No matter who you are and where you are in life, you’ve been hit by a few of life’s curveballs.
I’m not talking about a literal curveball that might veer off course and hit you while you’re at a baseball game. I’m talking about the day-to-day ones that crop up when you least expect them.
In a column I wrote back in May, I talked about a big one with which we were hit: having to do a pretty major crawlspace renovation that included but was not limited to mold remediation, structural repairs, encapsulation and a French drain system.
Outside of the final inspection and a couple of punch list items, we are (hopefully) past that curveball.
But another one hit us a couple of weeks ago: the COVID monster.
It was bound to happen. I have taken Mom to a lot of doctor appointments over the last month or so, and I suspect that I caught the virus at one of them because two days after her most recent doctor visit is when I started displaying symptoms.
What made going through it even more challenging was that a loved one who was here who had been staying with us for a bit and who took care of Mom and me at the start of my catching the virus ended up catching it herself. It was the first time she’d had it, so she was really scared.
Since it was my second time in four years catching it, I knew what to expect for the most part. As one of my mom’s doctors said a few weeks ago, COVID for most people now is like a bad cold.
That said, it did a number on me to the point I had to quarantine myself for a week. It also did a number on my wallet, as I ended up having to order out a lot for food since I wasn’t fit to go into the kitchen to make anything.
Fortunately, we are all testing negative at this point and are getting back into our normal routines to the extent we can because even mild to moderate cases of COVID can take a lot out of you as your body fights to get well.
But for me, at least, when I’m going through something like that, I manage to think about all the projects I could be working on but can’t because I’m stuck in a room.
The funny thing is those house projects languished well before I caught the virus, but once I was in a position where I absolutely could not do them, they suddenly became more pressing and urgent. Isn’t it funny how that works?
All of that said, I’m grateful to be on the other side of COVID and slowly getting back into the groove. I’m also immensely thankful that throughout it all, Mom tested negative and I pray she (and I) continue to.
It’s interesting to think that nearly four years to the day I first caught COVID I got it again. We’ve come a long way as a country since then, some for the better, and some for the worse.
But I’m happy to report that I’m back in action, a little worse for wear and rough around the edges, but back nonetheless and hoping to get around to those “urgent” projects I had put off, once I stop making excuse after excuse for why I can’t get to them.
North Carolina native Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a media analyst and regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
