Reflections on Life During COVID-19 - Day 257

 I can't believe it's been 250 days since life fundamentally changed for me this year. 

It's another Monday, back to work, somewhat manic again with lots to do. Not because of travel, but this is a short week, I want to enjoy the holiday with family, and so I need to get things done this week, so I'm busy.

This past weekend we coached a scrimmage tournament on Sat night. It was the first time our team has been together since Nov 13, and that wasn't the whole team. The last time we were all together was Nov 1 when we competed in our normal regional competition, which we won. In that time, I got COVID, along with most of my family. It was a strange, hard experience.

However, volleyball is on my mind. We shut down for 11 days, came back for 1, and then with county restrictions, we moved to just 5 kids at a time. Annoying, but I understand. for some reason, the cases, deaths, and hospitalizations have increased dramatically.

So, last week I held 3 sessions, each with 5 girls. It wasn't great, but not bad. At least we got to move. We then played well in the competition Sat, despite not having 2 girls that didn't come because of health fears. We managed to go 2-1, playing the 16-1s team close and losing 2 sets by 3 points.

Fun to get out, as I am not sure when we will get together again. Last Friday restrictions changed again to Red, so no indoor dining, no more than 10 in the gym, including the other groups. As a result, we are moving to 2 kids and 1 coach next week. Not a great setup, but we'll make do. 

The region has cancelled competition, and at the point, I wonder if we'll be able to go in Jan. Right now it looks like this year is toast. Even if we get numbers to come down, we won't know until almost Christmas. Our competitions are in Weld county, which is very sparsely populated, very conservative, and one gym is holding some matches. Tia and I aren't sure if it's the best idea, but we're also somewhat less worried since we've had it.

The COVID Experience

COVID was, well, weird. We all had different symptoms, and it's lingered differently. I think it's still somewhat lingering, but as I do and try more things, I can do them.

Tia woke up with cold/flu symptoms on the day we were taking a trip. We cancelled everything and get her tested. It was a decent illness, but she tested negative. A few days later, I got some light cold symptoms, but I was really tired. Like I spent most of 3 days in bed with fatigue. Not tired, just unable to muster energy to do things. I don't know I've spent more than 1 or 2 days in bed since I was 4 years old. I had a fever off an on, weird body temp regulation issues, and light cough/sore throat. With Tia's negative test, I was really thinking it was a cold.

However, it lingered. I spent an hour or two at my desk some days, but mostly was in bed. I might feel better in the am or afternoon and work a little, but for the most part, I didn't do much. After 3-4 days, I felt well enough to do some work outside, then was fatigued again. I coached a little, and I thought it was a bad flu.

Then I finished a busy morning and got tightness in my chest with a lot of coughing. Not enough to worry me, but enough that I thought something was wrong. Got a test, positive. No more fever, but I was still tired and knew I needed to take time off. I spent most of a week in bed, before starting to feel better and see symptoms disappear. All told, about 20 days without much exercise or much work. 

Since then I've ramped up exercise, getting to a 25 minute swim and 1 hour of yoga on consecutive days last week. I coached Sat, and took Sun easy, working outside for a half day, but then taking it easy with some guitar and football.

Tia got better quicker, but then got worse again, with less work than me. Kendall had a sinus infection and fatigue on and off. All of us seem to get better and worse on different schedules, though I think I'm almost two weeks now feeling mostly normal. Slight weird feeling in my chest, but it doesn't seem to affect me working out.

I am going slow.

The World of Work

It felt like things were getting slightly back to normal. Weird with two major conferences being virtual in the last month, and odd to be recording sessions rather than practicing to deliver them live, but it is what it is.

Things continue to move along, but it is strange to see people online and know it will be months before we get together. After now, 250+ days after the first things cancelled, I have no idea when I'll go to an office or event. I tried to do a live event last week, but with a very small response and the county changing regulations, I had to cancel.

The Election

This was crazy, and stressful. I wondered if people would vote, would they make deadlines, would they actually reject the worst President of my lifetime. I watched a lot of coverage, mostly in bed, with emotions up and down as it wasn't sure who might win.

People did reject Trump, but not by a lot, in my opinion. The economy mattered, and I think lots of people ignored COVID and voted for him. 73mm votes is nothing to sneeze at. At the same time, many more people came out and voted, and the 5-6mm vote margin is pretty large. I'm glad it's mostly done, and this transition so far has gone better than I thought. I was worried about more violence, but mostly it's rhetoric. That's not going away anytime soon.

The Future

A friend reached out to me today, asking when I'd travel for work. I said an off chance by April for small events if the vaccine works and starts to go out. For the office or major events, I think Sept or later.

Someone else asked me about travel in general. Certainly some people still travel. We go to Hawaii in Jan, and others have gone to Mexico or around the US. I was supposed to travel in Oct, but got COVID.

I think some things will change next year, and I am certainly ready to travel. Mostly it's a finding time and knowing the possibility of crossing a border. Those things affect me at work, and I think they still will through most of next summer.

On the positive side, now 3 vaccines appear to be viable, so maybe we'll start to get back to the previous normal next summer when lots of people get them. The next month or two will be interesting as cases all over the world are growing. If we can get things under control, I see limited shutdowns/lockdowns being used until the vaccine gets widely distributed.

As of now, I have no idea if we'll get to compete in volleyball, but I hope so.