I guess I am the Covid kid. Or, more accurately, the Covid fully grown old lady. I am on Day 13 of this insidious disease. Everyone else I know who got it, had about a week of it, and they tested negative. My last test was this morning, and it was still positive, a nice dark test line. But I was only hopeful but I’m still real tired. So here I am.

How have I been spending my time? Let’s see. Monday Dan had to put his brother in a rehab facility. Not the kind for drugs. He’d been in the hospital with a number of serious issues. He was in for 11 days, half of it in ICU. In order for Dan to get him to the facility, he needed my car, because his brother is a big guy, with stitches from surgery, and an infection in his foot, and is unable to climb up in Dan’s truck. I had to drive over to Dan’s and switch vehicles with him. I was more than happy to escape the confines of my house for an hour or so.

I drove the truck home, and started to turn in my driveway. Keep in mind this truck is a Ford F150, with a back seat and long bed. As I turned into the driveway, I just forgot that I was not in my tiny Nissan Versa and didn’t turn wide enough to avoid scraping the side of the truck with the mailbox. I got out of the car and looked at the ugly scrapes down the passenger side of the truck. I pulled all the way into the driveway, went in the house, and began looking for some wax for the truck. Forget about how tired I was by now, still coughing and sneezing and blowing my nose, and my back hurt because I’ve not been able to exercise or anything that I need to do to continue building the strength in my thigh, back, and hip because I have Covid.

But nevermind, I was only concerned at this point with getting the mess off Dan’s truck, trying to get it looking better for when he saw it. I will admit, it triggered me something terrible because if Dan had been my ex, I would have paid the price for lapse in concentration. Finally I did a little self-talk and reminded myself that Dan would not kill me, or scream at me, or any of the shit my ex would do. I found some wax we’d used on the boat and got a couple rags, and got all the paint off of his truck. It took me at least an hour and every bit of energy I could muster.

I didn’t tell him about it, then. Because he had so much he was dealing with. His brother who was refusing so much of his treatment, and didn’t want to go to the rehab center. In the meantime, Dan was running over to his house (he lives about 500’ from Dan) to take care of everything for his brother. Literally. He was exhausted. I guess his brother realized at some point what he was doing to Dan, and stopped being so contrary. I didn’t tell him until today. He was, in his normal fashion, not angry, very forgiving. Knowing I was still really sick, and probably shouldn’t have taken it upon myself to handle the exchange of vehicles. But I begged him to not take it on himself. I was responsible, and I would fix it.

He’s such a good man. Didn’t flip out, put it on the back burner, and said we’d deal with it at another time. Not now, not with all the stuff going on with his brother. And of course, he still has to care for his 95 year old mother. Who comes with her own set of issues, but that’s another story for another day. And then there’s me, with Covid.

I went out this morning and looked at the truck, and it didn’t look half as bad as I’d thought. Not as big a deal as I thought.

Yesterday my BFF here in town went to the grocery store for me. I was so grateful. She actually gave me the Covid, unknowingly. She’d been over a few days before I got it, had a headache so she didn’t stay long. But, long enough. She kept saying how terrible she felt that I got it from her. And I know she did, but I told her if I didn’t get it from her, I would have gotten it from someone, because by now, I have not been as careful around others as I used to be. She brought my groceries and we sat on the deck for a little while chatting. It was SO nice, to feel well enough to do that, to sit and chat with her. We’ve been talking on the phone, and text, every day. But it was nice to have face to face contact.

It seems that the recovery from Covid can be slow for some of us. I have a weak immune system because of RA and diabetes. So I guess it just takes longer to rid your body of it. I’ll take another test on Sunday. Maybe it will be negative.

I am so glad that the NHL playoffs are on, because the Tampa Bay Lightning are in the playoffs, and they have won the Stanley Cup the last two years. They are going for a 3-peat. I’m very excited about it. Something fun to look forward to.

I am supposed to host our writers group on Sunday, but I think I will push it off for a week. I will probably be negative by Sunday, but still, the effects will be lingering, mostly the exhaustion. I am grateful for the free tests I got from the Covid.gov site, and from Walgreens. I got 16 I have 10 left, I think.

I’ve been reading a lot too. And taking naps. My house is in disarray, for me. Last night I made myself a nice dinner for the first time in 12 days. It tasted good, but it didn’t set well in my stomach immediately. I was happy it tasted good, because Covid really does take your sense of taste and smell. So I was obviously getting better, because I could smell and taste.

I totally missed the full moon eclipse. Didn’t even know about it. I’m glad a lot of people got good pictures and video on FB.

I guess the worst thing about this is that you have to go it alone for as long as it takes. Dan cannot even come over, and I can’t go there. Your friends call and text and chat but it’s not the same. It’s just that you feel shitty, and you just have to stick it out alone.

But I need to stop, this sounds like huge whine and I guess it is. The intention is not to elicit sympathy for this, because I got it so much less severely than many people. I got out of it without a hospital stay, I got out of it with my life. A million people in this country did not. I am grateful. Extremely so.

Love and light everyone.