Summer Colds and the AC divide

Does anyone remember those hand disinfectant ads? The ones that tried to gross you out about all of the germs all over the seats and the handrails, attempting to germaphobe everyone into running to the closest Duane Reade to buy their product to rub all over yourself every time you touch anything. See, what that does is actually anesthetize you to germs and bacteria, which both weakens the immune system by not fighting the germs itself, and also encourages the germs to evolve to stronger and more dangerous so when you run out of disinfectant, well, it’s party-time. Look what it did to Howard Hughes.
I don’t bother with that nonsense, I trust in my body. Humanity has lasted against the ickies for centuries now, and although there are always new ickies here to attack us, we’ve been able to fight back without disinfecting every ten minutes. Washing my hands before eating and after dealing with tourists from all over the world seems good enough for me, even though I happen to deal with the toxic, contaminated smells, and infected air of New York City in the summertime, I trust my body.
And, I’ve been sick for four days now.
Symptoms? Well, in short, I feel like a giant leaking human-shaped balloon filled with snot. Quite literally, I’m dripping all over the place, hacking up phlegm, my head weighs about ten pounds heavier than it should, and I’m achy all over, just trying to walk from room to room feels like trying to keep…well, a big human-shaped balloon full of snot upright and active. But what makes a summer cold so miserable, is that colds aren’t supposed to hit in the summer. Colds are for the wintertime. The cold puts the body’s immune system on overtime, so when it shuts down, you get to curl up in a blanket and drink hot tea and stay inside and all that.
Summer is sweat. Especially this summer, and trying to snuggle up in bed when it’s in the 90’s and humid is unbearable, let alone drinking hot tea. The only way to actually treat this cold the way a cold should be treated is to jack the AC to full to convince myself it’s colder out than it is so I can do the tea-and-bundle treatment.
AHA!!! THAT’S IT! The AC. It’s had the same affect on me as the disinfectant. See, on a daily basis, I try to understand how people without AC in this city have been surviving the summer. This summer has turned the city air into a giant bowl of soup, and all of us humans into living croutons. But there are those out there who don’t have an air conditioned room/home to run to at the end of the day. They’ve adjusted to the heat index and have survived. They’ve built up their body’s heat immunity, and in turn, are stronger for it.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this cold came on from working and talking and jumping up and down the stairs of a double-decker bus for five days a week. I do not have the strongest body systems in the world, and over-exertion can beat and batter an immune system into submission, welcoming in all the microscopic nasties that I can normally battle off with the greatest of ease. Hmm, maybe that disinfectant stuff would have helped at the end of the week…
No! See, striving and thriving without disinfectant has got me through to the ripe age of 23 without any life-threatening illnesses, and will continue to, and you know what? Maybe not having AC would have helped. Maybe I would have dropped dead from heat exhaustion, maybe not, but I do know one thing.
Anyone who rides the subway in the summertime is well aware of two truths:
1. The subways cars are the most wonderfully air conditioned public space the city has to offer, and can make the commute from point A to B more important than the destination itself, and
2. The subway stations are sweltering, airless, humid pits of merciless heat and stench, making the process of waiting for a train it’s own special nightmare.
And switching between the two, especially when transfers are involved can beat and batter and immune system down like a ripe grape used as a ping-pong ball.
It seems that balancing myself between the extremes (working in the heat only to run to the refuge of my room, a subway car, a movie theater, what have you) has done worse for me than sweating it out. And if you look at global warming on a microcosm, you get all them big ol’ buildings pumping in cold air, where do you think all that hot air is being dumped? That’s right, on to them city streets we gotta walk on every day.
Sure, it’s always been a city of extremes. That don’t mean the bodyhas to like it.
Well, after three days of this crap, I’ve been sucking down lozenges and blowing out tissues by the dozen. I think this summer cold is on it’s way out.
And the goddam heatwave looks like it’s over too.
Time to turn off the AC.