Is it any wonder? I’ve got too much time on my hands It’s tickin’ away with my sanity I’ve got too much time on my hands It’s hard to believe such a calamity I’ve got too much time on my hands And it’s tickin’ away, tickin’ away from me Styx
I’ve had a hard enough time keeping myself occupied in between trips before, but COVID has made things even worse (hard to believe such a calamity). I’ve got nothing travel related to write about for now, so I’ve done a few rambling journal entries, the most recent of which is stranger than my usual self-impaling rants and raves about my life. So I thought I’d throw a link in for the fun of it.
I’m hoping the new batch of COVID-19 test kits I bought the other day are better than the last ones. They must all be broken since they keep coming up positive. If I’m going to get something consistently, how about winning lottery tickets instead.
If all goes well, I’ll hopefully be able to get back to my normal abnormal postings on fun things when I get to Colorado. This will be a camera free trip, except for my new Pixel 10. I’m going to try and relax for a change. Except for the 2700 steps on the Manitou Incline (and two other hikes).
Born under a bad sign. I’ve been down since I began to crawl. If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all. (Cream, 1968)
Well, maybe not that bad, but it has been a bad run for the past 2+ years. And Cream did not write that song.
I’m now into day four (maybe 5) of a journey I could have done without.
COVID-19.
Crap.
I was pretty much wasted by the time I got home from Alaska but I figured it was due to lack of sleep from my cavitation cabin on the ship, the constant activity on board, and the long flight home. Monday I was OK – just tired, and I even managed to hit the gym. Tuesday was probably the first day – tired, aching, feeling like I had a cold coming on.
Then Wednesday came along – uh oh. I was feeling really bad and had a slight fever. I did a test in the morning, which came out negative…but the test card seemed a bit strange. So I ran another test later and it came out positive. How did this happen? The drunk woman I sat next to on the flight from Seattle was sniffling and sneezing. But it’s hard to say who was the carrier – I was on a ship for 7 days with 89 other passengers and a lot of crew. And two very crowded airports. Could have been anyone.
So what do you do when you are alone, and have a medical condition you’ve successfully avoided for 4 years? Do a Google search of course! And then call a doctor.
I called my UC Davis clinic, which was closed for the day, but they transfer you to an on-call nurse service, which works really well. After describing my symptoms, they set-up a video call with the on-call physician. Since he had all my records (it pays to stick within your hospital system), he told me I could not take Paxlovid, the drug prescribed for COVID – it’s a no-no if you take blood pressure meds. Since I seemed to have a pretty mild case, he basically told me to tough it out – drink a lot of fluid, tea with honey, take over the counter flu meds (NyQuil, DayQuil), and wear a mask if you go anywhere. In theory, it should take about 5 days to get a negative test. And you still have to wear a mask for a few days afterwards to make sure you do not infect anyone else.
I guess my luck finally ran out – Jan and I were so cautious when COVID first hit. We bought home-made masks, stayed home most of the time (boring!) – I still have the board games we bought to keep ourselves occupied. We both played online Mahjong. But we did venture out quite a bit. We decided to move back to Colorado during COVID, and were there when the first vaccines became available. It seems like we spent so much time then getting tests, and trying to find someplace to get the vaccines.
So after all this time without getting infected, I basically forgot about it. I doubt if anyone really thinks about COVID much – you rarely see anyone with a mask. With the majority of the population vaccinated, we consider COVID to be a lot like the common flu – it will make you sick, but won’t kill you. As long as you get vaccinated. And that may become a problem now with the current head of HHS. I’ll stick to the vaccines thank you.
So, my boring life is even more boring for a while. It’s Friday, and I still feel crappy. The fever is gone, but the cough, wooziness and moderate congestion are still there. If the test comes out negative, I’ll go to the store later to get more chicken soup (and other things). But forget about the party I really wanted to attend – my only social activity for the month. At least I had enough energy to bake some bread yesterday.
I was planning on heading out to Yosemite or Sequoia National Parks in the next week or so. I’m thinking now that maybe I should just stay home and find something else to keep myself busy. Like baking bread.
The Traveling Widower 