Sick-ish

Well, yesterday I was officially approved to run a DVD press on my own. I was actually running my three presses by myself most of the day, with the exception of when I had to go to the assessment meeting.

The day before we had a little incident. A motor on a machine about thirty feet from me started to overheat and burn out its bearing oil. It wasn't dangerous, exactly, and the techs didn't seem to think it presented an immediate threat to safety or production. At first we were treated to the smell of frying pancakes, and after a while the smell changed to something reminiscent of the time (several times, really) when someone overcooked their popcorn in our old office microwave by several minutes, reducing it to a collapsed, reeking, smoking ball of carbon. (This was around lunchtime, so this might have very well happened in a nearby office area.) There was no obvious source of the smell, but it quickly filled our entire production area. We began joking that we would find ourselves in a Star Trek scenario, with a general evacution declared, alarms blaring, and fire doors rolling down before we could reach the exits; somber-faced people staring at our collapsed bodies through windows of safety glass and declaring "They are the real heroes."

It passed fairly soon, but the smell lingered in my nostrils for the rest of the day. Perhaps by coincidence I soon developed a low-level itch and pain in my nose, my sinuses, and the back of my throat. This irritation developed throughout the day and into yesterday. On the way home yesterday I...well, let's just say I obtained evidence that led me to believe I have an actual sinus infection. Coupled with warm, puffy eyelids, a persistent, shallow cough, and a voice dropping into Barry White territory, I think I am truly sick.

Could it be allergies? I usually get allergies in early August, but this has been an extremely unusual Summer, and is shaping up to be an unusually hot October. So this could very well be a delayed Summer allergy. Or maybe an early cold, or a reaction to something in the ventilation system at work, or in my car. I dunno. We'll see how this progresses. I do hope it doesn't stick around long.