Well, isn’t this a weird feeling. It has been so long since I’ve posted anything on this blog that I really don’t know where to begin. It’s been nearly three and a half years since I the spicy flu started, and while a lot of people took to YouTube, social media, blogs or other sites to make connections and feel like they were still a part of the world, I retreated into my own little sphere. I isolated with a vengeance (even thought Covid barely reached my neck of the woods for quite some time), and fell into my home library, Netflix/Stan/Amazon Prime, and the ever comforting BookTube. I just couldn’t deal with all the outside ‘noise’ that was just bombarding me in the form of the ever present Covid updates on the tv, the worldwide tracking of the pandemic, and watching idiots going to extremes to deny Covid was a thing, and paying for it with their lives, and the lives of the others that they infected.
So, my house became my fortress from the outside stresses. And while you would think that might mean that I joined to millions who decided to throw themselves into home renovations and other lifelong projects that they just hadn’t gotten around to starting, my happy little arse just noped out of all that and I retreated into my books and the normality I could still find there. No covid, no pandemic - avoided rereading The Stand by Stephen King for this very reason - and that is how I kept my sanity during these very trying and strange times. Thankfully neither my mother, my aunt, nor myself had to deal with the spicy flu, but I can tell you that the vaccine kicked my arse. My first shot was okay until it wasn’t. Thankfully I’d asked my mum to come up for a few days just in case. I ended up with a large red reaction at the injection site, plus I had a doozy of a fever for about 36-48 hours. Then I just felt like crap for the remainder of the week. Then about 4 months later (I think) I hauled my butt in for shot 2. Again, my mum came up to stay with me as my arm felt horrible, and I got a worse red reaction on my arm where the nurse jabbed me. The fever was worse. I felt miserable for longer, and took longer to feel better. However, it was the 3rd shot that really drove home that I just wasn’t having the usual reaction to this vaccine nonsense.
As it happened, when I went to go in for that third vaccine (booster) and then waiting the required 30 minutes before leaving the drs surgery I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like what was in store for me. My arm felt a bit off during the 15 minute drive home, and by that afternoon the fever was already kicking in. I was a sweaty mess for the next three days, and not only that, I had a bigger reaction at the injection site. My arm was not only red where the nice lady had stuck me with the needle, but I had a secondary reaction on my inner bicep with a nice little lump under it, but my lymph gland under my arm had a lovely big lump, and to add insult to injury I also had a lymph reaction in my right armpit too! But it didn’t stop there, no, I also ended up with freaking chronic fatigue. Now I had chronic fatigue as a 12 year old and was told it might come back later in my life, but I certainly didn’t expect the freaking vaccine to resurrect it! So, after about three weeks of feeling miserable thanks to the fever and the lymph glands being all swollen and tender, it was now the chronic fatigue that was kicking my butt.
So, here we are. It’s now almost 16 months since my third shot, and I am staying away from the 4th shot for the moment as I really do not want to endure any more worsening symptoms. I still am wary of being in the wide world after three years of diligently avoiding crowds and only going to town when I needed to shop or keep an appointment. My outlook on life in general has changed, and while I was pretty introverted before, I can honestly say that if my local Woolworths would have delivered to my address during the pandemic, I would avoid going into town as much as possible.
But, alas, that is where I fell down the Amazon rabbit hole. With everything either being shut during the quarantines we had in Australia, or businesses being shut in general (or the shortages that resulted from the shutdowns worldwide), Amazon became a comfort resource. They were selling books for ridiculously cheap prices - especially during the first 12 months - that I honestly bought more books than I needed and could have filled a big bookcase or two with all the stuff I bought. My reasoning at the time was basically “they’re cheap, and I want to read them one day”. Ah, yes. The famous ‘one day’. This led me to acquiring more books, and it became a little addicting to rock up to the post office nearly every day and walk out with a parcel - or 5! - full of all the books that I could find cheap that took my fancy. I found so many great books for as little as $2.84 (I think that was one of my Modern Library editions). I filled shelves with all the classics I could get my hands on. Penguin Modern Classics, Penguin Classics Deluxe, Vintage Red Spine classics, Modern Library editions, and all for less than $8 a book. Sadly, the days of Amazon almost giving them away has disappeared. Now books are becoming so expensive that I will wait for months, checking the prices periodically, until I find a sale and then I strike. However, even that is becoming a rare thing as the pricers continue to soar.
Anyway, that is a rant for another post. I have no idea if anyone will even read this, but I feel like it is slightly cathartic to finally start getting my thoughts out into a post. Perhaps this is a sign that I might feel like getting back to filming and posting some bookish content back on YouTube… 🤷🏻♀️ Oh well, if you read this, than thank you for making it through to the end of this weird little snapshot of my thoughts on the covid years. I wish I could say that the worst was behind us, but I heard a rumbling about a new variant that originated in the US that has apparently been in Australia since April… it seems to be never-ending at this point. But it doesn’t do me any good to dwell on all the negative things, so here’s hoping that this to shall pass.
In the meantime, here’s a cute cat pic to soothe the soul ;-D
