By: Revanche

Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (285)

November 17, 2025

Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area

Year 6, Day 203: Damn that moment of sharing a bite of food with JB! I had been fending off their germs pretty well the last five days and got complacent (forgot, even). The germs immediately took advantage of the direct infection vector and ambushed me. I came away the loser in the confrontation with congestion and cotton fluff for brains. There are no good times for this but this is definitely a bad time. We have the final prep for SmolAc’s birthday coming up and we have to make our final selections for Open Enrollment. With minutes ticking down, I finally told PiC that if he wasn’t sure of some of his healthcare plans, we can just stick with the HMO in 2026 and prepare ourselves for HDHP/HSA in 2027 assuming everything else stays the same (remaining employed by the same companies). *Knocks wood, throws salt, etc*

The added complexity is that I just started physical therapy and we have no idea what they charge for that. So it’s a crapshoot where we’d land financially in 2026 if I’m still going to PT. Right now it’s entirely covered.

Year 6, Day 204: Our neighbor’s busy season hit at the same time as her partner’s scheduld had surgery and has needed favors left and right for their school age kid. Luckily it’s super easy, just picking them up or dropping them off on our way out or back in, and sometimes I only get the ask a few minutes before it needs doing but that meshes perfectly with my schedule since I try to force myself to get ready earlier than necessary. I like banking the favors. I know they’re not keeping score but it makes me feel better and yes, I know, it shouldn’t be a thing. And yet. This is my brain.

As my reward this week, their cat came to meow at me for petting, even in the rain!, and I was very pleased to oblige. We had a nice chat of MROW. mow? MRROWWW. MIAO.

Year 6, Day 205: I was up and working at 5 am and that should have been good for knocking off by 2 pm but instead I worked 12 straight hours and then tacked on another 1-2 after getting the kids off to bed. Chalk that up to the weird intersection of being really sick but also incredibly stressed and anxious.

It was interrupted by one of my favorite neighborhood dogs tackling me, though, and that was The Best. He’s as happy to see me as I am to see him and that feels like a compliment seeing as how I don’t provide for any of his needs. I DID have a bacon treat hidden up my sleeve but he didn’t even notice it until I held it out, he was too busy trying to hug me and rubbing on my legs like a cat.

Year 6, Day 206: Utterly overwhelmed today. I think every year, the pressure starts cranking up at the end of August now, with the start of school and dozens of school activities that make me cranky and spiky and then sometime in November the whole Jenga pile comes tumbling down. We may have hit that point. Bad meetings at work. This damn virus has its hooks in me, I’m feeling worse than ever. I hate the pressure at work and don’t see any way of turning it down. The kids have events this and next weekend that will require me at my best and I’m nowhere near there. I took some really deep breaths, ate a food, and tried to reset my spinny circle of death brain spiral.

Year 6, Day 207: We have entered the “Hast ye offended yon witch?” era. My computer started acting weird last week, restarting randomly or anytime I put it to sleep and woke it back up. This week, some of the restarts are accompanied by a screeching that would put the AOL dial up screams to shame. Then to cap it all off, though I must say I was taking this all in my stride up to this point, my phone just bricked.

That’s a real problem. 2-step authentication is generally linked to my phone, as is my work authentication app. I use my phone for everything. Texting, alarms for schedules, my medication regimen, emails, notes for everything that I think of during the day that I need to do later but will forget if I don’t write them down. All my books live there now! (A moment of: oh this is what I get for not buying a Kobo device, isn’t it? Maybe I can load the app on my old phone.) Sigh. I missed the ONE appointment available so I’m going to have to wait til Monday to get this fixed. What a giant pain in the caboose.