(Mostly) Daily (goofy) Haiku for You #35

I wrote this while I was still working this morning so it isn’t exactly relevant to my current work-day-is-over situation, but it still makes sense if you put yourself into the Rob from this morning’s shoes, know what I mean?

Back at work today.
It is not going to last.
More sick time for me.

1:12pm on Day Five

I give up.

I logged into work at 9:00 and started digging through over a week’s worth of emails. At 10:30 I had a meeting with my staff and my manager. My boss was the first one on the Google Meet. I was the second. He took one look at me and laughed. I said I wouldn’t say trying to work today was a mistake, but… and he laughed again.

I made it to 1:00, which was sort of my goal. I then put myself out sick for the rest of the day. Just those four hours of being “on” wore me out completely. I’m done for today.

The good news though is that when I came back to the living room the cats were adorable.

Onederland

Now I am not by any stretch trying to say that there is an upside to having Covid-19. Absolutely not. There is no upside.

However… I stepped on the scale again this morning and I am below 200 pounds.

QUEUE THE MARCHING BAND, BABIE! I HAVE REACHED THE MYTHICAL ONEDERLAND! MY WEIGHT IS BELOW 200 POUNDS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN (I think) MY ADULT LIFE! HOLY CRAP ON A STICK! I WEIGH LESS THAN 200 POUNDS! ONEDERLAND, BABIE! ONEDERLAND!

Now, having said all of that. I do expect that within a few days of beating Covid and having my body chemistry go back to normal, I will top 200 pounds again. I think my body has pretty clearly declared that it wants me somewhere between 205 and 215. I am not going to worry about that today. I am also not going to worry about the possibility of a sub-200 weight actually being too low for me to be healthy. I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s low enough that I should think about it as maybe being a thing.

No. Today we’re just going to let the marching band parade up and down the street in front of my house as a massive celebration of hitting a seemingly unattainable weight loss goal that only required me to gut myself, rewire my innards, and then catch the 21st century’s plague to achieve.

Welcome to Onederland, boys and girls. Enjoy the view!

Topics

Daily writing prompt
Which topics would you like to be more informed about?
View all responses

I want more information about literally every topic. Literally. I am not using the word literally ironically, I am using it literally. I would literally like to know more about everything.

How about a couple of specifics, just for discussion’s sake?

  • Programming. I would like to have more information on multiple programming languages, both syntactically and theoretically, not to mention architecturally. I want to be able to program efficiently and cleanly in more than just the one proprietary language I use for work. Java, C#, C++, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, all of those and more. How do they work, why do they work, how do I make them do what I want them to do? All of that would be groovy
  • Home improvement/carpentry/plumbing/general contracting skills. I know nothing… and I own a house… and it leads to financial expenditures and stress that if I had a decent skill set to use as a foundation neither would be as bad as they can be
  • Music theory. I know a ton about this topic, but the mountain of knowledge I have barely scratches the surface
  • American fascism. Why were so many of us so surprised by the bullshit that bubbled to the political surface in 2016 and has covered our nation in filth ever since? I would have really liked to have had more info about what was coming down the pike ahead of time
  • Photography. I wish I knew more and was better at it
  • Guitar playing. I wish I knew more and was better at it
  • Healthcare. I wish I knew more about it from a personal standpoint and from a knowing the options available to us standpoint. I felt so lost with my mother’s situation. I never want to feel like that again, but it’s already here. I thought I knew a lot about Covid, but now that I have it and I am helping my wife get through it, I don’t know jack. It’s stressful and I don’t like the way it feels, both in terms of my own health and in helping take care of someone else

Okay, there are just a handful of topics I would like to be more informed about, and they are just off the top of my head. Like I said, there are literally a zillion gagillion more topics to list. This will do for now though. Enjoy, I guess.

7:08am on Day Five

I managed to sleep past 4:00am, but it took two tries. I went to bed at 10:30 thinking I was breathing through my nose a little better than I had before. As soon as a lay down though my nose clogged up again and all progress was removed. Crap. I fell asleep after a little tossing and turning and was hopefully on my way to a full night’s sleep… and then I woke up at 2:30am. What? Four hours? That’s it? I didn’t even make it to 4:00am. I went to the bathroom and then lay back down. I couldn’t fall asleep though. I was thinking of just getting up for a while. I got my pills and the last of my water bottle and a couple of protein bars and brought them to the couch. I was going to have my vitamins and maybe some breakfast but then I decided to try to sleep again. It worked. Next thing I know the 6:00am alarm in the bedroom was going off. I did it. I slept past 4:00am. What a relief.

Okay, I am up now and about to have some food and take a shower. At 9:00 I will punch in to work. I’ll tell my manager and my staff that I am planning on working until 1:00pm and then re-evaluating my situation. If I can work the full day I will, if not I’ll take half a sick day. Here’s hoping I can stay focused for the full day. Fingers crossed.

9:53pm on Day Four

I’m just about ready for bed. Maybe one more episode of Doctor Who and then I’ll pack it in for the night. I was not able to take a nap at all today and I am super exhausted. Is anyone giving odds on whether or not I will spontaneously wake up at 4:00am for a fourth day in a row? Here’s hoping I will not.

I’ve sort of had my mind made up that I would be able to work on Friday. Now that Friday is imminent, I really think that was too optimistic a goal. I am going to commit myself to working in the morning at least and then maybe going out sick in the afternoon if I need to.

I have been fever free all day today, which is nice. Other than the dizziness I think I have probably shown some improvement, but I am definitely not out of the Covid woods yet. The dizziness prompted me to skip this evening’s Paxlovid dose. I took three out of 10. My wife has had better luck. She took her ninth out of ten tonight. She’ll be through the whole coarse in the morning. Good for her. She was able to work a little this morning but it wore her out and she had to call out sick in the afternoon. Hopefully she’ll have better luck tomorrow. Hang in there, Jen. You’re almost through it and I am right behind you.

Okay, I have about 15 minutes left of Doctor Who season 13 episode 12 Pyramids of Mars Part 4, and then it’s off to sleep on the couch for me. Good night, gentle readers. Sweet dreams to you all.

3:26pm on Day Four

I think I have had a bit of a setback today. It’s not the Covid that’s the problem, I think it’s the meds. Specifically the Paxlovid. We were warned that there were some nasty side effects involved with Paxlovid and that some of them are worse than Covid itself. We figured it was still worth the effort so we started taking the 10 dose course.

This morning was my third dose. I took it at 8:00am. By about 11:00 I was starting to feel a little light headed. Over the next hour or two it was getting steadily worse. I asked The Google if dizziness was a side effect and sure enough it is. It was bad enough that I decided I am done with the med. No more Paxlovid for me. I expect the light headedness to clear up on it’s own, and I feel a little better now than I did a couple of hours ago, but if it persists I will talk to my doctor.

That’s the bad news for today (so far). The good news is that I am breathing through my nose a little better than yesterday, and I think the coughing has lessened a little too. I’m still exhausted and will probably have a nap at some point, but other than the dizziness I feel a little better today. Here’s hoping that’s a trend that continues. Here’s to kicking the virus to the curb, babie!