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I've said before that illness is like a secret...give it to one half of a couple and you give it to the other. Poor Amy has been as far under the weather as a person can get...fever, chills, cold sweats and all with a side dish of respiratory ailment. It hit her Wednesday evening and she's been dragging ever since. Thursday and Friday were spent in bed, and yesterday she only got up to go to work and then crawled right back under the covers. Don't worry about her co-workers, either...they're the ones who gave it to her in the first place. But colds, like secrets, are hard to keep to one's self. So this morning I woke up with the tell-tale sore throat...I've not been walloped yet, but I will be. Hopefully, with rest and lots of orange juice (and oregano oil, someone advised) I can hold it off...or at least go down fighting. If it seems like Amy and I are sick a lot, we are...that's Toronto for you. The biggest culprit, I think, is the TTC. The streetcars and subway trains are rolling petri dishes...the seats, the poles, the tokens, the door handles at the stations. You just don't know, nor can you imagine, (nor do you want to) who touched what and what they touched just previous. The other culprit is the smog. So many people drive into this city every day that a thick, brown pall hangs over the expressways. That sludgelike air doesn't stay over the expressway, of course. It rolls out and eventually blankets the city, which is not so good for breathing. Daily drivers are making us all sick. Which raises, in our litigious society, and interesting notion...can city-dwellers who use transit sue the vast suburban population who drive single vehicles into the city every work day? It's not like Toronto's suburbanites are being forced to drive. This isn't a small city, devoid of transit. There are loads of cleaner (and cheaper) transportation options, many of which the government actively pushes in an attempt to lower the traffic volume. I'm positing, essentially, a class-action suit by residents of the City of Toronto against residents of the 905 area code. The condo vs. the cul de sac. The cinema vs. the multiplex. The small shops vs. the big box. Seeking damages due to lost work time, weakened health and any medical costs not covered by OHIP. Of course I'm not serious about this. I do think that the city (any city) suffers at the hands of its suburbs. But I'm not a sue-happy person. Besides...I'll soon be too sick to sue. |
