Of course I was feeling the same way for most of Monday as well, so I don't know why I was surprised I woke up sick.  So the Question Of The Morning was, "do I call in sick to work?" or "do I suck it up and go to work?" 

I'm sure any normal person wouldn't have given it a second thought and immediately called in sick.  But me on the other hand, Mr. Dedicated Workoholic, actually seriously considered going into work.  After all, my personal philosophy is that if I can function, I better be doing something to my maximum degree of functionality.  After all, I'm a man, and it was going to have to take more than a mere cold to incapacitate me.  Ugh.  Me Man.  Colds are for wussies.  Just give me some orange juice, some echinacea pills, and send me on my merry way.

Of course as a side effect of being sick, my willpower wasn't at its maximum strength, so it didn't take much convincing on my wife's part to keep me home.  "You really should stay home and rest, honey," she reassured me.  Here was a second opinion ordering me to stay home from work.  Who could argue with that?  I've learned from early on in our marriage to listen to her.  And in case I was still having second thoughts, she told me that I was probably still contagious, and she didn't think work would appreciate me getting other people sick. 

Damn.  If I couldn't be convinced to stay home with compassion and love, logic will do it everytime.  That's the problem with being an engineer.  If you can't get through to us by emotional methods, give us the facts and we'll fold like a deck of cards.  Without fail.

So I call work and tell the secretary that answered the phone that I had a cold and wasn't going to be in.  She responded by telling me that four others had already called in sick as well so I wasn't the only one.  And to top it off, my boss wasn't in yet either.  I wondered how many people were actually sick and how many were just having problems returning to work after the long weekend.  We all know how hard it is to go back to work after an extended holiday.

Mondays are bad enough.  Tuesdays after a long weekend are even worse.  And worst yet is the day back to work after being on a weeklong vacation.  It sure doesn't take much for our brains to lapse from work mode to play mode.  And to get our brains back into full all-out work mode after being in extended play mode sometimes takes at least half the day.  But I digress.

So I got online determined not to let this Minor Annoying Cold get the best of me.  While surfing around, my brain goes into Project Management mode.  Even at home sick, my brain can't escape my Engineer Work Mentality.  "Since you're home today and not feeling extremely ill," it tells me, "that means you can rearrange furniture, unpack, and get the house set up the way you want it!" 

Now why do we do that?  I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about.  We call in sick to work, yet we feel like we somehow got a free "play day" out of it.  Instead of going to our 9-5 job, now we feel like we can do all the things we were going to do 
at home despite being sick.  Probably because we feel guilty as hell just sitting on our butts and resting.

I know I do.  If I'm sick, but not extremely ill, I feel like a total bum just lying around all day doing nothing.  Talk about taking a Major Guilt Trip around the world and back.  And what are the consequences for not Taking It Easy?  It takes us twice as long to get well.  Or we're afraid to go out in public on our "sick day" in fear of running into someone from the office.

So therein lies the quandry.  If we end up going to work, either we'll get others sick or we'll be underproductive because we're not feeling 100%.  But if we stay home, most likely we'll overwork ourselves and get even more sick, or else we'll feel guilty for doing nothing. 

So of course what did I do that day?  I stayed home and moved furniture and unpacked until I had expended what little energy I had to begin with.  Of course after doing that I actually felt worse than I did when I woke up that morning.  But at least I had accomplished something so I appeased my guilty conscience.

The rest of the day was spent taking a nice long nap and taking it easy.  That was under strict orders from my wife.  Gotta love that mothering instinct.

I suppose I did something right because I was feeling well enough to return to work the next day.  But then of course I was feeling guilty that I didn't get everything accomplished I wanted to while I was home.  Damn.  It's a losing battle either way. 

So now I should be well again for another couple of months before I have to take another sick day.  But dammit, the next time I'm sick, I'm definitely going to have to make up for being extra unproductive this time by mowing the lawn, working on the car, dusting the silverware, rearranging the kitchen cabinets...you get the idea.