H One, N None

I came down with a cold yesterday. This will seriously affect my bicycle commuting into work this week, but I should also consider not riding the bus tomorrow with a cold, to avoid spreading my disease to others.

But come on, do you really think that in our weak economy people will want to voluntarily not go into work as a health preventative precaution? Don't you think instead most will try to grind through their workdays feeling like shit, willing to spread their infections to others, simply because to not show up might be reason enough to get fired? As packed up as our E-Tran 52 routes have become due to our city council's deference towards perpetual solo-automotive bliss instead of transit, my first though a few weeks back while standing in a packed bus was "wait until winter when 1/3 of us will be coughing, wheezing, and spreading the disease to others." Well, it's fall, and I have a cold, and I'm going to board a bus tomorrow to get to work because I'm "green" and "environmentally conscious" and if I pass on this cold to fifty others, well, they should all be thankful because I'm not out there destroying the earth by driving my car. Besides, if someone else gets my cold and stays home, well, there's gonna be one more seat available on Friday. Wa-hey!

I mean, the bus is as packed in as humanly possible. Should I decide to cram myself into all that with a cold, with my H one, N none? What will happen when someone else decides to cram themselves in with H1N1? The spread of disease, that's what. Instead of Elk Grovians bitching to the city council about having to stand on a bus, one of us should have made an argument that the spread of infectious diseases will be elevated due to the sharing of each other's bodily fluids via sneezing, coughing, and flem discharging. Wa-hey!

If I am to get H1N1 it'll likely be due to a bus ride; therefore, we all have one more reason to climb into our own private vehicles and grind out private solo commutes -- to ward off infection. Can't catch it from others if you ain't around others.