Traditions

It is inevitable, it happens every year. One would think I would learn by now. One would think I would see this coming a mile away and be prepared, but I haven't and I don't.

Cold season descended upon our house last week, and as happens every year we were unprepared. Paper towels were wiping noses because we ran out of tissues. We were licking the last drops out of medicine bottles.

There I was, sneezing and coughing, picking one of everything in the cold and flu aisle at Walmart, then walking the whole perimeter of the store to find tissues (they remodeled and it makes perfect sense for the tissues to be on the other end of the store from the cold medicine.)

I also picked up another humidifier. In the 8 years we have had kids we have gone through 5 humidifiers. The first one I bought at a consignment sale, and that one has lasted the longest (just retired last week.) Then we bought one a year or so later, while on vacation which is entirely another story to be told another time. (Just know that after that vacation I was not able to hear, or even think of, going on vacation, any vacation, without my blood pressure spiking and the hairs on my arms standing on end.)

A few years later the vacation humidifier died and I found myself in CVS, on Valentine's Day, purchasing our first cold mist humidifier, and lots of medicine. The cold mist humidifier broke last year, the most expensive of the five and it broke after only 1 year.

So, there I was in Walmart last week, purchasing one of everything in the cold and flu aisle, plus another humidifier. All the time coughing and sneezing in my sleeve (something the cashier needed to learn, ewwwww!)

This is one tradition I would be glad to never repeat.