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Knowing when to stay on the ground

This past Friday, the weather was nice enough to go flying. As my company has been giving us Friday afternoons off, I could have gone. However, I was feeling somewhat tired, and I examine what my motivation would have been had I gone.

One of the aspects of owning and maintaining an airplane of that vintage is that you want to run the engine on a fairly regular basis. If you let it sit too long, moisture can make its way into the cylinders and cause some corrosion. Over the long term, it reduces the lifetime of the cylinders, and even the entire engine. So, something I've tried to do is fly the plane every couple of weeks or so.

Friday, I realized that my main motivation was the obligation I felt to run the plane as often as I could. But I determined that it wasn't really enough of a reason to go absent any others. So I decided to stay home. I figured I'd fly it again in the next couple of weeks and that would be plenty soon enough.

Yesterday, my wife became ill. We don't know with what, but I suspect it's a viral infection of some kind. This morning, I started feeling under the weather as well. Unlike her, I'm not running a fever, but I still feel pretty marginal. Of course, the first thing you think of in a situation like this is, "Is this a case of the current human malware?" It's possible, though the symptoms aren't really consistent. Neither of us has experienced any respiratory problems or headache for example. Her fever responds to regular ibuprofen as well. So, while it's possible, it's also very possible that it's something else.

If symptoms persist for another day or so, we'll head into the clinic to get examined and, if warranted, tested for the human malware. We've both had our first vaccination shots, but that won't prevent infection. It will probably attenuate the severity and duration of the symptoms, however, should that be what this is. I'm hoping it's not, of course. If it is, I'll have to wait a longer time before flying again.

Update: I didn't have a fever when I published the original post two hours ago, but I have one now. Naproxen to the rescue.

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