Tag: coronavirus

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Living in Society

Pandemic Life Lingers

Pre-dawn light along the state park trail on July 7, 2025.

On June 27, 2020, I predicted, “Eventually I will snap out of this coronavirus funk.” Five years later, I’m no longer sure of that.

We wanted the pandemic to be over. Governor Kim Reynolds said as much when she proclaimed,

“We cannot continue to suspend duly enacted laws and treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely. After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly,” stated Gov. Reynolds. “State agencies will now manage COVID-19 as part of normal daily business, and reallocate resources that have been solely dedicated to the response effort to serve other important needs for Iowans.” (Governor Kim Reynolds Press Release, Feb. 2, 2022).

Looking back on these five years, the pandemic broke us as a society. The pieces won’t fit back together and dark forces have taken us new, unpredictable directions which were unknowable before the outbreak. We must go on living, yet with a palpable sense of loss. I don’t like it, yet am at a turning point, where I must adapt to this life by living with loss. Not unlike the way people were affected by the Great Depression. I am not ready to stop living.

If we concede Governor Reynolds’ point, that the coronavirus pandemic is over, what was lost during that time?

People who were close to me died of COVID-19. Both close geographically, and with a long personal history together. They are permanently gone. Many more contracted the virus and were quite sick with it. Some still wear protective masks in public. I contracted the virus in August 2024 and thought I would die of it. Obviously, the pandemic was not over in 2024. It’s not over yet.

As we sheltered in place for months, then years, the outside world diminished in importance. What mattered more was what we did within the confines of our home, family, and property. What I didn’t understand in the early days of the pandemic was those outside activities would not come back with resilience. Trips off property became controlled and specific. There was no time for extras which were rubbed out by the virus.

For me, the pandemic coincided with leaving paid outside work and retiring. I had claimed Social Security as soon as I reached full retirement age in 2018. Loss of extra income from multiple jobs did not put us in the poor house, yet there were financial constraints on what I could do. I had never been on such a tight budget before. Being close on funds changes a person.

So now there is today. What shall I do with it? That question was there before the pandemic, even if I ignored seriously answering it. With the extras stripped away from life, there seems little else to do but work toward an answer. And so, for as long as I take breath, I shall.

It begins with harvesting cucumbers, squash, fennel, kale, and collards, and donating the excess to the food pantries on Monday and Tuesday. Where life goes from there is a blank page in an open book, waiting for us to write the future.

Categories
Living in Society

My COVID-19 Journey

Positive test result for COVID-19 on Sept. 1, 2024.

I expected the coronavirus would find me eventually. I also expected the vaccines would protect me. Although I got sick as could be, and at one point thought I was going to lose my mind or die, I didn’t. So all those vaccines — and I had every one of them — served me well.

The memoir I am writing will end with the coronavirus pandemic, in which we continue to be. This post is to record my experience of getting sick with COVID-19 so that when I get to writing the end of An Iowa Life, I will have these notes.

It started about a month ago with a mild, persistent cough.

I didn’t think much of it, that it would go away on its own. It was only after attending the August 24 special convention in North Liberty that I began to cough more frequently and to cough up phlegm. After I tested positive on August 29, I found at least three other people who attended the convention tested positive about the same time. Because I had symptoms for so long, it is hard to pinpoint the beginning of the infection on a time line.

For the most part, it doesn’t matter how or when I contracted the virus. I’m no longer on the board of health where staff studied these things looking for societal solutions. In aggregate, public health requires data to combat the spread of the coronavirus. What matters more is I, as an individual, do have it and it persists. I thought I was going to die.

For this instance of COVID-19, emails, text messages and medical reports tell a story.

To T. (Aug. 28, 2024, 5:44 p.m.): “I have gotten sick since we met and could not hardly get out of bed today. I wanted to tell you in case I’m contagious. Symptoms are coughing, headache, dizzyness and loss of appetite. Hopefully this will break soon. Take care of yourself.”

To E and M. (Aug. 29, 2024 7:22 a.m.): “I went dark on the internet the last 36 hours because I have been bedridden with a terrible cough and general malaise. I looked up the symptoms and the search result was influenza, which I doubt. So the forecast for me speaking on Friday is partly cloudy. Will advise if I can make it.”

This 36-hour period of coughing and feeling bad included not eating for the duration, no coffee, and mostly lying in bed. Toward the end of the period I began to dream psychedelic images and when I attempted to wake, I did wake, and the dreams continued in real life. I couldn’t tell the difference between dreams and reality. I felt as if I had lost all memory. At this point, I felt death must be imminent. I was able to gather my wits, take a home COVID-19 test and telephone the local clinic.

To T.: (Aug. 29, 2024, 4:27 p.m.): “I did get a positive test for COVID 19 today.”

To E and M. (Aug. 31, 2024, 2:23 p.m.) “I forgot to tell you I tested positive for COVID on Thursday. At least three others who were at the convention tested positive about the same time. I saw an MD Thursday afternoon and appear to be on the mend with couple scripts of cheap medicine plus acetaminophen. Blood count is good, lungs clear. I spent an 90 minutes in the garden today and it worked wonders.”

To T.: (Aug. 31, 2024, 6:04 p.m.) “I think the worst is over. The medicines seem to be working and once I began eating and taking acetaminophen my headaches went away. The x-ray turned up a partially collapsed lung, but clear otherwise. Clinic gave me breathing exercises to hopefully reinflate that part of my lung. Blood work showed tracks of COVID in a couple of tests but my blood counts are good. Doc offered paxlovid but I declined because my symptoms began outside the window in which it is effective. (Why is the doc asking me what I want to do for meds?) I worked 90 minutes in the garden today and it was a huge benefit, the best medicine. So focusing on the positive, eating tacos and listening to Dylan tonight.”

Following are some edited extracts from my medical records:

H.R. at 8/29/2024 1:43 PM (Via telephone)
Pt calls to state that he’s been coughing for about 1 month, 1 week ago, cough started producing some white, yellow, clear and a few streaks of red 3-4 x total; and had a home test turn +COVID today 8/29/24. Nose with occasional clear to white secretions; has decreased appetite; has body aches; has fatigue and sleeping a lot. Wondering what to do? Per Dr. – OK to see pt today.

A.C. at 8/29/2024 2:30 PM (In person)
History of Present Illness
Patient presents secondary to having cough that has been ongoing for the past month. The past week the cough has gotten worse since changing color. It is now brown discoloration. He has had a few episodes where he has coughed up some blood. He has not been take anything OTC for his symptoms. He has had myalgias and overall has not been feeling well

Diagnosis: COVID 08/29/2024
Prescriptions: Benzonatate 200 mg; Prednisone 10 mg.

S.H. at 8/29/2024 4:51 PM (Via telephone)
Patient was informed that Hemoglobin and white blood cell count were normal.

A.C. at 8/30/2024 10:02 AM CDT
CRP level highly elevated secondary to COVID, glucose level elevated secondary to illness, liver enzymes elevated secondary to same.

A.C. at 8/30/2024 10:06 AM CDT
Some atelectasis noted, take deep breaths as often as possible, no pneumonia noted.

On Thursday, Sept. 5, I finished the course of prescription drugs and most of the symptoms are in remission. I continue to be tired during the day and somewhat restless at night. My stamina is diminished. I read a study indicating the coronavirus can persist in tissues for as long as 14 months after being infected. It is uncertain whether continuing to take COVID home tests will produce anything other than a positive result.

I’m not sure when I’ll return to regular writing here. Thanks to everyone reading along. I feel like the coronavirus has been living with me and distracting me from what I want to do. I suppose it has been.

UPDATE: On Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, my COVID home test result was negative.

Categories
Living in Society

Going Dark to Heal

I became ill beginning August 26 and have not recovered. On August 29, I tested positive for COVID-19 and visited a clinic that afternoon. I felt like I was going to die, but didn’t. Thanks to a dedicated local medical staff, I am on the mend.

On the plus side, copies of my memoir arrived this week. New writing will have to wait until the virus is in remission.

Thanks for reading my posts.

Categories
Living in Society

Driveway Politics

Rural Polling Place

I’m supposed to be taking it easy. When I retired during the coronavirus pandemic I knew outside activities would wind down as I age. I still care about our politics, yet in a different way from before the pandemic.

It began April 28, 2020 when I gave up a part-time job at the home, farm, and auto supply store. I also left work at a friend’s farm, and at the orchard. I gave up my veterans group and all my volunteer board memberships. The only activities remaining are this blog (which I’ll keep for now), writing letters to the editors of newspapers, and politics. I’d prefer to dump politics as an active concern, yet it doesn’t seem possible because it runs in my blood.

My cohort of local political activists is diminished through deaths, infirmities, aging, and people moving away. I am reluctant to engage my nonagenarian friends who have been mainstays in campaigns. Octogenarians get similar consideration. Younger people moving into our precinct lean conservative. Republican candidates won federal and statewide campaigns here beginning in 2016. Democratic politics as I have been practicing it since 1987 is fading away.

I continue to do things.

A friend returned from a trip to Thailand and we had a driveway conversation about it. We first worked together on a political campaign in 2004, so I’ve known them 20 years. We looked at photos and videos on a handheld device. One video had them swimming in a river with a five-year-old elephant. It was good to catch up.

The reason for the reunion was to collect signatures on an Iowa House candidate’s nominating petition. We have been working together so long, we speak to each other in shorthand about politics. Between us, on short notice, we collected 11 signatures. The candidate had more than the 50 required by the Secretary of State.

Later that day, another friend stopped by to pick up the petitions and deliver them to the candidate. We had a long conversation in the driveway. I know his father and the three of us all worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Those were heady times. I wrote a post about this in 2008. We talked about the House District and who we might pull in to work on the campaign. This cycle, I plan to be a worker bee, not an organizer. I think people have heard just about enough from me. There is interest in doing better in the new district.

Driveway conversations don’t occur in a vacuum. If anything, they generate more interest and activities. Now that the filing deadline for state and federal offices passed, there is a sense the campaign has begun. It truly has and that means doing more things. For example, this week there was an informal political meet up in our House District and today is the county convention. This was a lot more talking than I have done in a very long time. Partly I welcome it. Partly, I am wary of it. The reasons are complicated.

The 2020 campaign was a bitch because of the coronavirus. The Sunday before the general election a neighbor held an event for Rita Hart who was running for the Congressional seat Dave Loebsack left open after retirement. She was standing right next to me and I didn’t recognize her. We were both wearing face masks. As we talked, it didn’t occur to me she was the candidate. That was one more wacky thing during the coronavirus campaign. The pandemic changed campaign operations dramatically. In a sense, there is no going back to the pre-pandemic methods. Hart lost in a close race.

It is early in the 2024 campaign, so we’ll see how Democrats roll. Today’s county convention should be a bellwether. As long as I don’t get too far from our driveway, I keep my wits about me. When I do leave for an in real life event, my only imperative is to recruit volunteers so we stand a chance to turn Republicans out of office in our district and beyond. Also, I continue to hear the siren song of Democratic politics.

~ Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Writing

Stepping Back

Selfie taken with computer video camera on April 28, 2020, the day I retired from paid work.

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, I began pulling back from engagement in society. That process continued when I decided to retire from work at the home, farm and auto supply store on April 28 that year. Since then, I have distanced myself from almost everything and developed a new way of engaging in society.

I don’t spend as much time with people as I did. My conversational style shows it.

The main part of my days is spent at home with a weekly trip to the grocery store and a couple other shopping trips each month. The automobile is not getting many miles. If there is a reason, I will travel to the county seat, to my home town, or to Chicago or Des Moines to run errands or visit family and friends. That is about it.

The last activity I dropped was membership in the county Democratic Party central committee. I led the January 15 precinct caucus and will be attending the county convention on March 23. After that, I will become a worker bee in politics, not an organizer. I’m good with the change.

A majority of my time will be divided between working to maintain and fix up our home, writing, and sorting through the accumulation of too much stuff. So far, that keeps me busy.

This time at home as a writer is what I worked for all my life. If I am stepping back from society, I am stepping into a new life lived the way I want. As long as my health holds and we have money enough to live, I’ll be alright.

Since I made it this far, I’ll quote Douglas MacArthur, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Already, I can hardly see my shadow on a sunny day.

Categories
Living in Society

My Pandemic Story — Part 1

COVID-19 home test and home made facial mask.

When I was on the county board of health we updated our pandemic response plan multiple times. It was all in a day’s work, although most revision work was done by staff. The board was expected to agree. I read the document and it looked okay to me. That was ten years before the coronavirus pandemic entered society. At least the public health department had a plan.

Before too much time escapes, I want to write my story of what happened during the pandemic. A basic framing of the pandemic is as follows:

  • 3/11/2020 WHO declares COVID a pandemic.
  • 2/15/2022 Pandemic normalized by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
  • 9/18/2022 “The pandemic is over,” Joe Biden said.
  • 5/11/2023 Federal COVID-19 public health emergency declarations ended.

COVID lingers in society. People continue to get the virus and die from it today. There are tens of thousands of COVID-19 admissions to hospitals each week. The coronavirus remains with us and it looks like it will be with us for a long, long time.

Soon after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, on March 13, 2020, I got together with a grade school friend in the county seat. We had lunch in an almost deserted restaurant, then ended our day together at a bar in Tiffin. Patrons crowded around the bar while my friend and I took a table at some distance from them. There were many more empty seats than people that afternoon. We had little idea what the coronavirus would mean to our daily lives.

By March 18, the coronavirus was spreading throughout the county. News media reported most deaths were among people over age 60. I was in reasonably good health but I didn’t want to take chances at my retail job where I was exposed to and had contracted all sorts of viruses. They offered an unpaid leave for the duration of the pandemic. There was no argument at home when I decided to take it. They optimistically gave me a month, by the end of which we expected the public health emergency to be over. I then decided we were making it okay on our pensions and retired on April 28, 2020.

During the time since March 2020, I wrote 307 posts tagged coronavirus. I also kept a journal in which the coronavirus was a constant presence. Thus far we avoided contracting COVID-19. I wish I could say the same about everyone I know but can’t. Both friends and neighbors died of COVID-19.

I want to write at least a few thousand words about the pandemic for my autobiography. The main changes brought by the early pandemic were concerns about having enough food, maintaining isolation at home, leaving paid work, and figuring out how to best cope with the virus. I will spend some time reviewing the impact of social media and video conferencing technology. I became familiar with Zoom, Google Meet and Discord as a way to participate in meetings remotely. Video conferencing had a long-term effect on how we live.

As far as today’s pandemic goes, we are still coping with information about the spread of new virus strains and surges in case counts. I want to stay current on COVID-19 vaccinations. If I hear there is a surge in case counts, I’m more likely to wear a facial mask when grocery shopping or in an indoors public space.

I have homework to do before finishing this story. There will be a Part 2, and as many parts as needed to tell the story. This post is a way to get started.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Apple Cider Vinegar Day

Ten half-gallon jars of apple cider vinegar fermenting.

There was an opportunity to fill the apple cider vinegar containers so I took it. With an abundant apple harvest there are plenty to juice and turn into vinegar. I’ve written about vinegar-making multiple times in the last ten years. All I have to add is this is one of the best apple seasons since I planted the first trees in 1994.

The apple juice produced by these Red Delicious apples is quite good, even better once the impurities are filtered out. I have a couple of five gallon buckets of juice apples ready to convert and store in large glass jars. It tastes better than anything I buy at the store. Key to good taste is drinking it fresh rather than canning it.

Vinegar-making is the end of the garden harvest season. I’ll glean the garden a couple more times and pick more apples should I need them. The main work is done.

Last year I planted garlic on Oct. 15 and expect about the same this year. A neighbor with a pickup truck already took me to a local farm where I bought four straw bales for mulching. They are resting in the garage and ready to go once the cloves are in the ground.

This is a punk autumn because everyone but me is away and sick. On Monday I went to a pharmacy that had the just-released COVID vaccine and got inoculation number seven. I am determined to avoid getting COVID. This means avoiding most human contact of a duration over ten minutes. With our child living on their own and my spouse at her sister’s home for an extended stay, the chance of contracting the virus at home from one of them is close to nil. I restrict movement as best I can and wear a KN-95 mask when with groups of people. For good measure, I also got the seasonal influenza vaccination last week.

With vinegar fermenting on the shelf, I am at the point of apple season where I need a big project to use the harvest before it goes bad. In the meanwhile, if I want a snack, it will contain apples. Breakfast? Apples. Lunch? Apples. Supper? Baked apple dessert. We look forward to this time of year so I plan to enjoy it.

Categories
Writing

April 2023 in Big Grove

Trail walking in Spring 2023.

The last few days of April have been marvelous. Rain subsided, ambient temperatures were mild with low humidity. It has been a spring month, as good as they get. No more close friends have died this month, so there has been psychological relief as well. We needed a breather.

Spinach planted in the ground on April 15 is up. Onions are doing well. Yesterday I planted cauliflower, cabbage and kale, and there are two more rows in that plot for broccoli, collards, and other leafy green vegetables.A mad garden rush will be happening in May with the target of getting the initial planting done by Memorial Day, which this year falls on May 29. Gardening is going well.

The Biden administration announced that it intends to end the presidential declaration of national emergency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) public health emergency attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11, 2023. I was at a restaurant last night where a couple of people continued to wear a facial mask. With my full regime of COVID-19 vaccinations, I did not.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 104,538,730 reported cases of COVID-19, 1,130,662 deaths attributed to it, and 55,743,629 doses of vaccine administered. There are currently 9,167 hospitalizations due to the coronavirus. It was, in no uncertain terms, a public health disaster. The scale of 1.1 million U.S. deaths is difficult to wrap one’s head around as we close in on the end.

The Iowa Legislature has taken up budget bills, which means we are close to the end of session. Thank goodness. There has been so much controversy over bills it had been like drinking from a fire hose trying to understand what is happening. Republicans won super majorities in 2022, and are exercising their power like never before. Democrats are hanging on, trying to get a message out. Democratic messaging has been like trying to light a candle in a derecho: word is not getting out beyond political junkies.

Our blogging group went to dinner Friday night at Royceann’s Soul Food Restaurant in the South District Market in Iowa City. The menu has a fixed number of daily items on it and diners can order a meat and two sides for $18. It is a bit tough for vegetarians to find something on the menu, and tougher for vegans. I ordered cabbage, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. The preparations were distinct and tasty. I plan to return to try the collards with cornbread. I usually say I can cook better than what I find in restaurants, yet not this time.

Our furnace gave up the ghost this month. We have been discussing which new one to get and have made a decision. When an expensive item hits a household on a fixed income, it takes some wangling to determine how to pay for it. We have it figured out.

I have finished reading seven books in April. Check out what I’ve been reading on the Read Recently page by clicking on it at the top of this page. I got new glasses for the first time since 2019. It’s great to be able to see clearly again. Hope your April was as good as mine. Thanks for reading my post.

Categories
Writing

Aging in America – Part VII

Books

It is getting easier to box up books to donate to the friends of the public library used book sale. I donated seven boxes so far and three more are ready to go. Creation of two large sorting tables has helped move library downsizing along.

The room I built for writing has bookcases on all four walls. For the first time in years I am dusting and rearranging them. I’m not sure there was any consistent method in how they were shelved.

A lot of space is taken with collections by author: Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, John Irving, Joan Didion, Jane Smiley, Vance Bourjaily, David Rhodes, Ruth Suckow, James Baldwin, Hamlin Garland, Al Gore, William Faulkner, William Carlos Williams, William Styron, W.P. Kinsella, and others. There is a case to be made the collections by author belong in boxes. If I labelled the boxes, I could draw on the books when I need them, leaving shelf space open for my current research and interests.

I keep thematic collections: U.S. Presidents, Iowa City and Iowa writers, Iowa history, reference books, cookbooks, gardening books, art books, and poetry. One shelf is devoted to a printed copy of my blogs. Another has volumes on ancient history. I find myself asking the question, “which books are meaningful for life going forward?” Not as many as there are.

With retirement during the coronavirus pandemic, things changed to enable this sorting and downsizing. Our automobile remains in the garage most days. The weekly shopping trip has become a special event, for which I shower, shave and consider which clothes I might wear to the store. There is time to work on the project especially when weather is wintry.

Part of the great book sort is learning more about myself by remembering who I have been. A different me bought a copy of The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill at the corner drug store soon after seeing the then recently released film. I used money earned from my newspaper route in grade school. Today, I feel compelled to buy John Irving’s latest book, The Last Chairlift, in part for his Iowa City connections, in part for his discussions of the LGBTQ community, and in part to fill out my shelf of Irving novels. Sorting books juxtaposes all the different versions of me during the last 60 years. There are more than a few of them.

I am lucky to have lived to be seventy. Book sorting is teaching me to be more deliberate in life, to consider each element of life’s construct. I also realize there is not enough time left to read everything I want. If luck holds, I will read everything I need.

Categories
Living in Society

2022 In Review

Broken furnace fan.

What did I do all year? I am at the point in retirement I had to look. One day blends into the next and I lose track of the calendar.

There is no ending the coronavirus pandemic. The governor extended the state’s Public Health Disaster Emergency Proclamation on Feb. 3, announcing it will expire at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15. After that, the coronavirus becomes normalized in daily, routine public health operations, she said. By declaring the pandemic normalized, the governor washed her hands of it. We are on our own. I still wear a protective KN-95 mask when among large groups of people, mostly when grocery shopping.

I got more involved with politics than I wanted to be. I volunteered to be an alternate member of the county central committee from our precinct. The two people who replaced me did not continue for another term so I’m back to being our single, main representative. I attended the county, district and state conventions, and participated in a number of events, phone calls and meetings for varied candidates. I worked as a poll watcher at the Big Grove Precinct polling place on election day. My main work of postcard-writing, door knocking, and events was for the Kevin Kinney campaign for state senator. I continued the long-standing personal tradition of stuffing envelopes, this time for the Christina Bohannan campaign. Politics beyond county offices was a bust this year.

Our last old automobile wore out. The 2002 Subaru broke some things for which we could not get new repair parts. It was a safety issue, so we donated it to Iowa Public Radio and bought a used 2019 Chevy Spark. I would have driven the old car for a while longer if we could have gotten parts. I like the new car’s fuel economy and tight turning radius.

In March, my sister-in-law moved to Des Moines for a new job. In July, our child moved to a new apartment in the Chicago area. We helped with both moves. That is a big task for septuagenarians yet we did the best we could. They appreciated the help.

We spent about $3,000 on “home operations.” About half of that was hiring a contractor to remove stumps and cut back our overgrown lilac bushes. The other big expense was repairing the yard tractor. All of the equipment I use around the house is getting old and in coming years will need repaired or replaced. Just this week we had to replace a fan in the furnace. After almost 30 years, it was developing the sound of failure.

I continue to serve on our home owners association board and as a sewer district trustee. I wanted to exit this work in June, yet there was no one to step up and do it. There is responsibility in complying with regulations pertaining to public water and sewer systems, so it is a non-trivial job. We do the best we can. I understand this water system management is part of living outside city limits and someone has to do the work.

Most of my time was spent writing, reading, cooking and gardening. I began devoting 30 minutes per day to downsizing some of our possessions. Am hoping slow and steady gets this done. I find going through and getting rid of belongings provides new energy for projects.

I seek opportunities to socialize and would do more if I could figure a way. Plain truth is once a person is “retired” they become less of a public entity and less important as younger folks assume responsibility in society. I’m okay with fading away once the need for my services ends. When it comes to community work, though, there may never be an end.

Coming out of the pandemic has been a long process yet that’s where we are. The last three years have been punk times. I’m ready for some new plans and fresh energy. I’m confident about finding both.