How colds affect the economy

This is our Friday Night Date restaurant; but we are not in a rut. Sometimes we go to the one in Worthington or Dublin.
Actually, this is just one man's cold. My husband's. He was sniffly all week, so we didn't go out to eat at the Rusty Bucket. He got a little sad, so I said I'd go get a pizza. Instead of getting our usual take-out from Iacono's (medium pepperoni with extra cheese) which has gone up to $14.50 because of the greenies burning corn for fuel, I drove over to Marc's and picked up a frozen large pep for $5.50. It was OK, but nothing to blog home about. Both Rusty Bucket and/or Iacono's lost on that deal, but also the waiter we would have tipped. Even Cheryl's Cookies missed a sale because sometimes we stop there on our way out and I get a yummy chocolate peanut butter brownie.

Then Sunday, I suggested he stay home from church. I sat with Joyce, whose husband Bill also had a cold and stayed home. But she told me about her neighbor who is recommending ZiCam, the kind you dab on your nose. He's had great success, she said. So today while I was at Marc's I bought some ZiCam, and while I was browsing the shelves, I also picked up a new cold product from Alka-Seltzer Plus Immunity Complex that I hadn't seen before. Whatever money we saved by not going out Friday night, then buying a cheap pizza, was definitely used up buying cold meds. I don't think any of them really help, but you feel good doing something, don't you?

Speaking of greenies, one of the reasons they want to knock down your commercial building and start over is to lower the occurrence of 4 of the most common respiratory illnesses which account for 176 million days of lost work each year. "Improvements in green design and construction will create a 9-20% reduction in cases of the common cold, translating to 16 to 37 million fewer cases annually." Well gosh, think of all the people in the OTC business they will put out of work. (These stats, if you choose to believe them, are not mine--they come from a left coast think tank via Buildings magazine, May 2008, p. 32.)