Back among the living

In the Pinetum

I catch a cold once a year, on average. This year's cold was a doozy. I caught it the day after my last class in French 201 and I have been down for the count until yesterday. That's almost three freaking weeks!

I still blogged of course, it takes more than a cold to stop me from blogging. Hell I blogged the same day I had an operation to remove a spot of cancer from my kidney three and a half years ago. And anyway, I was too weak to do much else besides sit around on my sofa and blog.

I finally walked further than two blocks away from my apartment yesterday and it was so great. Normally I like to have a destination when I go for a walk or else I feel like an aimless loser but yesterday, taking a leisurely walk through Central Park was the destination.

To be fair I did leave my apartment for a whole three hours to attend the first class of French 202 last Tuesday, but that was a big mistake. Right in the middle of the class I had to run out because of a massive coughing attack - I thought I was going to die. One of my classmates later reported the others and our teacher were worried about me, so ferocious-sounding was the coughing they could hear in the hallway.

So I learned my lesson and stuck close to home after that. Although since I can work from home I didn't miss a lot of work, only two days, although I can't say I was at my most productive the other days. But I did skip my next French class - luckily we have off today for the Fourth of July so by Thursdays class I hope to be good as new with all my homework completed.

So I'm glad to be done with that damn cold, hopefully for at least another year.

I was sorry I was missing out on the strawberry update but I wasn't missing much. The only thing I found close to a fruit was this little burnt out thing. Oh well, considering how shady it is I guess that's what I should have expected.

The Pinetum was wonderful. It smelled even better than usual - it was dusk and a quick thunderstorm had freshened everything right up. Also since it was dusk there were fewer tourists around than usual and I had the place almost to myself.

There's a semi-enclosed area of the Pinetum with a semi-circular bench inside and there is almost always somebody in there already, but not last night. I had it all to myself. This area probably has a name but I don't know what it is. I should have looked around for a plaque.

Path to the enclosed area

No matter how deserted Central Park is though, you can never forget you're in the middle of a city with all the racket going on. The helicopter in this photo looks far away but it was really loud from where I sat. Oh well, life in the big city.

The Jackie Onassis Reservoir at dusk.