RECORD STORE TALES #1052: The Covid Chronicles Continue

I’ve stopped testing.  Jen is still suffering pretty hard.

I worked from home for most of this week, which both sucked, and didn’t.  Because I didn’t have to do the usual stuff – shower, pack a lunch, drive, wait – I had a lot more free time at home and got some extra creative projects done in the mornings which I like to do.

I also explored un-ripped parts of my music collection, as seen below.  The “G” section was easy to access, and so I grabbed a stack of discs that I had not played in over 10 years.  Much much longer in some cases:

• Peter Gabriel – Shaking the Tree – Sixteen Golden Greats
• Marvin Gaye – The Very Best Of
• Girl – Pure Greed
• Giuffria – Silk & Steel
• Roger Glover – Butterfly Ball
• Glenn Gould – Goldberg Variations – 1955 version
• Glenn Gould – Goldberg Variations – 1981 version
• Glenn Gould – Beethoven/Liszt Symphony #6
• Green Bullfrog Sessions

Rediscovering Glenn Gould was a delight; I especially like when you can hear him humming or singing along to his playing.  Green Bullfrog was funky and cool!  Blackmore really wailed and I could absolutely hear that it was Ian Paice on drums.  Butterfly Ball was surprising fun.  Giuffria was way, way, way more Journey-like than I remembered.  Sounds like they were really going for a Journey vibe, especially with David Glenn Eisley’s vocals.  Peter Gabriel and Marvin Gaye were fun re-visits with a lot of great songs.  But the real surprise was Girl, featuring Phil Lewis and Phil Collen.  I loved hearing Collen’s trademark shred, but Lewis is an underrated singer.  Girl was the favourite of this batch.  Sorry Beethoven.

Back to Covid.  Jen is suffering, not gonna lie.  I have zero symptoms, but this morning I did cough up some phlegm.  Kinda like you often do several days after a bad cold.  Except I never had the bad cold.

Jen’s experienced dizzy spells and general, all around malaise.  She wishes her nose would stop running.

I experienced a troll on the “Let’s Get Physical” Facebook group who commented that Covid wasn’t real, when I posted my Covid listening list.  I told him to “eat shit” and blocked him.

Just another day in Covid land.

RECORD STORE TALES #1051: Covid Chronicles 4

Day Four

Back to work, and I am tired.  A couple hours of work are enough to make me feel it.  Legs are tired too.  Maybe because I’ve been on my back all week.  I have no cough, nothing wrong with my lungs…I got lucky.

Jen is less lucky.  She has the symptoms.  A bottle of Sprite tasted like fish to her.  And I feel bad because it was clearly me that brought it into the house.

I only go one place.  Work and back.  I’ve been nowhere else.

RECORD STORE TALES #1048: Covid Chronicles 3 – Sharing is Caring

Day Three

Fatigued and restful, I did need more sleep.  What I did not need was to pass this Covid on to Jen.  Our pharmacist advised it was inevitable that I would, given our small living space.

She has a scratchy throat, a cough, and now her sense of taste has gone completely out of whack.  Sprite tastes like fish.

I am grateful that I have not gotten worse, but I feel terrible about this latest turn of events.

RECORD STORE TALES #1048: Covid Chronicles 2

Day Two

I slept for hours!  Lost track of how many hours.  In the morning I was still testing positive.  Jen is still negative.  In the afternoon, my sore throat went away, leaving me only tired and achey.

Monday will be a sick day from work.  I am hoping to go back on Tuesday.  Only the test will tell.

How it happened, I can’t fathom.  I haven’t done much except go to work, and I have limited contact there with anyone.  Jen has been to the hospital a couple times, so my current theory is that she brought Covid home from there without getting sick herself.  I’m positive, she’s negative.

My health has been all out of whack lately, with a nasty stomach bug the week before.  Stress levels are close to all-time highs.  I’m triple-vaxxed, but I had a panic attack the day I was supposed to get a booster and never did the fourth.

So here’s the Covid Chronicles, check ’em out and see how I’m doing.

RECORD STORE TALES #1048: Covid Chronicles 1

Day One

I woke up Saturday morning bright and early with creative juices flowing.  In a long and effortless spurt, I completed 7000 words of Tee Bone Man vs. Edie Van Heelin’, some of my best fictional writing to date.  It took a few hours, and several spins of Night Ranger’s Greatest Hits, to finish.  I had a tickle in my throat, but felt fine otherwise.  Tired, yes, but I only had four hours of sleep, so that was to be expected.

I tested myself shortly after lunch.  I was shocked when the line filled in immediately and strongly.  Covid?  No way!  It didn’t seem possible.  It still doesn’t.

I went to go lie down and caught a couple more hours of sleep.  I talked to a few people and got some advice.  Everyone said to hydrate.  I placed an order with a convenience store for a few gallons of Gatorade, and some ice cream.  Why not?  Why not enjoy something, while I still can.  We ordered drumsticks.  What a delight.  I hadn’t had drumsticks in years!  This one had to be the best I’d ever tasted.  The saltiness of the nuts, the sweet of the chocolate and caramel, and the perfect creaminess of the ice cream.  Suck on that, Covid.

Jen made steaks and carrots for dinner.  They too were also great.  I had the leftovers for breakfast this morning and they still tasted great.

At present, everything smells and tastes normal.  I have some mild body aches, a dry throat, and some fatigue.  I also haven’t slept much; I caught about five hours and two more hours in a couple spurts last night.  I’ve been up since roughly four in the morning. It’s not that Covid is keeping me up, it’s that I feel relatively normal and my creative juices are waking me up.  I had a really productive day yesterday and my brain wants to continue that today, though I want to try and stay horizontal for most of today.

I’ll test again later and keep you posted as best I can.