Long Covid

Long Covid is the primary reason Miriam and I are continuing to isolate every bit as much as we have for the last nearly three years. Going to a restaurant or a social meetup isn't worth the risk of long term, potentially permanent, disability. Even more so with Miriam's potentially greater vulnerability. This is shaping nearly every aspect of our lives. Even our search for housing was informed by Covid: we ruled out any condo that didn't have its own private entrance to avoid being in an indoor shared space. In fact, one of the reasons we looked into buying instead was the difficulty in finding a rental that had it's own private entrance.

And I'm so tired of this. I had a dream last night where people were asking me to come out and do social things and potentially go on a trip together, and I had to say no. I keep telling myself it won't always be like this. But maybe it will. How will I manage that?

People are talking about things like Gen-Con and, I'm sorry, I feel a little bitter about this stuff. I try not to let that feeling out too much.

Here's info about a currently pre-press paper on long Covid that suggests 7% of the US adult population has long Covid effects right now.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/3586890-long-covid-comes-in-three-forms-study/

Biking

Has it really been three months since I was on a bike? May was one of the worst mental health months I've had in a long time. I think I'm finally recovered and even doing better than I was for a long span before that. Funny the effect a combination of being on Wellbutrin again and finally mostly living as the correct gender has on one!

https://www.strava.com/activities/7594597687

Music has been all Alanis (Morissette) all the time here. I think I hadn't listened to a bunch of her other albums for a while because I like Jagged Little Pill so much, but I just listened to three or four others and remembered that they're pretty good too! So then I had to listen to Jagged Little Pill again... A couple days ago, I told Miriam that Alanis and I had had a nice time driving to the dog park. "Did they have to know?" she asked. Well, they ought to know.

I took Ella to the dog park tonight and met one woman with three dogs: Winston, a small bulldog (slightly bigger then Ella) with three legs, Africa, a medium-sized mutt, and Tazer, a 160-pound cuddlebug. Ella had a great time with them, except for a moment when I could see that Ella was overwhelmed and scared and I picked her up for a bit so all the dogs could calm down. I haven't had to do that before, but all was fine after a short break.

I was active today!