I’ve been scarce around these parts for the last several weeks as I recovered from covid. It was the first time I’d tested positive and today I’m grateful to feel (mostly) like myself again. Ever since the start of the pandemic, we’ve masked indoors which is a huge factor in why it took so long for SARS‑CoV‑2 to get me. And there’s a very good chance I know the source of my infection: Zippy.**

As shared at the time, on May 13 we were abruptly faced with saying goodbye to our beautiful Marcel, so when Zippy felt off that night we thought it was just a grief/stress-induced response in his body. Deep in our mourning, we didn’t even think to test or isolate. Then late at night on Friday the 15th, I suddenly had a sore throat. Finally, I thought to test. Positive.

Spoiler alert: the experience was no fun. Fortunately, we have good friends who brought us meals and medicine, flowers and notes, along with offers to help in any way we needed. It was Zippy’s second covid experience and he recovered more quickly (in part because he took a full course of Paxlovid while I only made it halfway through before having an allergic reaction that forced me to stop the treatment). I mostly did a good job resting my brain by staying off screens, but being a community organizer meant there were a few items I needed/wanted to tend to, which I did, as quickly as possible. “Quickly” is a relative term, though, when you’re infected with a virus that invades every single system in your body. No lie, I actually felt my brain getting hotter as I struggled to wrangle a few words for a short call-to-action. I’d already been turning down other organizers’ requests for help and that hot-brain sensation reinforced that decision.

Fortunately, reading books didn’t bother me and I embraced my down time by sitting on the patio, upper body in the umbrella shade and legs in the warm sunshine. I gave up reading the anger-inducing Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves, and instead read a bunch of children’s books written in verse (non of which were especially good, in my opinion, so shall remain anonymous). I also read Rabbit Factory (which was my least favorite Larry Brown book, but since he’s dead I can say that without hurting any feelings) and David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder which was an incredible and horrifying “adventure” that never needed to happen and only did happen because humans are exceedingly greedy and violent.

I also took my camera out on the patio (just that one time, though, as it made my head hurt) and photographed some of the flora and fauna.

I also poorly photographed a black-tailed deer walking through the trees and shrubs about 15 feet from where I sat which you’ll have to imagine yourself. I’m currently kinda grumpy about the neighborhood ungulates because despite there being a  forest right up the street, they prefer chomping flower blooms plus the zinnia starts I’d planted (the only thing I’ve planted since moving here). So, I’m in no mood to showcase deer right now. (Although I did try to photograph two new-new fawns while taking a walk the other day because they were so tiny and cute and not-yet-destroying gardens.)

Well, my eyes are tired now from this screen time so I’ll stop here, grateful to be upright and taking part in the world beyond my patio. I do hope you’re doing well. 🌻

** my guess is he got it while at the dentist on Monday of that week but we also briefly did some political work that evening in a non-ventilated room with a dozen unmasked people which means we could have gotten it at the same time and Zippy’s infection incubated faster.