What a strange, roller coaster of a week. My fitness and eating goals went a bit sideways this past week (2 times on the treadmill; out of the 21 meals, probably 13 where I needed them to be, but too much snacking and other stress eating, the reasons for which I'm about to get to). On Sunday, we took Maia to urgent care because she had a fever, some side pain, and a sort of whimper cough. Based on her history, we believed she had a UTI, which she has had before. While at urgent care, they did a COVID test for her. On Monday, she responded pretty quickly to the antibiotic for the UTI, so we were thrown for a loop when we received the call that she tested positive for COVID. The week was a whirlwind from there - I got tested on Tuesday and received confirmation on Wednesday that I was positive; Jackie was tested on Wednesday and we still have not heard officially whether she is positive or not.
So, we have been in quarantine this week - me working from home (and conducting depositions from my dining room via Zoom); Maia is doing virtual learning; Jackie is making plans constantly from home for her substitute teacher for her classroom. I suppose it is a good thing we like each other, because we have a lot of time together now, and at least another few days with all of us together in the house. If everything goes well, Maia will be back in school on Wednesday (10 days out from the day she started having symptoms, the Saturday night before she got tested). If I show no symptoms by Friday/Saturday - 10 days from my positive test - then I can leave quarantine (so far, I have had a slight cough/sore throat and more fatigue than normal, but thankfully it appears everything has been mild). Jackie may be in quarantine quite awhile longer depending on whether her test is positive or negative (as if it is negative, she has to quarantine 14 days from the date of her last exposure, which would begin at the end of Maia and my quarantine periods). A lot of shakeup in our house this week as a result, and at least for another couple weeks things will be different. But, it seems none of us will experience any significant symptoms as a result of this. Considering who we have already lost to COVID, and the underlying conditions that could make us more at risk, the week has been stressful, but we are, for the moment, thankful. Hopefully, for me, I can make some sense of normalcy on the week ahead and get back on track towards better fitness and health.
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Some pieces that kept me thinking this week ...
1. There are no good choices - from Ezra Klein, at Vox, a piece that discusses how the poor federal response to the pandemic has left us, as individuals, with nothing but poor choices weighing various risks between bad options. This hit home a little this week, with our house testing positive, knowing that we have truly avoid all large gatherings, have had very limited contact with family and friends (some we haven't seen in months, or only with distancing and masks). School started, a month later we get infected. It does feel like there are no good choices right now.
2. Stop Expecting Life to Go Back to Normal Next Year - an opinion piece at the New York Times, this really gets at some of my thinking every since learning about COVID-19 in February and March of this year. For me, it has felt like we have a lot of wishful thinking in this country (starting at the top). We have endured nearly 200,000 deaths, unprecedented shocks to the health care system and the economy, and this is after locking down for most of April in most of the country, significant restrictions on travel and public gatherings. The virus is still here, and its not going away if we keep doing what we are doing for a while. A vaccine does offer some hope, but getting a widely distributed vaccine by the middle of next year would be a herculean feat considering the past timelines for vaccine. The idea of anything really making life normal before that smacks of wishful thinking.
3. The Crushing Reality of Zoom School - by Dan Sinker at Esquire, a piece that I felt like we lived this week, handling virtual or distance learning from Maia while trying to work from home - testing the limits of our internet bandwidth and our being able to share workspace. And it was only a week, there are places and families in much more trying and difficult situations than ours. Its all very sad.
4. Scientific American Endorses Joe Biden - the headline says it all. The first time in the 175-year-history that Scientific American has endorses a presidential candidate. The Republican Party for awhile has shun the knowledge and learning from science, most notably when it comes to denying the reality of climate change and in pushing "alternative" curriculum in schools against evolution. Seems like that lack of respect for the knowledge we acquire via science resulted in a segment of our population and leaders that failed to understand infectious diseases and led to a ruinous pandemic response. Politics and policy and ideology aside, we all live in a world that operates under certain scientific principles; the failure of leaders to accept those basic realities leads to bad realities for the rest of us.
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A busy week on the book front, where I finished books 69 - Break 'em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money by Zephyr Teachout (a look at the monopolization of our economy and politics and how we should consider re-embracing antitrust enforcement), 70 - The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (a middle grade fiction work with a compelling and readable fantasy story), and 71 - Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College by Jesse Wegman (as the title suggests, a book proposing the abolition of the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote for selecting the President, with a discussion of the history surrounding the Electoral College, prior attempts to modify or abolish it, as well as the current status of arguments against change). I've started The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (historical fiction set in Ireland during the flu pandemic at the end of WWI), and will likely be picking up Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson this week, which I am really looking forward to (I read Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration earlier this year, and without question it is one of the best history books I've ever read.).
Here's hoping for a quieter week ahead.
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