Coming Back from COVID

On July 4 I was barbecuing in our backyard, and the smoke seemed to be getting to me. At least, that's what I told myself, because I seemed to be coughing more than usual.

By the next day I knew it wasn't the smoke, and on July 6 my home COVID test was positive. I had one really bad day of aches and chills, and then the Paxlovid seemed to kick in. When M came down with many of the same symptoms a couple of days later, she tested positive as well.

We weren't feeling great on July 12, when our reservation for a backpacking trip in Yosemite was to start, so we cancelled that one. I hope someone else had a wonderful time. But the next reservation wasn't until July 26. Surely by then we would be in shape to go hiking again.

Not really. We were willing, and we gave it our best shot, but we felt old, tired, and weak for the whole trip. Admittedly, as we near seventy, this could just be old age. But we're telling ourselves that it's a residual from COVID. And we will keep improving, so that we can take a few more trips in August, feeling stronger.

And yes, they will be less aggressive than our climb up toward McGee Pass...