A Week Later

It’s been over a week now and we’re all still testing positive for COVID, plus a few random things have happened.

First off, I’m not exactly better. My propensity for upper airway and sinus trouble means that today I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache and am now actively trying to manage things to avoid getting another ear infection, which sucks.

Overall, I have little or no fever anymore but am still feeling tired and achy all the time, which does not mesh well with my anxiousness in getting back to work. I certainly tried, but what quickly put a stop to it was that “brain fog” is indeed a thing.

At first it was really weird (I would just sit and stare at a screen, not really reading), but now that I’m “better” it’s just a notch above the usual sinus pain-induced haze I’m sort of used to muddling through.

I eventually gave up on trying to work and just tried to rest, read and binge TV series while sipping tea in a daze (I suspect I will have to re-watch Andor, since I fell asleep partway through at least one episode).

I also avoided spending too much time using “regular” computers, to the point where I haven’t stepped into my home office for almost a week and, thanks to a week’s worth of pouring rain and shuttered windows, the air in there smells stale (my sense of smell is somewhat back, but not all there yet).

And, of course, through it all we had the weird background music from the implosion of Twitter, which I glimpsed through the small bursts of focus I was able to muster to keep track of social media¹ and a bunch of disparate IMs on my phone from folk closer to the madness.

Like many tech people, I am finding Mastodon to be a more civilized experience, although some ultra-idealistic regions of its ideological archipelago can be a bit off-putting.

I may have something more to write about all of the above if I can muster the stamina, but, in short, this week was not the way I expected to spend another birthday, and it isn’t over yet (any of it).