Ice cubes keep me happy

In maintaining a blog, I have planned to update every five days. My goodness, I am again being self-referential, but even Opinion and Editorial writers are sometimes self-referential. As I observed everything changed for me in January, I intended to do a retrospective on my February as much I intended one for 2009, but neither of those has happened half-way through March.

For a month I have been suffering from illness related to seasonal allergies. By seasonal allergies, I mean every season: spring, summer, autumn, winter! No matter what time of year I run the risk of congestion, coughing, sneezing, and the possibility of an ear infection.

Two years ago, when my friend Denton and I more often frequented the Red Balloon Bar and Grill, I had congestion behind both of my ears, so much so that I found the blaring volume from the speakers to be tolerable. On Friday, February 29, 2008, I actually got the flu; I would have preferred for nearly anything else to have happened on that day.

Right now I have some congestion behind my left ear, and my allergist told me that my ear was not infected, but that I still run the risk. One to two weeks ago I was suffering more, and last week I had a dry, filmy feeling left in my throat. I have remedied that feeling this week.

I took some advice I read a while ago and I have started the last two days by drinking some water. Obvious, I know, but last week soda was the first thing I drank most weekdays. Many things can be said about tap water, but I have no premium or bottled water at home. No connoisseur, I prefer my tap water with ice cubes.

Ice cubes keep me happy. They keep the water cooler than the temperature it left the tap. Later, once I have drank the water, I can further hydrate from the ice cubes. For this reason I rarely throw out cups from quick-service restaurants, because at least in the Mid-West, the fluid to ice ratio generally favors ice.

I reuse the cup, from which I earlier drank the water at home, refilling ice from the large refrigerator near my work area. To this ice I now apply the soda, which is indeed an interesting and dramatic practice. Being unable to fill the cup completely, I drink the soda more slowly this way as well.

By using ice, I have been hydrated enough to not require buying any additional bottled drinks at work, thus saving me nearly four dollars a day. I also do not have that feeling in my throat.

I should also be grateful that there is such a thing as a refrigerator according to Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, which is a book (I must borrow now), a two-part program from NOVA, and a campaign, also stating:

This commonplace appliance owes its existence to centuries of low-temperature physics.

I love that existence half-way rhymes with physics; that quote is poetic. Ice was once harvested from frozen rivers and lakes, until ice was first artificially produced using ammonia. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the ability to keep goods frozen or refrigerated during shipping across the United States has delighted either people wanting fresh fruits and vegetables or the beer drinkers of America.

Ice cubes keep me happy, like your girlfriend.