Well, it was bound to happen. Even though I’ve been careful, I am now host to the lovely intestinal parasite, giardia. This little bugger causes a diarrheal disease aptly named giardiasis. I’ll spare you the gory details but I will say the symptoms are triggered by food. So, not eating has suddenly become quite appealing (thankfully, drinking doesn’t seem to be a problem).

I had this once during college and clearly remember the experience. I even know exactly how I contracted it back then, I drank untreated water out of a mountain stream (hence the nickname “beaver fever”). It was so unpleasant that I don’t drink out of streams any more. There are any number of ways to ingest giardia down here so I can’t pinpoint the source this time. Ah well, this, too, shall pass.

I am sharing my misfortune so that those of you dealing with the record breaking cold spell understand that as I stroll down the sandy beach on a warm, sunny day I am suffering, too. That’s living in paradise for ya!