.

[greatauntoftriplets]

35. You're welcome.

Sometimes you just need to take care of yourself.