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Kurt Johnson
How are you feeling?
That’s not a rhetorical questions in this new year as 2024 has started with a wave of various illnesses that leave you scratching your head, blowing your nose and/or taking a very long, medicine-induced nap.
The News-Register staff was hit hard over the holidays, so much so that we had little choice but to close our doors at noon on Friday, Dec. 27, for no other reason but that we simply ran out of healthy bodies to man the fort. Fortunately it was a slow day for both news and business, but still that’s never happened on our watch and as a business owner it’s not a precedent we wanted to set.
Two of our 10 crew were on holiday vacations and six others were either completely wiped off their feet by illness or feeling a bug coming on. I headed east to cover the Huskies in a holiday basketball tournament at Ashland-Greenwood, which meant we had little choice but to post a sign on the door saying ANR was taking a knee. If you happened to call in or stop by the office for our service and came up empty, I make no excuses but do humbly apologize.
I’ve had countless conversations with people throughout Aurora and beyond who simply nodded in sympathy. Seems many family holiday plans and business routines were altered by whatever bug(s) is going around.
A story in this week’s edition reports that in fact a wave of influenza is just beginning to affect us here in Hamilton County. A number of other viruses may be making their way around, though at this point I’m not sure it matters a whole what you’ve got. If you’re sick you’re sick, unless you’ve got other health issues or more severe symptoms, so do what you need to do to get well and try to minimize contact with others.
COVID rewrote the rule book on that topic for a time, though the pandemic is mercifully behind us. For better or worse, I’m still one who prefers to take my medicine and extra naps as needed, then push through as best I can, limiting my contacts but still staying engaged and getting the job done.
That’s an age-old societal remedy that worked well for centuries and it’s a common sense approach that’s every bit as effective still today.
KURT JOHNSON can be reached at kjohnson@ hamilton.net
