I woke up this morning with the back of my teeth aching and I assumed it was the jaw going through another phase in its program to one day hack its way back to life. I forget sometimes, except at meals, that the entire roof of my mouth feels numb and aches, both at the same time, but now the back of my molars hurt. Take some Tylenol. Take a bath. Better. The throat is sore and maybe that's what's going on, the kind of sore you get before a cold and I wondered if maybe running out of vitamin C last week contributed, but no, no use making up stories. I'm not up for a cold and I'm not up for a sore throat. I have a class tomorrow near the Oakland airport, not too far down the highway, and I have to get back to work next week to catch up with whatever has been happening. I'll consider a cold later. (Have you ever pontificated to yourself like this, knowing full well your body maybe has other plans?)

My memories of a cold coming on are about listening to the radio, some impossibly dull subject rattling on in the background, a kind of semi-conscious reality where things move slowly just out of sight near the periphery of my vision. A temperature, I suppose, not a great temperature, but a temperature that puts you into a white noise of soft muttering voices, the news on the radio, a discussion of Crimean local politics of the early 1930's. Something about someone who's name seems familiar, whom I would remember with interest, no doubt, if I were paying better attention. I say I can't sleep in this condition, although time gets quirky and an hour can pass in what seems to be three hours or it can pass in three minutes. The cat is looking at me from the foot of the bed. I am looking back, peeking out from under the covers. A night's sleep would be nice except it isn't night and the sun is shining in a bright afternoon. That kind of feeling, which I think may or may not arrive for me pretty soon now; this afternoon, this evening or at the very latest, if it's going to happen at all, tomorrow. That's how this afternoon has been going. Movies on television that you wouldn't normally watch, drunk or sober, but I have them playing, a number of them, because I'm switching back and forth between the channels.