This year has not been terrible. It has been kind of dry for overtime at work though. We actually have been fully staffed since last year. A lot changed in the past year family wise, we have lost a few loved ones and thought we were losing another who made a recovery. We all have had our issues with sickness, and family struggles. I ended up with COVID although only a small group knew about it.
I'm not sure exactly when it was, but I think it was earlier this year. I had started feeling bad on Friday it felt like a cold to me, but then I felt weak almost like the flu. I just wanted to sleep. At some point my wife decided to check my temperature and we determined that I was running just over 100 degrees. I slept nearly an entire day. I had terrible muscle aches and a bit of a cough and nasal congestion. It cleared up mostly by about the 3rd day. I happened to be off work an extra day that weekend. I assumed it was a stomach bug, no one else got sick so we didn't think anything of it. A few days later as we were joking about it I pulled out one of the home covid tests we had and did the test. As we waited it did not take long for it to read positive. I was surprised not even thinking that is what it could have been given how severe many others have had it. My wife has a co-worker who had it last year and was off work for several months and has lasting issues with getting out of breath quickly and struggling to do simple tasks without getting winded. We have a retired officer who got sick and was in the hospital for several months and still has not been released back to his part time job due to his complications. He also has a twitch in one of his arms related to it.
We are starting to see more increases in illnesses again. I was a little concerned but I am more worried about what this variant will cause and what issues we all will have long term.
Tonight I took a call from a woman concerned about her husband who was not acting right, and body aches. She had already tested positive for covid and he was to be tested later.
I am less than a week from vacation and I am hoping no major issues come down regarding masking and closures. Last year we had planned to go to Orange Beach, Alabama which would have been a first time staying there. We were to be at a hotel right along the ocean, but due to all the restrictions I had decided to cancel as I worried about the travel getting there. I worried that we would not be able to find restaurants with indoor dining along the way and that were too restrictive. In it's place we drove 8 hours to a destination we had been before when our daughter was younger. We enjoyed the trip and did a lot of outdoor things with some restrictions on masking. I'm not afraid of masking, its not an issue. I just want to enjoy my trip, and not feel like I cannot breathe freely.
I have to do better blogging. I used to write down all my stories on paper in a notebook that I kept when I was working EMS. I carry a bag to work with me in dispatch but I find myself doing other things, and not blogging. I hope that someone finds my material beneficial.