Not Walking with Daddy (again)

I haven’t been away from the house in five days now. We’re blessed with a small but lovely garden, so I can’t complain about being stir crazy. I’m desperately missing being able to go for a yomp on the beach with the girls, or to hop into the car for a quick run up to Woods Mill.

But I can’t.

Because I have COVID.

The Inevitable Infection

It’s a strange feeling knowing that your body is infected with, and therefore manufacturing, the virus that we’ve spent the last two years being told to avoid at all costs. Letting go of the fear, and trusting in your immune systems to deal with it, is a small psychological struggle every day. But I’m double vaccinated AND boosted, so I’m not really worried. In fact, my symptoms are now worse than a middling cold. I don’t have any of the classic “big three” symptoms: no temperature, no coughing, no change in my sense of taste or smell. If I hadn’t done the test, I’d think I just had an irritating cold.

That niggle of doubt is there, but the evidence doesn’t support it — or so my intellect tries to tell my emotions.

The youngest daughter has shrugged it off with virtually no symptoms, and the eldest was rough for a day or so, but is now fine. So, there’s little real danger for us. And, to some degree, it means COVID is largely over as a major risk for us as a family at this point in our lives. The girls’ immune systems will no longer be naive, and three vaccinations and a live infection should make the grown-ups pretty robust.

So, it’s just a case of marking time until I can actually get outdoors properly again. I’m really hoping for a negative lateral flow in the next day or so, so we can start getting out and about for half-term.

Plans on pause

Ironically, I’d just got into the routine of going for a beach walk every morning after dropping off the girls:

Morning beach walk #1: Valentine’s Day

Lovely sun, but a cold wind, and plenty of spray in the air.

Morning beach walk #2: cold, grey and a wee bit bleak. Still, was home before the rain hit.

But, inevitably, the positive tests have put the kibosh on that. It’s mildly torture-iffic to be able to hear the sea, but not actually go and visit it. If you’re going to have to stay in, though, the last few days were good ones to do so. Storm Eunice gave the town something of a battering:

I desperately want to go and see what the sea has washed up during this weather, but no. I can look up the river, but no more than that.

With more warnings of bad weather today, staying indoors is less of a burden than it could be. Meanwhile, I can spend some time catching up on the photos I’ve taken over the last few months. For example:

Or even helping the girls with their Rainbows and Brownies badges:

Silver linings.