COVID Really Kicks Your Ass!

So the day came, as of a minor sore throat, on Tuesday, 17 May, 2022, that felt like a little nothing, really, just slightly off, and I went the next day to go get my COVID booster shot too, my 2nd one, still feeling pretty good. But then night falls, and it’s like The Devil comes in the Night, like a Vampire, and the coughing starts up, a little bit of chills, no real fever to speak of, not even hitting 99 degrees…and I feel tired, really really tired…

And I wait till Thursday morning to allow the incubation of the germ, and juice up my cell phone w the Navica app, scan the QR code, get a live proctor to walk me through the steps of getting an at home COVID antigen rapid test, and lo and behold, close the cover, and start to see almost immediately the 2 lines in the window, indicating POSITIVE TEST!! Sure enough, it is confirmed at the local City MD Urgent Care Center, w a kindly nurse and MD attending me, and my asking for an antiviral med that I have read needs to begin within 5 days of 1st symptoms. And bless the City of NY, they r getting it delivered to me, at no cost even, that night, from a special clearinghouse, straight to my door. 5 days worth of Molnupiravir. It’s amazing what NYC has done for its population in regard to this pandemic, from monoclonal antibodies, to antiviral pills, no cost, free at home testing kits, at several intervals, and even fast PCR testing turnaround time at Laguardia Airport, in case u need testing to travel. And the Test and Trace Corps too, making sure u notify everyone who has been in contact…I started phoning people right away, in order to apprise them, especially my friends who came w me to see Billy Joel in concert on the past Saturday night, which is almost certainly where I caught my disease, at Madison Square Garden, a 20,000 person indoor arena. We were cavalier in our attendance at said event, dancing and singing joyously, without masks on, and lo and behold…So I now need to suffer 4 my choice of blessed freedom. Sigh.

Even tho I have been generally careful throughout the pandemic, u do get fed up w its privations and enforced loneliness, and lack of get togethers w friends and families, and the pervasive fear, economic disruptions, runaway inflation, key good shortages, it is all to do w the pandemic backdrop. From this hellhole springs other pits of tar and pitch to paint u in! Everyone is going mad, and in the USA, they take it out on minorities disproportionately, w guns and hatred, not Guns & Roses. Every single year, epidemic of gun violence, w a fever pitch in the hot summer months particularly, and then the drug addictions, still illegal, w fentanyl mixed in w heroin, and then young people lined up as corpses in the streets of America. What has my country become?! It is moving right, towards Fascism, as Germany did in the 1930’s, but too few remember how it turned out, in the immediate aftermath of World War II. They look at Germany today as another powerhouse nation, prosperous and hardworking, a leader, not in the ashes of WW II…it took a lot to rebuild Germany, Italy and Japan post that war. What is ahead? And the Allies too, took a beating, so much loss. As it goes, I just know I will beat COVID, as I am now quadruple vaxxed, even if I am also a high risk person w some predisposing medical conditions that make me particularly vulnerable.

I am not ready to go yet! Still too much living to do, just after my 58th birthday. Harrumphhh! Update as of 5/21: my 1st good night of sleep last night, because I am using even more drugs now, including Zithromax, Prednisone, Emergen-C over the counter vitamins, in addition to my normal regimen and the Molnupiravir. I am beating this rap! Even as I quarantine w some wonderful chicken noodle soup sent by my friends in a package yesterday, w rolls, cookies, even a soup ladle! The love feels really great too!

Every day stronger too! I put it at 75% now that I can attend a dear niece’s graduation party on Friday night, provided that I am asymptomatic by then, as in no cough, and good oxygenation numbers on my handy pulse oximeter here. Got new N-95 masks delivered too, to protect everyone else from me, when I do venture out of my apartment, say to the mailbox downstairs. I do not expose anyone to this disease, because believe me, it sucks! I breathe in through my N-95 or equivalent KN-95 of today’s ilk…and do not contaminate anyone. I will also thoroughly decontaminate my car and home before I let anyone inside either of them. My 1st concern is 4 the rest of u, not even myself. God save the World! I also got rid of expired medicines here and replaced that which was important to replace. Cleaning house. I have much more energy! The Devil won’t take me! Nope, not having that, ever! There is no Klingon Fekhlar (“Devil”) in my hereafter!

Real Life vs Sci-Fi Adventures

I am an avid sci-fi fan, of several genres, but these days, it’s more Star Trek series on demand, and also on television, even tho I also love Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and many others. Things w the whimsy, fantasy genres too, set me off in a positive direction…why, u may ask? Because real life is often less stellar in its conflagration of peoples who refuse to see commonalities, but instead exploit our superficial differences. It is frankly stupid in the extreme to go after people in my home society for having more melanin pigment in their skin, simply because of higher exposure to the sun’s rays, over eons of exposure, as an environmental adaptation, because fair skin burns more easily. Yet here we r: people who r black, brown skinned r still facing horrors of life because the dominant race, which is white, tho not 4 much longer…have demonized our fellow man & woman as “other.” I personally abhor this, as it’s no better than what happened to my people, in an extreme version of hatred, in the ideology we now call Naziism, or Fascism. My people were Jewish, and vilified, to be subjected to a genocide, due to envy of what we appeared to be, in the 1930’s in Europe, when Adolf Hitler rose to power. I personally wasn’t here then, only my own ancestors, who had also fled Europe before that time. I feel for any peoples who r subjugated and vilified in ignorance of what they r, or what others perceive us to be. Thus, nowadays, my heart bleeds for the people of Ukraine, as they r being victimized by an evil man, Vladimir Putin, leader of Russia. The aggression against Ukraine began in the 3rd week of February, and continues to this day, in a war against its people, who merely want to live their own lives in peace. I feel it acutely, their suffering, and their flight to other countries. I have Ukrainian blood running thru me, as identified by 23andme.com.

So I go back to my own science fiction love, as a more diverting subject, that actually brings me joy, because it’s hopeful for the function and survival of humanity, unlike what we have in real life on the ground on Earth today. In Star Trek, we have moved beyond all the petty things, and work together for the betterment of our own species and also in exploration of other societies, in space and benevolence, generally. We r no longer hung up on racial, economic differences, and even looks r less important, in favor of talent, and contributions, hard work that benefits others…a well run machine we have become, and there r also some joys, without regard for what money u have…and your medical care is simply provided, without concern 4 that Almighty Dollar. All life has value! And is treated as such. Very equitable. U can ask for anything u want from a replicator, and get it. Go to a holodeck to recreate a cafe in Paris that u may remember from the past…and meet that long lost girl/guy that u can also replicate as well, as a hologram that has certain abilities that u may desire…sounds good? Again, real life is infinitely worse. U can’t ever go back to that time when u were at a life fork in the road, and take the other path, that u rejected back then. And thus your entire life trajectory altered w that decision. U do not have real access to a God-like deity “Q” who can fix your sorry existence w a snap of his fingers. But if u did…I have a really wild imagination, that is even frequently naughty, and very creative, that puts on black lights, in a dark room, dancing to ABBA, in a mirror, darkly, wearing wild lingerie, furs, hats, heels, anything that gets my guy’s dander up….and then make love over a lazy afternoon…talking about what might have been, but wasn’t, because we had our reasons to not do that, back when it was possible to do. Yup, lots of scenes wander thru my subconscious and I am even aware in waking hours too.

I like to arouse men. Excuse me if it’s uncomfortable. I dislike my own real life, as I have more libido than ought to be allowed in a female of my age. So it is wasteful that men have their own lives in real life, married to people they r sworn to be faithful to, for as long as both shall live…and at this age, there is nary a man available who is free to marry, and if he is, u also wonder why, as in what’s wrong that he couldn’t get someone?? There is usually a reason. What, witness protection program?! Never mind. I have also refused some men also, who even wanted me, for sex, or even more than that, marriage…I have my own internal standards also. Not anyone will do. And so, I spent my life both unwed, and childless, but I do have unprecedented freedom to do as I please. And there is some good to that too. It’s unusual, yes, but I see the angles of life. If I remain as I am, and die this way, my dear friends will divvy up my estate, and it may even change some of their lives 4 the better, as it did mine, when those events occurred, that my father and uncle had passed on. I gained other things of great value from my mother as well, to not leave out her contributions. And if I had adopted a child, my entire estate would have to have gone to that child, and there is danger in that too, to not have a good solid background w which to handle such an event, and guidance, wisdom, education, good financial planning…I had all of that before my inheritance, so I managed it well. Mature I am, as I ponder my sci-fi dream existence, serene, grateful, and still alive on this imperfect Earth.

I will leave a joke from early Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 1, w Security Chief Tasha Yar, who got a germ on board the Enterprise, and was acting a little bit drunk, when she propositioned android Lt. Commander Data, as to his functionality in bed! “I am programmed in a wide variety of pleasure techniques…yes, fully functional!” That was all she needed to pull him into her quarters to test drive him! She was mortified later, when cured of the bug she had. “It never happened,” she told Data afterward, but he never forgot. I am like that too: no one ever forgets me in that way, and I have ruined more than a few men thus. Ahh, at least my share of life stories!

My last question is it a closed list of lovers 4 me? All in the past? Come hither, my lovers. I will be glad to qualify at least one of u.