I wish I could take the proverbial “Hall Pass” on the effects of COVID-19. But I can’t, and to be clear, I’m not one of those who spent time in ICUs or had incapacitating secondary infections. However, there was the long six months of debilitating arthritis – one flare after the other. I also seemed to be mentally functioning, but there were the months of bad financial decisions, as witnessed by the tools I’ll never use gathering dust in the basement.
Looking back, after I initially cleared the infection, I spent about a year getting over the residual complications. I wasn’t consistently having problems other than arthritis, but things might have been much worse for me if remote work had not become the rule.
Going to the station to do evening maintenance work when I could avoid social contact became the new work day. I might wave to another troglodyte from a hundred feet away. Old habits from working in the Operating Room returned—I was pretty good at recognizing people in surgical masks.
At home, I ignored the wood shop for at least a month; I had no energy for work.
Like so many others, the pandemic had lasting effects on me. My wife and I socialize outside of the family much less than before, and I continue to work mostly remotely. This blog existed before the pandemic, but it was during the pandemic that it became something that I spent significant time on. I got tired of non-creative social media platforms like Facebook and found a community of fellow bloggers with interesting things to discuss, show, and demonstrate.
I am truly fortunate; I lost no one near me, recovered from the ill effects, and found new creative outlets.
Things will never go back to the way they were. As a society, this multiyear experience should be a grand wake-up call to strengthen our healthcare system and shore up a delicate supply chain. But come on! That would be too common sense! We’ve become a world that can do intensely complicated things with AI, contorted idiocy in politics, and create elaborate conspiracies. But basic stuff, no.
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Socializing less outside the family…yes to that. Going out to eat came to a grinding halt because of Covid. Even outdoor events that I used to love to get in the middle of and enjoy the atmosphere have been halted. **knock wood** we have not had Covid, so I am not about to tempt the gods, but glad for you with remote work. The one silver lining in this entire mess.
This recent bout of Covid was worse in the acute phase than the one I had in 2022 but I’m not seeing Long Covid setting in (knock on wood). Some short-lived arthritis flares — seem short-lived anyway. No, we’ll never be the same. I don’t even want to be. The unfortunate thing (or fortunate IMO) is I learned that I really like it here. I like my life with my dogs and my painting. The blog community grew and evolved during that time in a really good way. Yesterday FB told me that 4 years ago yesterday, I picked up my groceries for the first time. I’ve stuck with that and I like it. I realized how much pressure I faced in my life to be more social than is my nature, but, of course, I had to work in those times, too. Looking at our absurd political situation I see TFG and I hear things like “Drink bleach” and “put antiseptic in your orifices.” Bleah… too much reality, I guess.
Well, in the words of the old gospel song:
… I don’t want to get adjusted to this world
I’ve got a home that’s so much better
I’m gonna go there sooner or later
And I don’t want to get adjusted to this world
Though I managed to avoid COVID-19, I have changed how I socialize, too. I still sanitize my hands often during the day, perhaps part of how I avoided it, along with the mask.
If you have pre-existing health issues you really can’t afford to fool around with it either.