Thursday, April 11, 2019

Day 138

It probably says something about my generation and my priorities that I'm more afraid of sneezing while driving than sending a text message while driving, but sneezing while driving terrifies me. (For the record, we'd all be safer if nobody sent text messages OR sneezed behind the wheel.)


When I was in 8th grade, I read in an e-mail chain letter that if you sneeze with your eyes open, your eyeballs will pop out. I'm an adult with multiple degrees, and I know better than that, yet I am still at least a little afraid of my eyeballs falling out if I somehow manage to keep my eyes open during a sneeze someday. (Fortunately, that there's not much I can do to overcome the reflexive closing of my eyes when I sneeze.)

I can ensure that I am a safe distance from other cars when I sneeze, and I can focus on holding the steering wheel straight even if my body jerks while I sneeze. If I take those precautions, nothing out of the ordinary should happen in the tiny window of time when my eyes are closed, yet I am still terrified of driving while sneezing. It's just plain scary. While driving back to Baton Rouge on Sunday, I sneezed while driving a few times, but I've fortunately been safe the rest of the week. Tonight while driving home from class, however, I fought a driving battle with a different bodily function: coughing.

I felt much better today than I did yesterday, but my voice is still a bit froggy, and I do have some lingering congestion. Also, my cough has not gone away. Throughout the afternoon and early evening, I'd coughed a few times and tried not to make a scene, but when I made it to my car after class, all bets were off. Although I've never been a smoker, my body unleashed its best smoker's cough, complete with phlegm that you can hear and feel but can't quite cough up. With sneezing while driving, I worry about not seeing other cars, but when a coughing fit comes around, the worry shifts to what could happen if my foot slipped on or off the brakes while I was attempting to exorcize a congestion demon. With an accidental tap of the gas or the brake, Grace (my car) and I could be in trouble, and that simply will not do. This cough has got to go.

Something that made today great: My house is clean!
Time I woke up: 8:00 am

No comments:

Post a Comment