Living in the time of pandemic: COVID-19 (38)
February 22, 2021
Week 49 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Week 49, Day 338: We got scary news last night. Our cancer battling friend lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. This morning, tests showed that their cancer has returned. This is too much. I really really really don’t want to lose another loved one.
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Not sure what set it off but my pain flared so high today that I literally hurt from head to toe. Thankfully PiC didn’t have meetings so he was able to field the kids all day so I could rest. The rest helped enough so I could just do the bare minimum: eating, bathing, pumping milk.
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JB closed the night with a long cry. We could hear them talking to Seamus about how much they miss him. We stayed with them for a while, commiserating.
Week 49, Day 339: I’d like to make a big photo book to commemorate our life with Seamus. We happened across MILK books several years ago. I had a Groupon for one of their classic books that I had to use by the time Doggle passed so I dedicated that to him. The end product was gorgeous even though we didn’t have great quality / resolution pictures to work with back then. It’ll be on the pricier side so I need to wait for another sale. I like that they let you prepay for a book to take advantage of a sale but I can’t accurately estimate how many pages I’ll need.
I have started organizing photos into a folder so I can design the book, then order it when their next sale comes up. There are A LOT of photos.
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I get this sad empty feeling every time I see old blogs gone fallow. Or when I think of friendships gone quiet.
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For the first time in months, only one of my hands was completely swollen when I woke up. Is this finally getting better?? (Since giving birth, they’ve both been wsoll
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This is the first day that Smol Acrobat laughed at belly raspberries!! Up until now, they’ve only been startled and confused by them. I feel rewarded for my persistence.
Week 49, Day 340: I made chicken gyros for dinner and they were delicious! The dill-buttermilk sour cream really pulled the flavors together.
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I had my Invisalign buttons applied? fixed? something today and it feels weird but not as weird as braces or a nightguard. I know it’s going to be sore soon but for now, I’m glad that it’s not quite so bad.
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I played a game with Smol Acrobat and they seemed to grasp it enough to play along. I know they didn’t really, but it seemed like it and it was fun in the moment.
Week 49, Day 341: Last night’s sleep was non-existent and after a busy day yesterday, I desperately needed the rest I didn’t get. I managed to stay functional long enough for PiC to take some meetings and then crashed and burned for a few hours. This level of sleep deprivation has me really down in the dumps. I know it’ll pass but these moments are so hard.
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Small habits: Two weeks ago, I asked JB to pay attention to capping their toothpaste and putting their toothbrush in the same place every time because I was tired of knocking the brush into the sink. It’s taken a reminder every single day but they finally did it twice in a row without a prompt! The habit may be starting to form!
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I’m really anxious for our initial tax calculations to see what we owe after selling the rental last year. We’re just paying the capital gains on that sale because we never lived in the property. Living in it could have been part of the very long term plan only if we held it for 20+ years, it was never going to work out to live in it in the first 15 years of owning it. So we’re taking it on the chin instead of rolling it over with a 1031 exchange or living in it. I set aside a large portion of the sale money to cover the tax bill last year and we withheld 120% of our 2019 tax bill. Now all I can do is hope that I covered our bases sufficiently to have some cash left over. That’s my version of a tax refund this time around.
Week 49, Day 342: I just found out that two people I know, one of them a health care professional and the other one with a scientific background, neither of them with any reason to be suspicious of the medical establishment as some minorities do, declined the vaccine. Their relative has tried to talk to them about it, to no avail. I’m rather appalled, honestly.
Yes, I’m being judgy. I’m not speaking to them about it because it’s not like I would change their minds, but arrrghhhhh get the vaccine!
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Answering the question of what I would do if I didn’t have to work for money, the parenting-leave version: Manage our investments, take care of the kids, read as many books as I can get my hands on, walk the dog, eat/cook/eat/cook/plan meals, yearn for sleep, manage our taxes, throw myself into charitable projects, therapy, attempt to exercise a little bit each day. I wonder what the not-infant version would look like.
