Tuesday, September 17, 2024

 Tuesday, September 17, 2024

  I woke up not feeling well.   I had a runny nose and a fever of 100. By the end of the day, it had gone up to 100.5. Nothing to worry about, but clearly I was sick.  As I thought about it, I hadn’t been ill with a contagious disease in 25  years.  I just got a Covid shot last week.  I never had this reaction before, and it’s been a considerable lapse of time for the shot to be the cause of my current problem. The other option is that I’ve become negligent about wearing my mask when going into enclosed, crowded places.  A third option is I caught it from the students at Ulu Wini.

   I contacted Yvette asking for a COVID test and tissues. Yvette didn’t respond until late afternoon to say she had tests and tissues.  She bought them when visiting her family in Oregon. 

   Brenda’s boyfriend had a mild cold and assumed it was Covid. Brenda, her sister Erika and Erika’s husband, Mark, all got Covid. While Brenda’s boyfriend had only a mild case, Erika was very sick, recovered, and relapsed. As of now, she has been out of work for 19 days.

    Because Yvette didn’t respond to my text, I contacted Judy, who works at Target, to ask her to pick up the test and tissues at Target. Yvette called about 5 p.m. to say she would be home about six and put both items at my side door. I don’t know who got there first, Yvette or Judy.  I was asleep when Judy came.  I woke in a dark house to see this tower sitting on my coffee table beside the couch.  Judy said I was out. She called my name several times, but I didn’t respond.  She bought a package of four boxes of tissues. Apparently, you can’t buy a single box of tissues anymore.

   I was pretty depressed. I felt useless, feeling this would be my life from now on. It’s not a great feeling. Just reading and writing leaves me depressed.  

    Meghna Chakrabarty had a program on. The researcher had a bunch of kids on her own. She interviewed people who see having kids as a holy mission. They enjoy parenting. However, these folks are generally part of a religious community with strong support for having kids. Everyone in the community sees children as a blessing from God and parenting as their life purpose. Sometimes, I wonder how I would have done with children. It was not something I had ever dreamt about.  

    When Mike and I met, we never discussed having children. he didn’t want children because he thought it would negatively impact his son, Damon.  I had never felt called to have children. Mike and I discussed taking care of our mothers. Go figure. That was a mission for me.  I had a second mission, which was really my first, to find a way to improve the lives of others. I’ve done that. I’ve helped many kids do better in school and stop their suffering. However, I   would love to get groups of people interested in the methods I developed. Of course, I’m reluctant to put the work out there. I’m my own worst enemy. 

   I slept most of the day on the sofa. I woke up at 10:30 p.m. and went to bed. I couldn’t imagine sleeping through the night. Wrong!  I slept till 4:30.  I woke up at a normal temperature. I took Elsa for a short morning walk. I ran into Dean walking alone. I told him I was sick and kept my distance.  The fantastic thing was Elsa didn’t pee or poop on my lanai carpet last night. I don’t know what she did with her waste. It was pouring so intensely yesterday that streams flowing down from the mountain leaped over rock walls, creating waterfalls and flooding roads. The radio announcement on days like this is, “Turn around. Don’t drown.” Cars can be swept away by these raging waters. The storm system was bad because it lingered over our area most of the day. When it cleared at night, the air was fresh and less humid.