Perhaps the one silver lining in the whole issue with 2020 being shut down from the world was that it was the first year in I can’t remember how long that I didn’t get a cold. The older I get, the worse my colds appear to be, so I was incredibly excited when I made it through last winter and realized that I didn’t actually get sick. It was beautiful.
And over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had both a cold and a stomach bug flying through the house.
And I’m not super excited about it.
Since having kids, it has been nearly impossible to keep those little schoolroom bugs from inundating the household, so last year, while the kids were still barely in school, and when they were, they were far more separated from each other and classrooms were still being cleaned on the regular, we lucked out and not only didn’t get the big C-word sickness, but also didn’t get the little c-word. Having a year off from sniffling, sneezing, and all the other stuff that comes along with it was a (literal) breath of fresh air.
Having the little-c enter our house has me wondering what that might mean otherwise for our family who has been lucky enough to avoid the big-C. While we’re now all vaccinated, I know that this isn’t enough to keep us completely free and clear from becoming yet another number on the charts, and therefore becoming a number which could possibly make other people into numbers. And so, I’m finding myself a little nervous about what this might mean for our holiday season.
If little-c is going around, that means that big-C certainly has an opening to get in, especially with the hip new Omicron fad going around. And I don’t want that. Not that I’m concerned about being sick (I mean, I hate being sick, but I’m not, like, worried about it being a big deal), but I’m still as concerned as ever about getting other people sick. And one of the downsides about the vaccine on that front is that if you’re sick, you’re less likely to even be aware of it.
You’re also less likely to pass it along, so that’s something.
But, of course, now we’re dealing with yet another dangerous variant being passed along, putting us into yet another holiday season where things are already being cancelled (not as much stateside yet) and people are looking at having their second holiday season become a stay-at-home party where they miss out on getting to see family and friends.
And I’m also not eager for that.
Yeah, sure, I may have been a little overly optimistic that we would be able to convince folks to actually get vaccinated quickly enough to nip this whole thing in the bud. I knew that we’d still struggle with getting enough vaccines into those less-fortunate countries to keep this thing from mutating, but I had held out hope that we might be able to find a way to make our country, at least, a place where people could feel a bit safer.
Instead, I’m sitting here with a cold wondering what else might be coming down the pipeline.
I should also note that although I personally have not been tested for COVID since this cold reared its ugly head, my family members who passed this thing along to me were, and we’re clean.
That doesn’t mean that I’m not working really hard on keeping from passing this little-c on to other people. Because I think in general, we’re all really sick of being sick or of getting other people sick, or of worrying about who is going to get us sick.
But I’m also really sick of just waiting to see when we can be done with being sick.
I’m sick.
And drugged up on cold medication.
Which means I should probably stop writing now…
Have fun out there. And don’t get sick!
Adam Oster: Unfocused Creative 