sore, not sore

I've been nursing a sore throat since last Monday. It's been only a slight sore throat, though, not COVID. I thought it had gone away by Wednesday, but it reappeared Wednesday night and has stayed with me through today, less like foreground noise and more like background whispers—nothing painful. This very morning might have been the worst: when I woke up, I winced a bit when swallowing. But now, a bit after noon, the pain seems to have gone away, and all that's left is a vague itch around my tonsils. I'll keep blasting my throat with salt water and hydrogen peroxide. Colds usually run their course over a week for me; on occasion, I get lucky, and a cold lasts only a day or two. I had thought, Wednesday morning, that this would be one of those spells. Apparently not, so I just have to ride it out. Salt-water gargles, hydrogen peroxide gargles, and the occasional Theraflu for good measure. Not that my symptoms are severe at all. Aside from the sore throat, there's the occasional runny nose and sneezing. For this reason, I'm not outside walking today, as much as I want to be out and about. The weather is beginning to warm up, and I still haven't done my 60K "crazy walk" out to Yangpyeong. I might have to wait until the weather warms up in the early spring, and I'll do the walk in short sleeves. Tonight, instead of walking out to the river, I might just do the stairs. Currently, I can trudge up to the 14th floor, but it's slow going, with slight pauses on each flight, lasting about two breaths. Going from B1 to 26 without stopping feels impossible right now.