Hello, my friends. It’s been a while since I’ve been here once again. Although, this time, I have a valid excuse. Namely, this:
I have COVID-19. Before last week, I was beginning to think that I was in that lucky category of people who are immune since I went 2 years and 8 months without getting it. Alas, no. I am no longer a COVID virgin or a novid. I’ve been kicked out of the club.
Admittedly, when I saw that test result, I panicked. This illness has killed many people after all. Fortunately, I have 4 doses of vaccine on board, so it’s not as bad as it could have been. I’m in no danger of dying.
Last Wednesday, my sister came home early from work with a positive test result. The next day, I started to feel lousy. I had a headache, stuffy nose, scratchy throat, and every single muscle in my body ached–even muscles I didn’t know I had. I was also dizzy as hell, had activity intolerance, and COVID brain.
A week and change later, I am functioning roughly 75% of normal. Every day, I feel about 5% better than the day before, but it is lingering far longer than I’d like. The dizziness is better as long as I don’t overexert, but I still get winded even walking up stairs and the brain fog is still in full effect. My cognitive abilities are slower than normal, I’ve had to correct nearly every word I’ve typed so far, and I keep stumbling over words when I speak. For example, talking to my boss on the phone the other day, I told him in all seriousness that I have brain frog. Ribbit.
Other than that, what else is going on? Oh, I never did tell you how poker night went, did I? It went swimmingly. It was great seeing all my friends in the same room at the same time again. We had much fun, and I’m happy to report that I was the big winner for the night! It was a $20 buy in and when I cashed out, I had $117. Bwa ha ha. I said to my friends as they were leaving, “Thanks for all your money.”
I made most of my vast fortune on a game called Kings & Littles, a variant of five card draw where the wild cards are kings and the smallest card in each player’s hand. Everyone is dealt five cards. On a count of three, all players either fold or stay in at the same time. If you stay in, you can draw one to five cards. There is no round of betting since we play for the pot. If you stay in and lose, you have to match the pot so it gets very expensive to stay in after a few rounds. The game keeps going and the pot keeps getting bigger until only one player stays in and beats the deck.
I won two hands of Kings & Littles in a row with four aces. The first round, I had two kings, one ace, and then the smallest card in my hand was also wild. The second round, I had two aces, one king, and the little wild.
I won a big hand of 2’s and 4’s as well. 2’s and 4’s is a pot match game played much like Kings & Littles except that you are dealt four cards, and 2’s and 4’s are wild. If you stay in, you can draw only zero, two or four cards. I had four aces in that hand as well.
So, the night was a success. I was worried about my reactive dog with that many people in my house. The first people to arrive were the out of towners. It did not go well introducing them to her inside, so I had them go out to the garage. She did better outside. After a few minutes of scary German shepherd business, she had calmed down completely.
Of course, one of the two people who saw my dog at her worst is afraid of dogs. After she calmed down though, she stayed by him most of the night, which he loved. After that, with each subsequent introduction, she did better. By the time the last person arrived, she didn’t react at all. Oh, another person. Fine, I give up.
Since then, even before I got COVID, I’ve been holed up in my house again for the most part. I still can’t seem to get out of that quarantine mindset. Most people in Los Angeles have stopped wearing masks altogether. I haven’t. Last week, we got some to go food at my favorite Mexican restaurant. While waiting for food, I noticed that while most of the employees were wearing masks, we were the only customers who were. It’s probably for the best since a day or two later, I got COVID. I would hate to be responsible for getting anyone sick. I can, however, lord it over my sister that she gave me COVID, the gift that, as of now, keeps on giving.
So, that’s about it for me. How have you been?
Read the rest of the WCS posts hosted by Natalie the Explorer.
Fish Of Gold 