Long story - as always - but I tested positive for Covid this afternoon and since I share my office with my wife and have to go through "family area" to get to that office I am going to be away from Pinside for the next few days. So if you try to contact me via PM or post something you expect a reply to from me please understand I am doing what I have to do because of this stupid Covid mess.

I had a "bad feeling" at the Allentown Show last week because people were really letting their guard down and too many people were getting "too close for comfort". As luck would have it I starting feeling like shit yesterday and today I tested positive for Covid. Now I have to self-quarantine for a few days to protect my wife & the rest of the family. Sadly we have like 20 people headed to the house later this week so it is going to be an interesting week for sure.

Anyway with the layout of the house my only choice is to stay out of the office and off the computer. So don't expect to hear from me for at least a week if you try to contact me about anything.

THANKS!
Skip

Not feeling super bad but "withdraw" for the computer is likely to be harder on me than the Covid. I am typically online about 12 hours a day so almost a week of being away from the computer is going to be rough. We are "old school" and only do online for our desktop computer. No "smart phone" - tablet - or anything like that. So it will be a huge adjustment not being online for a week.

THANKS! I am not too worried about having Covid (or being sick) but not being able to use the computer for a week is really going to SUCK! Maybe it is time to buy a laptop so I can use that in my self quarantine area? I'll have to try and sell Barb on that idea in the morning.

For now I will not be around much for about a week once Barb deep cleans the office tomorrow. So I'll check Pinside in the AM and that will be it until we have to house to ourselves again in about a week.

I couldn't do it! I really tried but when I am home I basically need to be able to get online to be productive. So we changed over to "plan B" & I kicked Barb out of the office so I can use it. So I'll be online more but she will need me to let her know if anything comes in for her.

Hopefully this works out better!

I know I am "weak" and should be able to stay off the computer but basically 100% of my income comes from online transactions and I can't sit home feeling like shit - watching TV and not making any money. So instead I'll be able to do my eBay stuff like normal and she will just be working around me. I'll still be feeling like shit but at least I'll be making some money while I am stuck at home with this stupid Covid thing.

I guess the "good news" is I keep feeling a little better each day. That is also why I am getting restless I guess.

I am 100% sure it came home with me from Allentown because I had no contact with anyone but family between the show and getting sick. I came home form the show exhausted and pretty much was working around the house or over at one of my storage units (by myself) all week after the show. And since my son & daughter-in-law are both working from home (and we rarely see them anyway) they were not in contact with anyone either. (No grandkids - no one here to visit - etc just the 4 of us all at home all week before I got sick and I think I talked to my son & daughter-in-law twice all week that week).

It really doesn't matter how or where I got it my main concern at this point is to not give it to anyone else. So I am trying to do my best to stay away from the rest of the family.

Each day I am feeling a little better and I have been getting a good bit of work done in the basement & garage so it really hasn't been all that bad. Feel like shit for an hour or two then feel OK for a couple hours. It kind of drives me crazy going from feeling OK to felling like shit 4 or 5 times a day but I guess it is better than feeling like shit all of the time.

My "worst fear" has come - both my wife & my son now are testing positive for Covid and I'll be on the "shit list" with my daughter-in-law because of this stupid Covid mess.

My daughter-in-law has a family wedding this weekend and has around 20 people headed to the house the day after the wedding. Plus her parents, and other family members are going to be staying here at the house for the next few days starting later today.

So now we have to figure out how to keep my son away from a half a dozen people staying in the same house with us that have not had Covid. Worse yet is one of the "family members" staying here for a few days is in daughter-in-laws sister who flew in from Hawaii for this wedding. She has to fly home Monday and has not had Covid yet so if she get it that could really make things a mess.

What a PITA I have become for everyone!

Problem is going to be the fact that this is "all my fault"

My daughter-in-law is Italian and stuff like these family weddings are a big thing for their family. So they all had 'huge plans" for this weekend and now "because of me" everything is going to be turned upside down.

When I decided to do Pinfest I knew there was a risk of coming home with Covid but I never thought about the timing of the wedding after the show and how I could create the "perfect storm" to screw up things for a lot of people. In life I try my best to not have my actions impact others but somehow I really messed this one up!

When I first started with Covid I had thought about just "bailing out" and getting out of here for a few days but I realized both Wayne & Barb had already been around me enough that they were likely going to end up with it anyway.

Thankfully this house has a pretty unique design where our in-law area is on one end and the main house is at the other end and we are separated by a laundry room & the garage. The basement stairs are between the laundry room & the garage and we have our own HVAC system (so we are not sharing A/C vents with the main house).

So Wayne has relocated to the basement for a few days and will be hanging out down here with me. Barb will be up and down between the in-law area and the basement but will not need to go anywhere near the main house. So all should be OK but there will still be some risk. So as far as "risk" of spread to people on the other side of the house this place is likely much better than most people have it when living in an apartment or townhouse complex.

We will do all we can to keep my daughter-in-laws family safe and that is about all I can control.

I still feel bad this happened and I know I'll be hearing about it for the next few months. But on a positive note my daughter-in-law had Covid "first" a few weeks ago after attending a pre wedding party for the same wedding that is happening this weekend. The groom and several others also had Covid from that party. So this wedding has officially been named the Covid event of the year for her family!

I actually came home from Pinfest exhausted and about 1/2 sick so I don't know exactly when the Covid actually started. I went basically a full week not feeling well - just figuring I was run down after the show - before I did the self test. Looking back I would say I likely started with Covid by the Monday or Tuesday after the show but I can't say for sure because I didn't test sooner.

All I know 100% for sure that this point is I am starting to fell better health wise and feeling a lot worse about things now that both Barb & Wayne have it. I realize some of this was outside of my control but I still take responsibility for it and really wish I would have done things differently at the show and wore a mask like I should have been doing. When I got their on Thursday all I wanted to do was get set up and then relax a little since I had a rough week before the show. I got "lax or lazy" and didn't feel like dealing with mask and now my wife & son are paying the price for my actions and that is really upsetting to me.

Right now all I can do is hope things go OK for both of them and this doesn't get passed on to anyone else.

Please understand I am in no way blaming the show for me getting sick. I am blaming myself - I should have known better but sometimes we take unnecessary chances and get caught and that is what happened to me at the show. TOTALLY my fault!

I have always figured it wasn't a matter (or question) of if you were going to end up with Covid is was more a matter of when. In the end I think 100% of society will end up with Covid at least once but thankfully between the vaccines and time at least most cases are not nearly as bad as they were two years ago.

I am not upset I got it - in fact I am kind of glad to have it crossed off the list. What upset me is the timing because of the stuff going on with my daughter-in-laws family. But sometimes things get screwed up in life and this time I just happened to be the one that put the screws to some of the activities they had planned.