It’s been a touch over three weeks since my last post. An update is long overdue.

As I was writing my last post, little did I know that my body was fighting a losing battle to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as it was replicating in my system. The next day I began to feel a bit under the weather in the evening, but a rapid antigen test turned up negative. The following morning I decided to stay home and rest, and later that evening I decided to test again—this time, positive.

Of everyone in our family, no matter what it is, I somehow manage to be the one who gets sick—over a stretch of three years I was struck by the flu four times. My bout this time was similar to the flu, but more drawn out. Flu seemed to hit hard and fast, while covid hit less intensely but stretched over a longer period of time.

My biggest symptom was a lingering headache over a couple of days, followed by fatigue and muscle aches. I had a little bit of throat itchiness, congestion, and coughing here and there, but it was never prominent. That said, I am entirely grateful that my lungs and sense of smell and taste were unaffected—those were the possible symptoms that I feared most.

Well, covid hit our household right along with the local peak of omicron infections. Hopefully my mix of natural immunity and vaccine carries me through the rest of this pandemic.

While I was sick myself, I found out that the household of a family we are close to also were dealing with the virus as well. We received news that they were all on the mend, but several days later we were then informed that the father had passed away. He was a double lung transplant survivor and had been in a weakened state for years. When he came down with covid, they had him hospitalized and although he had remained stable, as his sickness began to turn around his body decided that enough was enough. His decline was swift, but his family had the time to say goodbye.

Bear with me as I wanted to take a moment to eulogize his life. He was a good man, a hard worker, and a loving father. I will miss seeing him walking around, tethered to his oxygen machine, working around the yard. He was a fighter, and it was a privilege to get to know him over these past several years.

So I am a couple of weeks back in society, and feeling pretty close to normal again. There are a lot of things going on, and hopefully I can get back to being on track to figure out this startup thing once and for all!