Category: life

Categories
life

Dusty Drive

Wind gusts were up to 110 km/hour today. The highway was closed on my way home from work. The dust was so bad I could barely see the cars ahead of me. An RCMP officer blocking the road told me about a collision ahead and to take the side roads instead. She was irked that people were driving so fast in such poor visability.

After all the detours, the winds had died down, visibility was returning, and then as I approached Coaldale, I found myself behind a “freedom convoy” of protesters. Farmers in their tractors protesting… I don’t know what — that they are tired of people being mad at them for not wearing masks? Anyway, luckily for me, they were only blocking one lane.

What would normally be a half hour drive took a full hour.

Categories
life pandemic

Covid Continues

Earlier this week I implied that Covid was a breeze but with all the sleepless nights and harsh cough burning in my lungs — the most succinct thing I can say now is, this sucks. After 13 days I’m really starting to wonder when I’m finally going to get better.

After missing 5 days of work my admin explained that she was going to need medical documentation that I was still sick. I made a phone appointment and started explaining the situation to my doctor and how I had taken another test but it still showed me as being positive when she cut me off saying it doesn’t matter because I was STILL SYMPTOMATIC. She kindly wrote up a note saying I would be off “until symptoms cleared.”

I feel guilty for being away from work for so long but I can’t imagine showing up to my grade fives all stuffed up and coughing and explaining how I had Covid but because enough time had passed (and the guilt was getting to me) it was just time for me to return. I’m mad that these thoughts are even going through my mind. It’s dumb for a person sick with Covid to even think about returning to work before they are better; yet, here I am, doing exactly that.

Categories
life

HomePod Mini

I ordered a HomePod Mini which arrived today.

My daughter asked if there was a baby Siri inside. I explained that it was the same Siri as the big Homepods’. Ignoring me, she exclaimed, “Oh, so cute! She’s going to hatch!” and then started laughing.

I’ve been using the intercom feature to call into the kitchen while I’m sick in bed. It’s also nice to turn on white noise to help get some sleep while I’m sick. My favorite is the “sounds of the forest”.

Categories
life pandemic

Covid, A Week Later

It’s been seven days since the kids and I tested positive with Covid. For something that has occupied our worst fears for the last two years, we have faired extremely well.

I realize, of course, that Ange and I are fully vaccinated and that with the kids being so young they are unlikely to suffer major complications. It’s also true that the omicron variant is a much different beast than the earlier strains but it has still been a week of worry as the kids have had fevers and short bouts of coughing fits.

I’m not well enough to return to school tomorrow, I still have a headache and stuffed up sinuses.

It’s my belief that this whole five days to recovery is far too short and is exactly why we got it in the first place — we were in extended contact with someone who tested positive seven days previous but we were led to believe the infectious stage was over.

In the time since we tested positive we know a couple others that have also contracted it. One of our friends says she knows four families (including us) that have it right now.

Even though our hospitals are as full as any time in the pandemic, I think this might be the beginning of the end.

Categories
life pandemic

I Have Covid

The dreaded unstoppable covid arrived in my family over the weekend (probably) and was confirmed for each of us today in positive test after test. Andrea lucked out and hers came back negative but for the rest of us, it’s COVID-19!

The youngest of the family has taken the worst of it. He didn’t sleep much last night and what little shut-eye he got, he did it in our bed breathing directly into my face.

Although I haven’t been terribly ill, I could tell I wasn’t well enough to go to school so I took a medical day and I’m glad I did. Now it turns out I’ll be home for the rest of the week (5 days for fully vaccinated Canadians) while my son and daughter are each expected to quarantine for a full 14 days because of their unvaccinated status.

The testing was not popular in our house.

“You hurt me Mom!” accused Ian, the two year old, after having the probe sent up his nose. His sister (13 months older) screamed and twisted as I held her down so we could get a sample. Ian tried to assure her — now emboldened by his status as one done testing — but it had the opposite effect, “It’s hurts a little bit. It’s a little bit.” (O.M.G. that kid is cute). She revved up the squirming to full kicking.

Anyway, as the test stripes started to appear Andrea didn’t need the full 15 minutes to declare my positive result. In the end the stripe was faint but Ian’s was darker purple than the control.

Covid Tests - 3 positive 1 negative

As I’m about to wrap this up, Andrea mentions to me that she thinks she feels a sore throat developing. It’s going to get us all eventually.

Categories
life pandemic travel

Christmas Vacation Cancellation

We’ve been planning our Christmas vacation to California since last June but with the new omicron variant throwing a wrench in the gears we finally pulled the plug on the trip last Tuesday. Now I’m just hoping we can still get our kids together with their cousins and grandparents over the Christmas break. Such is life in a pandemic.

Back in June WestJet’s website said we could book with confidence knowing we could cancel our flights and get our money back with no fees or hassle but when I called them on Tuesday, the customer service rep told me that I will get the money back as a credit and that the credit will last for two years before it expires.

I was livid. After a moment of almost losing my cool I realized I needed to keep it together and asked her if there was anything she could do to help me get a refund. As it turns out there is a website that I could go to and fill out a form to apply for a refund. I’m still mad that they were pretending like they weren’t giving out refunds but at least things worked out for us.1

  1. At least it appears it might work out but I can’t actually apply for our money back until after our original departure date on Saturday; give me a break! Anything to make getting our money back just a little bit harder. It’s so shady of them.[↩]
Categories
life Politics

Running for Mayor

Last August while traveling through Medicine Hat I met-up with an old high school friend, Linnsie Clark. I’d heard she was running for mayor and I wanted to hear more about her campaign and catch up.

We talked for hours. She told me about some of the concerning proposals within the current council and why she was running and how she didnt even have a Facebook account before this and how difficult it was to find the right people to help with a campaign.

Clearly she found a great team because last week after the election I woke up to the news that not only had Linnsie won, she won in a landslide making her the youngest and the first woman mayor in the history of Medicine Hat.

The Medicine Hat News has a Q and A with Linnsie Clark.

(Previously)

Categories
life

Covid Test

I woke up with a sore throat this morning and pulled the trigger on getting a Covid test. I didn’t want to because, as everyone knows, once you sign up for a test you’re legally obligated to quarantine until results are back. So no playdates with the kids and my friends’ kids (at least not with me, Ange took them out to the park). And the big stress of the day became whipping up sub plans and trying to find someone to go in for me tomorrow.

Luckily enough, I couldn’t find a sub right away and before I had someone booked (less than 12 hours after the test) the relieving negative result arrived via text message.

On the other hand, I was already starting to look forward to a day in bed watching the Apple event tomorrow. I’m strongly thinking about getting a new MacBook Pro and I’ve been patiently waiting for this day since the rumours first started circulating in 2018. I guess I’ll just have to catch it on the replay.

Categories
life

Going Out Again

It’s been two weeks since my second shot and the other night a few friends and I went out for a drink together. We went INSIDE the establishment! It actually felt a little bit awkward wearing our masks in around all the mostly full tables as the patrons imbibed but it felt natural to drop the mask and for that night anyway, as far as we were concerned the pandemic is over.

Of course it’s not over, but that first taste of normalcy felt great.

Categories
life pandemic parody

Pandemic Medley

This two and half minute medley of classic pop songs with Covid-19 parody lyrics is just what I needed to get through this pandemic.

Last week I booked a vaccine appointment for my mom but last night she let me know it had been cancelled. My friends suspect the Alberta government was letting people overbook knowing their wasn’t enough supply and then turned around and blamed the federal government when the shipments didn’t arrive. It’s a bit on the conspiracy theory side for me, but I guess you never know. I was able to rebook her this morning at another location for a day later than the cancelled appointment.

Update: January 27 — my mom got her Covid vaccine.