Too Sick to Play

We have degrees of sickness to evaluate how bad we really feel.

We may be too sick to go to school or work, too ill to travel, too yucky to do any physical activity. I have a friend who said he was once too sick to read.

I may have topped that the past three weeks. 

I was too sick to play APBA baseball. 

Now that’s pretty bad.

I had no energy, The act of rolling dice and writing down the game’s results were too taxing and instead I lay on my couch and moped and waited for better days.

It began with a combination of things that confused what was really happening. Within two days, I breathed in smoke from the city’s inane smoke testing of its sewer lines and I took new medication for a deteriorated disc I’ve suffered for years. Some of the side effects of the smoke inhalation and the medicine included weakness, fatigue, aches and loss of appetite.

The same side effects, coincidentally, as those associated with pneumonia.

After a week of going to work and then crawling home, I went to the doctor where he diagnosed me with the early stages of pneumonia. He gave me a heavy antibiotic and urged me to stay home for the rest of the week.

I did, sleeping and watching mindless television during my recovery.

The APBA dice lay untouched, sadly.

When I was a kid, I feigned sickness to skip school and stay home and play my APBA football and basketball games at times. I also missed work once years ago just to wait for the mailman to bring me the APBA hockey game I had ordered.

But now, with a week off of work, I couldn’t take advantage of the free time to roll a few games of the 1981 baseball season replay I’ve engaged.

Finally, as I began to feel better, I played a game or two a day. I normally toss about five games a day  — two or three in the morning before work and two before bed. It’s a daily event when I feel well.

I’m feeling well enough, now, to resume the five-a-day pace, but I missed several days of game-playing and I’m behind in the replay.

It’s a pretty bad when the simple act of rolling dice is too much exertion. The game was in my mind, but not in the realm of recuperation these past two weeks. 

No more sickness, please. I’ve got games to roll.