A Great Irony

There is much irony in life, often missed by eyes too unwilling to see through the thickness of mundane routines. I was a victim of that irony this week. I received glowing medical reports from my doctor on Tuesday. I also asked him for some allergy medicine since I had suffered several allergy attacks during the night. He gave me a prescription (unlike in Ukraine, where I could just self-diagnose and go get it myself in the apteka in our building). Well, turns out that in addition to allergies I came down with a terrible cold. I haven't had a full-blown cold in maybe 3 years, and this thing really knocked me for a loop. I have been out and down for the count, to use a boxing metaphor. So, I've been sick since late Tuesday. Lena has basically been trapped in my parents' house. I kept thinking I would feel better, but it didn't happen. We had a dinner engagement with a generous donor Thursday night--cancelled. Was supposed to teach a missions class at Lipscomb on Friday then had arranged a free eye exam with another generous donor and then had been given free Nashville Symphony tickets and a gift card at a nice restaurant--cancelled. Couldn't make it to the UEC board on Saturday morning and won't be at the Otter Creek missions committee dinner they arranged for us and one other missionary couple. Life stinks at certain moments. None of this week worked out in any way imagined. I am still coughing and hacking and wheezing and blowing and tooting and all those other things. Guess I am feeling better. Snow storms out west delay our travelling there. It looks like Lena may have even more time to study, more than she ever imagined. She's gone "to town" with my parents, to Big Lots and the Dollar General Store. Probably not how she thought she would spend this Saturday. Oh--they are back. Gotta go. They are supposed to have some Campbell's Tomato Soup.