I got up early today, wanting to take the early commute bus. But I did not feel quite sure about it:  I had a low-grade head cold lately, moving to the throat, but last night it settled in the bronchi. It stayed there through the night, so I had to wake up a few times to cough to clear them. My coworker had been sneezing a lot so I assumed I had gotten his cold. Well, it may be a bit more than that. I now officially have a fever, although still a moderate one. The headache and the pain in muscles and joints are very flu-like. There is a B influenza going the rounds, generally considered a weaker strain but one many of us don’t have immunity toward. Or so say the news.

As it happened, I got a box from Amazon.com in the mail yesterday. It contained two books by James V. Schall, and are somewhat ironically named “Liberal Learning” and “Another Sort of Learning“.  Actually none of them is Liberal in the political sense of the word: Schall is actually a Jesuit, and his idea of a liberal education is a synthesis of the classical Greco-Roman culture and the great philosophers of Christianity, such as St Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Oh, and P.G. Wodehouse.

The small book, or even pamphlet, Liberal Learning, is also available online if you don’t want to support the printing of such books, or simply want to reduce your carbon footprint without eating less, traveling less, or in any other way restraining your greed. ^_^

So when I found myself staying home from work today, I thought this was a great opportunity to read some Schall. But as my temperature went up, my brainpower went down. So perhaps not the most ideal conditions to be introduced to stacks of heavy tomes…

Right now, I have 39.3C (102.7F) in fever. This should be pretty much ideal for the body, although I do have a headache now. Unfortunately the temperature is still rising, although very slowly.  It may not be a good idea to sleep for 8 hours while my fever is still rising:  By the time my normal sleep is over, I may have too much fever to wake up.  So I’ll try to sleep in shorter durations, so I can cool myself off if I get too weak.

Of course, it is far from certain that the temperature will continue to rise. We’ll just have to wait and see.