captainsblog | ♫If I were you I'd take a permanent vacation....♫

I didn't post on August 15th, which is unusual for me. Pick any random August 15th in my archive (click on the 8/15 entry from last year, or fiddle with the scrolly thing below it to pick an earlier 8/15) and you'll know why I still remember that day in 1978 as my Independence Day. For unlike the more traditional College Trip a year earlier where Mom and Dad dropped me off for the school year at a Cornell dorm and an army of red-shirted Orientation Counselors shlepped my stuff, this trip was just me, my sister and a helpful then-boyfriend. No red-shirted army to help with the loadout, and lots more stuff, because this time I had no intention of ever going back. I was the first of three roommates to arrive on the day our lease started, and those couple of weeks before sophomore classes were dedicated to learning the apartment's area, where to shop, what the difference was between heads of iceberg lettuce and cabbage, and that there was no housekeeping staff to replace the TP when it ran out.

Twelve moves and ten years later, I was married, in the first home we ever owned, settled into a real job and only two moves of house and three of job would follow over the next 34 years. Still, a lot of that independence and confidence began on that day and in that place.

So how did I celebrate it this year? Mostly by sleeping more in 48 hours than I have since I had mono in 1984:P

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Sunday morning's dawn broke with a cough. They sometimes do, but this one was different somehow. I of course assumed the worst, broke out one of our 300 Mister Wizard Home COVID Tests, and was pleased to see it come up negative. But test again in 48 hours to be sure, they said.

I stayed close to home. No walkies for the dog. Head hurt a little, chills, body aches (yet oddly the hamstring felt pretty good). It was mostly the lethargy: I spent hours communing with a pillow. The animals were wonderful; Pepper must've known something was up and kept the whining about the reduction in her supply chain of chores. Jack spent hours cuddled against my knee.

The 15th itself brought only one court hearing, which I had to do by phone anyway. Filed one case from home, answered some emails, returned not quite as often to the curled-up ball. By now I did have a slight fever I didn't the day before, but the chills were gone.

Another overnight, still not better. Took the test again this morning and,...

Yup, the Grim Reaper finally got me. And, a couple hours later, we confirmed Eleanor has it, too.

There are worse things. We're both fully vaccinated and boosted, which majorly increases the chances of it being mild. Other than the phone call yesterday, I have no court or client commitments this week, and the only inquiry could be done by Zoom if they're okay with that. I've informed the two clients I met with last Friday and people in both offices, and all have been kind about it. This wasn't my idea of when and where to take a vacation, but sometimes the universe makes those decisions for you and I accept it.

The CDC drill is basically to wait. Take the test again Thursday to see where the antigens are; two negatives 48 hours apart mean I can go roun in the parp! again. Masking just became mandatory again, and next week is fairly quiet, too, which will help if the thing hangs around. I have work I can do from home, plenty to read and maybe a dent will be made in the streamings I or we are falling behind on. The bills are all paid.

Call it a different kind of Independence Day.

Still to come: the third Stupid Lawyer Who's Not Me story I keep putting off, and TFG's Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Week.