Plague House 2022

Just when I thought I we might be starting to get our shit back together, too...

Beautiful Wife tested positive for COVID on Monday, after a night of not feeling too well (mainly sinus meltdown and sore throat). Secondborn is running a fever, and Firstborn and I have both shown up with less serious fevers. So, you know, we're back to isolating and medicating and hydrating and... 

Yeah. We're fortunate that we have a nebulizer and something to put in it -- that seems to have kept the thing from moving down into pneumonia and/or bronchitis.

Really could have done without this, especially right now. It seems like the end of the school year and the start of summer is just one damned thing after another. There are small blessings to be counted, but that's hard to do when the hits keep coming. 

Right now it's not so bad for me and Firstborn, but Beautiful Wife is just starting to come out of it and Secondborn keeps trying to run a fever that's worryingly high. I'm tired, but I'm waiting to see if it gets worse.

And with that, it's definitely time to go to bed. Y'all... take care, please. Everybody in my area seems to be acting like the pandemic is over, but it's very definitely not and the potential long-term side-effects are worrisome, by which I mean terrifying.

Fuck 2021, too

 So 2020 was a shit year, all the way around. 

But holy hell, 2021 sure as shit seems to want to make it personal. 

My father-in-law died of liver cancer back in May. The funeral was in June. Beautiful Wife found out she had breast cancer in July. We're doing a full double-mastectomy in August. The boys start school again in about a week and a half, in person, masks optional because the Governor of Texas is a murderous asshole. At my work, we just delayed -- again -- a major software migration because the goddam application has too many problems and we haven't been able to get it ready. And last week we learned that we had very possibly been exposed to COVID, because you can't vaccinate kids under twelve and the newer variants can still infect vaccinated folks even if they don't seem to do them as much immediate damage. 

We got tested over the weekend, and the tests came back negative, but still. Avoiding people for another week, just to be sure.

Also, it's raining outside -- I'm writing this on Sunday -- which I normally find comforting but right now? Here? In Texas? In August? --feels like the bell that tolls for the end of the world by way of climate change. 

And we could solve this. We could solve all of this. We could solve this, except we can't because of all the people who keep insisting that we shouldn't be worried about it in the first place. 

I've said before that it's probably a good thing that the gods don't grant me Vast Supernatural Powers because I'd actually use them, but I've reconsidered. Give me that sort of power. See what I do with it. And let the powers of this world weep, because I'm sick to death of doing that myself over issues that shouldn't be issues.

Burn it all down.

Functioning Adult

 So we're into the last week of January, and I'm doing my best to keep everything moving as Beautiful Wife gets her semester going. (They started a bit later than usual this year.) I'm working from home as much as I can: between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and -- oh yes! -- the previous Administration's absolute lack of a plan (and possibly even supplies) for the vaccine, I am trying to be as cautious as possible. And honestly, that's probably still not cautious enough. 

On Saturday, my two new laptops arrived. Which would have been awesome, except they weren't mine. The one I ordered arrived two weeks ago. These two... just showed up. With my address on the delivery label, but two very different addresses on their packing slip. One was meant to go to Delaware, the other to somewhere in New York; why they got sent to North Texas I cannot imagine. But I spoke to Dell and got some return labels on Monday, and yesterday I handed them off to a shipping company to make their way back. 

This week has -- so far, at least -- decided to be absurdly, hideously busy; despite working from home and the boys being busy with school, my interruptions have had interruptions. Which is not to say that things aren't getting done; they are, the things I intended to do and the unintended alike. But it's stressful as fuck, and by the end of the day I feel drained. 

Fortunately, I'm taking next Monday and Tuesday off. I love you, Out Of Office message on my email. Never leave me...

As I forecast last Wednesday, I'm re-reading Space Opera and it's everything I remembered and more; I am honestly somewhat in love with the book. And I know it's going to break me in half as I get closer to the end, and honestly I'm kind of looking forward to it. 

Meanwhile I'm getting people up on time and sometime tomorrow I need to pull the disposal off the kitchen sink and find out why it's jammed -- or, if I can't find the problem, just replace it -- and still be at my computer doing a full-time day's worth of work while making sure the boys are staying focused on their school. In other words, I need to be a functioning adult. And I am, I'm just starting to worry about how long I can keep this up. 2020 was a succession of intertangled nightmares; 2021 seems to be scaling back on some of the horrors (he says cautiously, and with some reservations) but so far it's been unrelenting in a way that I'd very much hoped we were done with. 

There are more horrors ahead, and more mundane stress and drama, so take care of yourselves and take care of each other. The best way through is together.

A Look Back on 2020

 As the end of one year lurches closer and we await the beginning of the next, it seems like a good time to look back over the past year and...

...Oh, gods. I'd forgotten about that bit. And that one. And holy shit, that. And...

...Okay, you know what? Let's just not.