The cold that I suffered from a few weeks ago took it's time in fading completely away. One of the main elements that lingered was my stopped up ear, which made for a kind of a strange sensation, as I clearly was not able to hear as well as normal on my left side. I found myself positioning myself differently to converse with people, just so I could better understand what they were saying.
My patience grew thin as I waited for that "pop" that would finally restore the normal hearing. Like with other ailments I have had from time to time, I briefly wondered, "what happens if this turns out to be permanent?" For example, a hangover might last about a day for me, and I normally have needed about a week to recover when I throw my back out, though the first two days are so excruciatingly painful that it seems more like a month. With a cold, I tend to need almost two weeks to fully recover.
Thus, for every day that my ear stayed a bit clogged, I reminded myself that the end of the second week was near, and soon this would be another thing of the past. Physically, I was feeling more than well enough to continue my regular, frequent gym visits. This year I have made more of an effort to improve my routine so that I visit the gym 3 or 4 times a week, rather than recent years where I seemed always to have to cram everything into Saturday and Sunday. Not surprisingly, the efforts have been paying off, and my fitness level is running reasonably high.
I confirmed this about a week ago, immediately after a workout. It was a rather busy afternoon, and the escalator going down to the U-Bahn platform was pretty full. Looking back, I am glad that I gave myself an extra step of space behind the woman directly in front of me. She seemed to be on the stick as well, because suddenly the older woman directly in front of her reached the bottom of the escalator and promptly fell down, blocking all of us that were still descending. Both the woman ahead of me and I immediately started doing "the stairmaster" in reverse, as we rapidly struggled to keep backing up the steps so as not to plow right over the unfortunate woman lying on the ground with her shopping bags strewn everywhere.
As bystanders rushed to aid the fallen woman, my little workout partner and I continued to back pedal for the next 15 seconds or so, which turned out to be a bit problematic, as the folks behind us could not immediately see what was suddenly creating a log jam on the escalator. We quickly found ourselves being pressured by the masses behind us, and somehow the woman kind of slid through a small space, and I sort of hopped over the railing and out of the way, which worked out well: the woman on the ground was helped quickly to safer place on the platform, which ultimately allowed the escalator riders to unclog without any further pile ups.
The incident was not all that serious, but likely could have been had we not reacted so quickly. The poor woman who fell merely stumbled, and as there were so many helpful people trying to assist her, I moved on down the platform and continued home on the next U-Bahn. I thought back to one of the times when I went snow skiing as a teenager; I was still learning to "stop" as I finished a run and approached the group of people all waiting for the ski-lift to take us back up the mountain. I was going at a pretty good clip and was fortunate that the man who I first plowed into had the good sense and strength to grab hold of me and prevent me from wiping out 15 more people. In both cases, no one was really injured, and we were all able to quickly find the humor in the experience.
An additional positive is that during the frantic moments on the escalator, my ear popped, finally restoring my hearing.
As the days start to get longer and spring approaches, I find that I am not sleeping all that restfully. True, I am dreaming about some pretty interesting stuff, like riding escalators and ski lifts, and the other night I actually woke up with a start after having dreamed that the streets and sidewalks in my neighborhood had all been replaced with mounds of sand, which made it a bit burdensome to walk around.
However, despite the vivid dreams, recent mornings I find myself lying in bed with no desire to immediately get up. Instead, I lie quietly listening to the sounds of early morning. The birds in particular are nice to listen to; they sing happily as they go about the start of their day. I allow myself a few minutes just enjoying the quiet, before rousting myself from under the covers to get started with my own day.
Yesterday was the first day that one could actually stand outside in shirt sleeves (at least in the sun), and truly spring is almost here. Everyone has to go through their little adjustments as the temperatures change, so in the next few days I am sure I will see some people wearing t-shirts walking down the street next to someone wearing a coat and scarf. But as far as I am concerned, I think that is perfectly ok.
Whether they enjoy their early mornings with a bit of singing and hold on to the railings while riding the escalator is a decision I will leave to them, but that certainly is my plan, and I am sticking to it.
see you out there.
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