Year end

 

2020.  Yes, it was that bad. Oy!

Cookie started off 2020 deathly ill.  It was not your normal flu event. High fever, trouble breathing horrible cough, chest tightness, loss of taste and smell, and a thirty-pound weight loss because nothing smelled good or tasted like anything.   The doctor said, "Oh, there are numerous flu virus' floating around, I would monitor it and let it run its course."

The virus started in mid-December, peaked after Christmas, and then came back with a vengeance in the week between Christmas and New Years'.  It abated at the end of the first week of January, and then came back again for final linger blow. 

I have asked if it could have been COVID, but the doctor seemed non-plussed in February.   We still don't know. 

And that's how the rest of 2020 went for Cookie. Sealed off except for the husband, and chats friends only at a distance, this year would go down as the worst in our collective lives - because we are all in it together. 

And then there is the Presidential Election.  The ultimate stressor. 

And then there is the current president - who isn't doing his job and doesn't deserve a capital "P".  What a grotesque and vile version of the leader of the "free" world.

Anyhow, there is enough about him. 

On the COVID topic, Cookie received some bitter news today. 

In 2019 I contracted with a genealogical society to speak at the annual meeting in May 2020.  Well, we in COVID lockdown mode when that rolled around and Cookie was in lockdown because of Asthma and breathing issues left over from the "flu".  The doctors forbade travel except for the grocer, the doctor, or walking the dogs.   So I contacted the person who hired me and said I couldn't fulfill the contract. 

I was doing this pro-Bono, so no money had changed hands when I made the call on March 31st not to do the gig.  EVERYTHING was on lockdown by that point, but the client insisted I reconsider. 

Then the first spike really took off.  And Cookie reconsidered and said no, again.

"But it isn't bad here," said they. 

Cookie refused to become a possible Covid-Cookie posterchild.  And there were frustrating feelings.  Someone wasn't taking this for as dire as it was.  And in fact, on March 31st it wasn't that bad where they were. 

But it certainly was getting very bad, very fast, elsewhere.   And it still is.

Today, I found out that this person and their spouse both came down with the disease, and both were hospitalized.  That's the bitter news.  

I hate, hate, hate finding out that people I like are hurting. With this virus, I hate that people are hurting, period.  Damn this disease. Damn it to Hell. 

Sometimes I wonder if we will ever beat it back.   Yes, I know that there are vaccines - and Cookie will get right in line when told to do so and I will gladly take it.  I worry though that person will not get the second shot.  I worry that they will think they are invincible having gotten the vaccine.  It doesn't prevent you from carrying it, it's designed so if you get it, hopefully, you can shrug it off faster. 

So I guess you know what is in Cookie's mind. All the time.  If it's not COVID, it's the person in the White House and those who would undermine the election. 

But we have hope. 

A new year is always the start of new hope, better things to come, more and better Joy, and less OY!  

And mine, for myself, the people I love, the people I know and the people I don't are that 2021 will end on a higher note.