Today is Sunday, February 5 and there are only 326 days until Christmas so get started on those cards and letters and avoid waiting until the last minute.  Today we remember the birthdays of John Witherspoon, Belle Starr and Christopher Guest.  On this day in 1644 the first US livestock branding law was passed, in Connecticut, in 1850 the adding machine employing depressable keys was patented and in 1969 the US population reached 200 million.  In Finland it is Runeberg Day, in San Marino it is Liberation Day, in Mexico it is Constitution Day and in the US it is National Shower with a Friend Day.

It was rather uneventful this past week.  I was suffering from a bad cold and spent the week sneezing, blowing and suffering through the miseries of being sick.  One of the biggest problems with being sick when you live alone is that there is no one to suffer with you.  Of course, you can talk to friends and family on the phone and they can commiserate, but unless you have someone there with you there is no joy in being sick.  For example, when you moan that you don’t feel good and would like some chicken soup, there is no one to sigh heavily and then get up to make soup for you.  You are on your own.

During the week, I read a letter to the advice columnist from a woman who complained about when her husband gets sick.  “Men can be terrible babies when they are sick.  It is a COLD!  He’s not dying.” She writes.  This sounds like a woman with no heart.  She doesn’t know for sure that he is not dying.  She continues, “Also I am not his mother.  When he whines, I shut down or become touchy or crabby.”  Obviously this woman doesn’t understand that when a man gets sick it is upsetting to him.  It means that he is not able to fulfill his responsibilities as the hunter gatherer and he is distraught.  She does not realize that this is something that is deep seated in the nature of man.

Then she goes on to say, “If he doesn’t whine I’m happy to take care of him, but I can’t take the time during the day to lie in bed with him to keep him warm, I can’t stay up until midnight rubbing his back and I cannot tolerate the sappy whining.”  The columnist suggested keeping a supply of chicken soup on hand, having over-the-counter meds available and getting a heating pad.  The columnist is obviously a woman.  Here is a poor guy who is not feeling well and he turns to his spouse for comfort.  Her response is, “Great.  I made a big bucket of soup.  Help yourself.  Take some aspirin and lie down on the heating pad.  By the way, stop that infernal whining.”

As a husband, I always doted on my wife when she was sick.  I made her soup when she wanted it.  I made tea for her and took care of her needs.  If she wanted something special to eat, I prepared it and made sure she was comfortable.  I did this because I was a loving husband.  I also did it because it was simpler than listening to her whine and I could use the favors as leverage for when I wanted something.  The woman who wrote in complaining apparently hasn’t been married long enough to see the benefits to doting once in a while.

One of the other issues I had while I was ailing was that none of the food I had in the house was appetizing, but I didn’t feel like going shopping to get something else.  I went out a couple times to help my son out.  My older grandson had the flu and I took him to the doctor and then drove over to check on him later in the day.  While I was out, I stopped at the grocery store to get some of those over-the-counter meds that the columnist was talking about.  I got the meds and was headed for the checkout when it occurred to me that I should get something to eat.  I found a couple things that I thought would be good and went home to whine to myself.

A part of me has to agree with the woman in the letter.  Even I got tired of hearing me after some time.  The worst part was when it came time to make dinner, I really didn’t want to eat the things I had purchased for dinner.  They were just not that appealing anymore.  I ended up having chicken soup a couple of times.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that that woman may be right.  Men can be terrible babies when they are sick.

While I was suffering, (okay, no more whining) I had the chance to watch more TV than usual.  I happened to see a commercial several times and started to pay some attention to it.  It was a jewelry commercial and, for the most part, it was okay.  There was only one part that puzzled me.  The couple is standing on a dock at a lake and in an effort to appear carefree and spontaneous, they decide to jump in the water.  They take off their shoes and socks and then jump, fully clothed, into the lake.  I understand taking your shoes off, I guess, but why your socks?  Maybe it’s just me.  I am going to have to stop trying to make sense out of this stuff.

This week our fact tells us that in West Virginia you cannot fly a red flag in front of your house if you are disappointed in your sheriff.  Several questions come immediately to mind – how would anyone know the reason for flying a red flag, can you fly it anywhere else around your house, why can’t you express your dissatisfaction with an elected official?  I could go on, I don’t want to raise too many red flags.