COVIDcation-2020: One Day and a Wakeup and It’s Wrapped.

My Coronacation started March 19th before there was even serious talk of a lock down. I woke up at 2am with a tight chest – it felt like someone took zip-ties and closed off the upper quarter of my lungs. The dry cough started a few hours later. Fear hit me after the second cough.

And I went for a bike ride at noon… 24 miles took me 1:33: and change. It was the slowest I’d ever ridden a road bike. The fresh air did wonders, though, if nothing else, at least for my spirit.

Five days later my mild symptoms were mostly gone, though I’d lost some lung capacity. It would be three more weeks before I felt close to normal again – and I had good days and bad in the process. Some days I wondered if this was the new normal.

And then, as if someone took wire cutters to the zip-ties cutting off a quarter of my lungs, I started to feel like me again. And I finally relaxed.

We went on lock down on the 24th of March, a couple of days before I was set to return to work.

Since, with the exception of one week for bad weather, it’s been a mileage bonanza. While I was being paid to work from home till the 27th, I rode most every day unless the weather was horrible, and once I was laid off, I rode whenever the urge struck me. And the urge struck me often and repeatedly. Sometimes twice a day.

Can you tell when COVIDcation started for me? It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist.

Recovery during this time was… interesting. I handled it better than I hoped or thought I would. In the good old American spirit, I went to several bandit AA meetings; you can tell me what you would like me to do, but it’s my choice whether or not I’ll do it, dear politicians. That is the American way. For the ninnies, we did observe prudent judgement and stayed well away from each other, meeting outdoors – farther away than what is recommended by the “powers that be”. I would say I used the time to my advantage.

My family life was fantastic. There were a few rocky points early on, but once we figured out how to make things work, we all thrived. Enough my two teenage daughters are sad that I’ve gotta go back to work so soon. I know, a bond between a father and his daughters are special, but c’mon… I never would have hoped for that!

That said, here I sit… one day and a wake-up and I’ll be back to work. I don’t think I’m supposed to have enjoyed this as much as I have, but I’ll get over it.

What COVIDcation taught me is that I’m working my recovery program correctly. It should have been a terrible time, fraught with problems and fear and all of the temptation in the world to take a drink to escape it all. Instead, I simply did the next right thing at any given moment and it turned out to be one of the happier times in my life.

I literally turned shit into sunshine. As recovery goes, that’ll do.