By: Revanche

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (268)

July 21, 2025

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area

Year 6, Day 84: I’ve become such a pillow hog. I want, depending on if I’m working or resting, 4-6 firmish fluffy pillows at a time. I’ve entered the stage of life where there is so much discomfort from pain, painsomnia, heartburn that strikes randomly, and sleep deprivation that I require ALL THE PILLOWS as recompense. I’m still searching for a good cushion of some sort that will properly support my neck and back when I have to work from bed. Currently the imperfect solution is a stack of 5 pillows but they eventually slide or squish down.

Year 6, Day 85: Nothing like realizing that in your haze of overworkedness and sleep deprivation, you’ve gone and written the giant check using the wrong checkbook so that giant check is being drawn on the account that doesn’t have that much money while the right account that has all that money is sitting RIGHT THERE. DAMMIT! I went through all the options and none of them were “the best one” so I picked the least troublesome one for the guy: writing him a fresh check from the right account today and then plan to beg fee forgiveness from the wrong bank account whenever they return the check as unpaid. Sigh. Call this the “dumbass / too tired to exist” tax. I knew I’d drop some balls because of how tired I’ve been but I didn’t think it’d be a five figure ball.

Year 6, Day 86: We have the good fortune of having basic dental insurance that covers two cleanings a year and we’re diligent about making sure everyone goes. I’ve finally completely shifted us to a relatively consistent Jan/Feb and June/July schedule which feels like a small victory. My attempts to keep all routine appointments out of the Sept-Dec period are a tiny step towards keeping that fall to winter period a little bit more sane. I enjoy my own time in the dentist’s chair, but miss coasting for months and months without having to think about yet another appointment.

Naturally my current task is trying to find a slot on the calendar to add a “dabbling in — lessons” this summer before they return to school. There’s a local place but we’ve been warned that the traffic and parking in that area is terrible and that’s off-putting. For being SoCal born and bred where terrible traffic and bad parking is so common, my tolerance for that is almost non-existent. We’ll see. I promised JB that we’d give it a shot to see if we like the place and the sport enough to put up with the inconveniences. No pun intended. No clue how we’d make that work during the school year but if we can fit in 2-3 lessons before school starts, that should be a good taste.

Year 6, Day 87: Here’s an exasperating thing. I’ve developed a scent aversion to my deodorant. Both Degree and Suave which have been totally fine and don’t irritate my skin. It’s just that suddenly, I cannot stand the smell. This is really quite annoying. I bought some Dove deodorants which smell better but don’t work half as well. Also annoying.

I’ve been utterly dislocated in space and time this summer. Everything that should be routine hasn’t been. My weeks of alone time for whole days – nope. Instead it’s been travel and work stuff and home maintenance and more. My brain has gone into a weird (self protective?) huddle where it never really knows where I am on a map. Even when I was just walking around SF which I’m reasonably familiar with, my brain refused to connect to anything as familiar. I might as well have been in the city for the first time.

Year 6, Day 88: I was feeling Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer in my bones, so I put that on, following by Journey’s Any Way You Want It. Wilson Phillips and Hold On was next, as I contemplated how many of my friends who keep getting into bad relationships could do with taking those lyrics to heart. Pat Benatar’s We Belong came up next in the rotation and my heart felt gripped in maudlin remembering.

Very longtime readers were around during a tumultuous period of life when my coworkers and I loved to play Pat Benatar but everything else in that office was pure hell. I carried the awful from that job for years, took me ages to shed most of the defensive mechanisms. Rcently a colleague from that time affirmed my recollection of the toxicity and evil. They were further along in their career back then and even they were horrified by the pure meanness that dominated that office. Grateful that’s so far in the rearview that it’s just the occasional momentary ICK that sets in thanks to sensory memories.