“I can see inside you, the sickness is rising. Don’t try to deny what you feel.”

Disturbed, “Down With the Sickness,” 2000

Yes, there are plenty of great things about winter. But if I’m being honest, I can’t think of one off the top of my head today.

When I was a kid, I had more than my fair share of fun in the snow. Sledding, snowball fights and watching the county names scroll across the bottom of the TV screen - waiting after Van Buren to see if we popped up – are revered memories of mine, just as they are for many of you.

But nowadays, since I’m playing the back nine in life, the fun things about winter are replaced by increasing electric bills, slick streets, closed restaurants and – the worst of all – winter illness.

As I squint through watery eyes to see the screen on which I write this week’s award-winning opinion piece, I do so while snorting, sneezing, sniffling, coughing and generally doing everything else I can to clear my head of what folks around here simply call “the crud.”

Being middle-aged (and then some), it’s easy for me to acquire a bit of sickness, especially in the colder months. And since I don’t exactly lead the definition of a healthy lifestyle as a rule, it’s a tad harder to shake the sniffles than it used to be. I fought off a chest cold around the holidays, only to have everything move up into my head and sinuses just after New Year’s. So today my already swollen cranium (it’s genetic – I’m sorry, Parker) feels like it weighs an extra 27.5 pounds thanks to all this “crud.”

For those of you with empathy, I’ll let you know I’m taking plenty of over-the-counter remedies to deal with it all. And most of the time, I don’t feel that lousy. So thank you for your concern, if you have any. And, if you don’t have any concern, I’m curious why you’ve made it to word 342 of this column.

If you’re one of those healthy types who doesn’t get the slightest sniffle no matter what the weather does outside, I’m jealous. But for those of you unfortunate enough to find yourselves in the same predicament I find myself in on this blustery January afternoon, take this advice.

Bite the bullet and take the medicine. Whatever type of syrup, pill or spray you can find, take it. And save me a swallow or a spritz. While you’re getting medicated, get yourself plenty of water and all the hot soup you can swallow. Grab that blanket off the back of the couch, and slip off into la-la land – with the help of some of Dr. Nestor’s cough syrup if you’re able to get a bottle. The sleep will help as much as anything else.

And get well soon – spring allergy season will be here before you know it.

Standard News Editor Rob Nunley can be contacted at rnunley@southernstandard.com