Christmas Eve, 2020

I am hardly even pretending that I am celebrating Christmas this year. Honestly, it feels like any other day. I did turn on the Christmas lights on the front porch, which I never take down.

The good news is that the Flickr project is officially done. I don’t have to worry about my links being broken when my Flickr Pro expires. It would have made me very sad. I backed up the photos, but they are scattered on various Google Drives and an old laptop, and in no kind of order. It was a long, sometimes tiresome project, but the pandemic presented the perfect time to do it. I relived a lot of great travel experiences. There were a few years when the posts fed my depression, but I kept going and I did it.

I think that I have mentioned that Sandy and I have been concerned about his health. He talked to his nurse practitioner on the phone yesterday and he recommended that he stop taking his statins and go get a Covid-19 test. So I rode with him to get his test. I was surprised that he had to go inside the Women’s Hospital, which has the dedicated Co-vid ward in Greensboro, after seeing all the photos of people getting tested inside their cars. They did the nasal swab, not the long one that goes through your nose to the back of your throat. So we really will be isolating for Christmas, since it will be several days before he will get the results. I am not getting tested unless he tests positive.

That is a bit stressful, but honestly, neither of us thinks that he has Co-vid. His muscle weakness is scaring him, but this has been coming on for weeks and not getting better. He is short of breath, but other than that he feels okay. No fever, no headache. Just fatigue. He has been doing a very low-impact exercise video for 15 minutes once or twice a day for a few weeks to try to strengthen his legs. Actually, this reminds me a whole lot of his high-altitude problems when we were in Colorado and New Mexico a year and a half ago.

I made a couple more masks, but I have to wear elastic around the back of my head, or they pop right off my ears. If I make the elastic looser, it is too loose. Tighter, and pop! The elastic around the back of my head is a good solution for another reason. I can wear my mask around my neck when I don’t have it on, and pull it up quickly when needed. I don’t care about it messing up my hair. Hell, I forget to even brush my hair some days.

Anyway, hoping not to have cooties for Christmas, but it’s always a possibility, even when you are as careful as we are.