COVID Day Four

I have been saying that our COVID symptoms are fairly mild, that we've had garden variety colds with worse symptoms.  But our symptoms have left us more exhausted, or perhaps the exhaustion is one of the symptoms.  I don't remember ever sleeping as much as I have in the past 72 hours when I had a regular cold.

Of course, in the pre-pandemic days, I was working more hours at places that were less understanding about the need for sick leave.  I'm remembering one school where I worked full-time as an administrator where I had 6 sick days total.  If I took a sick day or two or three for a regular cold, what if I succumbed to something else later?

As I look back, I think that my workplace would have worked with me, if I was in the phase of my worklife where bosses weren't trying to downsize.  In the downsizing phase, all bets would be off, and if one wanted to keep one's job, one powered through, coughing and infecting everyone else.

You might ask why I was so worried about losing a job that sounds pretty crappy, but crappy or not, full-time jobs that could support middle class lifestyles--by which I mean a job that would pay the mortgage plus other essential expenses (food, electricity) and give health insurance coverage--were increasingly hard to come by in South Florida.

I am so grateful to be here, in the mountains of western North Carolina, in a place where our expenses are much lower, working for a school that has an expansive leave policy.  I am grateful for vaccines which have protected us from a more severe form of COVID.

I am ready to be done with this sickness.  I am tired of this cough, and this congestion which comes and goes.