Now I know for sure that winter is on its way. The weather has been sort of wintry, a little chilly and a little breezy, for the last week or so. Even though daylight savings time lasts another month, it has seemed darker at all hours of the day. And this morning I woke up with a sore throat. That’s as sure a sign of winter as there is.

In fact, I woke up with the sore throat in the middle of the night. I could feel the drainage down my throat, and I probably should have got up and taken something for it, but I didn’t feel like it. I didn’t feel like moving around much in the middle of the night, and I didn’t feel like moving at all today.

It’s probably a good thing it’s Sunday. It’s just a shame I had to change the batteries on my TV remote, but I guess that was inevitable. It gets a lot of use, even when I’m feeling chipper, and I was far from chipper today.

It’s likely that the work I did in the yard yesterday contributed to the condition. I knew I was damaging myself, not so much from inhaling seeds and stems and the like, which was bad enough, but more from all the stooping over. I was up and down for about half an hour. I could feel it working on my back, but obviously it was also doing bad things to my breathing as well.

So I spent the day dressed in sweats. I didn’t shave or shower or venture out into the windy gray outdoors. I didn’t eat much, either — not because I wasn’t hungry, but because it was hard to come up with an idea of what I felt like eating. This morning I had lavishly buttered toast and cinnamony instant oatmeal. This afternoon I made pudding, also instant. Tonight I had tomato soup, the condensed kind that gives so much comfort despite coming from a can. That’s how I took care of myself. Hopefully it will pay off with a better tomorrow (even though it will be a Monday).