Missing Precedented Times

Here's another virus update. Again, I'm trying to do these once or twice a month just so I can look back on this time and... I dunno, remember how shit it was? I'm honestly not sure.

From a bike ride with the SO this last weekend

Antibody Test

The big news for this update is that the SO took an antibody test and it was NEGATIVE. So that all about confirms that I would be negative too. We spend/spent a ton of time together. My thought that I was exposed back in February at the Mary clinic may still be true, but I guess I didn't get it? Or the antibody test was wrong, which is a real possibility this early on. There are all sorts of things coming out about how Vitamin D (which I get a ton of) and CBD (which I take twice a day) could deter the virus or whatever, but none of it is strongly backed up, so I will continue to assume that I could get the virus any day now.


Family Health

Everyone in my family remains healthy, even my four immediate family members (both parents, brother, SIL, including their daughter who was never sick but obviously was exposed) who already had and recovered from the disease. More and more information keeps coming out about whether or not you can get the virus again, so I remain a little anxious about their health, but I'm learning to let that go. The fear isn't as strong as it was when this all started because I keep telling myself that none of them had to be hospitalized the first go round so even if they got it again... I dunno how it all works, but I'm happy to believe that they'd be okay getting it again because that gives me peace of mind.

Any time Target gets a new HP shirt, I get a new
HP shirt, okay? I exclusively wear them and
joggers to sleep now

Virtual Games

The SO and I have been playing a surprising amount of Jackbox with friends over video call. It's super easy! You basically just share a screen and play through your phone. We set up an ipad to show our faces, then we also join with a computer running Steam and share that screen. Super easy and super fun. I think my favorite has been playing with my parents, who aren't super tech savvy. But we've played with some friends too and it's all been fun.


Trail Riding

I met Kate out on the trails a few weeks ago and that was a blast. We were basically the only two out on the trail we picked and got a solid two hours of time hanging out with each other, something we haven't gotten to do much, obviously. TC is such a star on the trails and so is Kate's new horse, plus, they seem to get along really well. I think it might just be that TC has little to no social skills, so interprets everything Duende does as hilarious and fun. I realized this about TC when I was teaching the SO about horse facial expressions (because he thinks that when TC looks at me with his ears forward, TC looks skeptical and I just think he's projecting, not everyone is skeptical of me!) and realized that I'd LEGIT never seen TC sneer. He either looks happy or bewildered.

From hiking, the trail is very wide!

Family Time

After they more than recovered, the SO and I have been heading out to the ranch a little bit to spend time with my parents and my siblings join us sometimes too. We stay outside, physically distance, and use a lot of disinfectant. It's been fun to see them and to hang out at the ranch with the animals. Being in a condo isn't nearly as fun as being at the ranch and it's so nice to have something to look forward to. We've been there twice (the first time was over three weeks ago so we're certain no one was infected then).


Opening Back Up 

The state began allowing retail services to open up again. The SO went to a bike store last weekend and said that they only allowed a few people in the store at a time, they sprayed your hands with disinfectant when you entered, required masks, and once inside, you couldn't browse (they just told you where the thing was and you could go get it).

I have mixed feelings about everything opening back up, as I think we all do. First, I think it's appalling that people are so dependent on their jobs that they'd rather risk infection than continue to not work, but I think that is an inherent problem with capitalism. Opening up should happen when epidemiologists deem the country ready, not when we're starving as a nation because a) wages are so low that people are incapable of saving an emergency fund OR b) the federal government refuses to support their people financially in a PANDEMIC because after all, a person's inherent value is dependent on the amount of money they have so eh. AND people seem to be shrugging off all the people who died because so many people have survived, maybe we should shrug off any deaths caused by things that people have recovered from, that's sad your loved one died in a car crash but I know tons of people who survive car crashes every day so let's all ignore the traffic laws intended to protect us from dying in car crashes. Don't let fear ruin your life.

BUT at the same time, I'm kind of cool with rumors of things opening back up leading people to kiiiind of (not ignore) push the limits of SIP. I think if we open things up truly in stages, we'll see a lot more death and destruction, vs people pushing the limits here and there, going out a tiny bit more, seeing a few more people. I dunno, maybe that's just my mind making excuses for me pushing the limits a tiny bit more. All I know is that FINALLY Santa Clara County is doing free COVID tests for anyone who wants it and our hospitals/ERs have plenty of room in them.

First evidence I saw in person of opening back
up: the Starbucks in our local Target was open

Hiking

Our parks have opened back up, so I've been hiking once a week. I go with one of my good friends and we hike for a few hours out on the wide trails. It's allowed by our county as long as we physically distance, so we are both okay with it, even if it feels a little questionable at times. But then I remind myself that we are not driving out of state for haircuts or manicures... nor are we hitting the beaches or gathering in big groups. This has honestly been one of the best things for my mental (and physical) health. It feels like a weekly reset for myself mentally, just go do a physical thing while laughing with a friend.


Clinics

I've run a few virtual clinics and am teaching a bit remotely, but in May I did go up to one of my clinic barns and taught in person too. I don't touch the riders, have disinfectant wipes for the radio, and everyone stayed away from me. It was a blast to see my clinic riders again and it was so nice to do something different. I missed staying overnight with Peony and ordering ramen with lots of corn and watching movies (also not driving up and back in the same day, although I live closer now), but it was still fun to be up there. And it's been more than two weeks since then and no one got sick. Can't wait for the next one!

Another from the bike ride

Shows

I have mixed feelings about shows. There are two in June that I could do, they're very close by, but I'm still deciding. I'm leaning toward going, only because they're so close and it's easy to just haul in and out and not touch anything. I did turn down the offer to judge a barn show recently though, mostly because I don't want to prematurely automate my judging but it also occurred to me that I'd be interacting with a ton of people that day so nah. When I'm showing myself, I'm just there for an hour and a half and gone. Judges are there all day. So apparently the line for me is relatively thin, who knew.


Conspiracy Theorists

I'm surprised at how many people think research means looking things up on Youtube. I'll just leave it at that. Pleased to say that it's just a few people on Facebook and a couple on IG and let's just say that this behavior from them doesn't surprise me.


Barn Time

The barn is slowly returning to normal-ish. My trainer has been down twice, the chirovet came out last week, there was a saddle fitter around at some point. It's feeling more and more normal, which has been nice, although occasionally I start wondering. With this, I've been bringing the SO out a bit. We've spent so much time together during the pandemic, it's been great for us, so we chatted about wanting to be a little more involved in each others' lives. He rides bikes, so I told him I'd ride with him more often, and he said he'd come to the barn with me more often. He loves photography so he's been bringing his camera out and getting some amazing shots of TC and I just hanging out (I told him I didn't have ANY of me and Rico just hanging out, something that makes me a bit sad now that he's retired), I'm so happy.

Love these pictures

Generally it's been okay over here. I have my jobs (I'm teaching remotely and clinicing a bit), although my research job is getting zero COLA (cost of living adjustment) and our salary study was rejected, so basically no additional money this year and probably for the next several years because the state cut funding. But I'd take that over losing my job, obviously.

My physical health is okay, probably gained some weight but I don't believe in scales so I don't know, nor do I care. I probably need to workout more but I'm letting myself relax a bit. It's okay to not always be at the top of your game, I think this pandemic is teaching me that.

My mental health has been better, of course, but I can still count on one hand the number of truly horrible days I've had since this thing started. I've been REALLY consistent taking my CBD, which is probably why I've survived so far, honestly most days I feel pretty good. Only the occasional OH MY GOD CAN IT JUST STOP NOW PLEASE moment plagues me each day, but at least we're all in this together, right?