5 Day Incubator

As a society we often reflect upon our existence by looking through windows of time. Whether it's that week in Cancun during spring break, the 4 (ok, it was 5) years of college, that two hour meeting, or a 9.5 week lust; we find comfort in assigning a time period to an experience. It helps us catalog the experience in our minds, and gives quantitative benchmarks to qualitative experiences.

Exercise A)
Your overly persistent boss 'mentions' that you have a large report due in five days. You quickly reference your library to see just how long that is to determine the magnitude of the assignment. It all happens so fast you may not notice the process.

Part 1: Let's assign some benchmarks from our common experiences to this hypothetical and slow it down so as to examine....

5 days is a traditional work week (40 hours give or take depending on your industry)
5 days is roughly the time it takes to ride a bike across the state of Iowa (100 miles a day)
5 days is exactly the incubation period of an acute flu strain that is plaguing the front range.

Part 2: Let's now evaluate each past experience to determine our feelings and relate them to present.

Work Week: Something that for most of us is no big deal. Just a part of our routine and really doesn't have a huge impact on our emotional psyche.

Bike Ride: While 5 days in the saddle may leave you chaffed and raw it could also be viewed as some r&r. An annual event RAGBRAI leads a group of cyclist across Iowa annually. It's quite the party from what I hear.

Incubation of a Pandemic: Rightfully so this event is terrifying to most. The thought of a parasite festering in one's most inner person is gut wrenching (pun intended). "Will I respond adversely and these be my final moments?" "How did it come to this?" "Who killed Jean Benoit?" These are all questions stewing in my mind at present. A friend of mine...to remain nameless....provided ample opportunity and exposure to this vial strain....as I lull through the remainder of my day this burden has taken hold. I am being forced to leave the office early to try and prevent any sort of infection from taking hold. Medication in the form of a strong martini and some London broil on baguette may be my only escape. Placebo or not it may be all I have (and tasty too!!).....