Arthritis

Suddenly my quality of life has degraded. My left knee is in constant pain, as our my thumbs. X-rays show arthritis.

I had expected arthritis if I lived long enough, but I thought that 59 was a bit early.  I need to adjust my expectations of what I can accomplish and how I wish to exercise.

Pain is an attentive companion these days.

Strange Times

 I've been teaching at my university for 31 years cumulatively. We always begin the academic year with some planning meetings. This is the first time we do not have a Planning Week with everyone gathered together. Instead we had a video address from our president and a bunch of isolated video meetings.

Ah, pandemic.

Beginning of Semester

The summer break is coming to an end, with classes starting in two weeks.  There is still more work for me to do before then but I feel in pretty good shape with my preparation. Time will tell if all of my university's preparations have made the campus safe enough or if COVID will spread like wildfire.

Testing

As part of my return to teaching, I will have to take a COVID test. According to my university's instructions, the test should not be too invasive. Certainly there have been a lot of stories in the media about nasal swabs going very very deep.

I have my suspicions that I may already have had COVID. I haven't had any of the main symptoms but do feel a bit out of shape, more out of breath with stairs than I used to be. Of course I haven't worked out since March but still.

Side Effects

I take a large number of medications for my diabetes and hypertension.  One of them has apparently begun causing swelling in my legs.

It has been frustrating me for a few weeks that my legs have not been working the way I expect them too, that the signals have been translating a bit differently into movement. Now that I identified it as swelling I feel better, knowing that is not muscular atrophy (since I've missed the gym because of the pandemic).

Pandemic

Life under the pandemic is dreamlike. No one that I know has been diagnosed with it while millions around the world have it and hundreds have died in my state.

I go to a mostly empty building at work on weekdays. I do grocery shopping surrounded by masked folk. I read the news and worry but it is very unreal.

My reflex is to do what is right, to isolate, to wear a mask, etc.

Cancellation of Conference

A conference that I worked on was cancelled this week because of fears of the novel coronavirus.

Sigh. It's for the best, but it hits close to home.  I feel for the people that put more hours than me in helping prepare for it.