I Finally Caught Covid

Ugh

I’m triple or quadruple vaccinated, but it was sure to happen sometime, and the lesson has absolutely been learned; ALWAYS wear a mask on an airplane, even if no one else is.

As C.S. Lewis put it: “Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”

Yesterday, while walking around Leadville, I got very cold, and on the drive back to Buena Vista, I felt very sick with aching joints. By evening, I was shivering uncontrollably with my hand shaking so badly I was unable to even hold a phone. The shivering only stopped after I took a hot shower and turned the heat up to 85 for a few hours.

I felt a little better the next morning. 

Or at least I did until I got out of bed and walked down the street.

I felt brittle, and at least 85 years old.  Things were still not close to right.

Later that morning, I started to shake uncontrollably again, and my wife went out to get a covid test, aspirin, and a thermometer 

I had a temperature of 102.8 and tested positive for covid.  I took three aspirin.

The good new is I’ll survive, and I’m going to a walk-in clinic this morning to see if they have a miracle cure.

I’m glad to have a diagnosis, and since I’ve been fully vaccinated multiple times, this will blow over. 

Several contributing issues are that I am on immuno-suppressants for psoriatic arthritis, not eating too much, and travel is always a bit stressful. Put it all together and Covid saw an opportunity to knock me down and replicate itself. Illness and disease — like time and age — hunt us all.  They are the wolves that never sleep.

The squib below — True Story — was written in February of 2024 as I had painters and floor guys prepping my new-to-me house for occupancy.  

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TRUE STORY

My floor guy, who I really like, 

told me that he met his wife

in 7th grade at the County Fair, 

and they were married 40 years 

before she died of Covid at age 57.  

He’s still not vaccinated, he offered, 

and has caught Covid twice.

He told this to me 

while smoking Marlboros, 

and I was leaning on a pitch fork 

wearing a “Let’s Go Darwin” T-Shirt.

I do not jump to conclusions,

but I also do not always ask.

There’s a reasonably good chance

his wife caught Covid before 

there was a vaccine.

And after two episodes, 

his natural immunity is as strong 

as my vaccine-acquired immunity.

But my wife is alive, and I can still taste

scrambled eggs and good coffee

and he has lost both, so I do not ask.

I like my floor guy.

I do not stir a pot

from which I do not want to drink.