Whomp whomp!
A year ago, our household tested positive for COVID for the first time. We’d spent so much time and effort avoiding it, and then it showed up and was entirely unpleasant. As the anniversary of our infection approached, my wife’s job saw an outbreak beginning to bloom, and I started seeing more references to people online also running into it.
We’ve also been dealing with a recurring heat wave and smoke combination this summer. My instinct to watch the thermometer and throw open every screened door and window the second the temperature becomes bearable is doing battle with the fact that I look outside and see hazy sunshine for days on end; or the air starts coming in smelling vaguely singed. Thursday night, I was desperate not to be running the air conditioner, and against my better judgement, I opened everything up, and we went to bed letting the nice cool air into our apartment. Then, I woke up with a nauseating headache that was next to impossible to deal with for all of my Friday.
I tried laying down, my 2 hour nap definitely helped, but sitting up again and trying to focus on work for the rest of the day was a herculean struggle than left me nauseated and miserable by the time I clocked out for the day.
It felt a little inauspicious for my second day participating in Blaugust, that I was pretty much immediately incapacitated.
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned as I succumb to adulthood, it’s that I’m apparently more sensitive to things than I used to be. The air is crappy? My sinuses decide I am going to be down for the count. I forget to hydrate over the course of the day? I end up spending the next day feeling poorly because everything is just out of whack. My life is the very epitome of the meme about water being the “adult beverage.”
Of course, all of this on top of another potential COVID infection meant I spent most of the day paranoid I was going to be back at the brink of brain fog and a persistent cough. But, it turns out I was at the mercy of Canadian wildfires and poor air quality. For the moment, we’re testing negative in this household, and hopefully it will stay that way. Now, if the air quality could improve and being outside didn’t make us both nauseated I’d really be relieved.
It’s a pretty humdrum way to start off this first week of Blaugust, but for now, it’s words on a “page” and I’m just going to count that as a win.
