The Leaves of Wrath, Pt. 2

November 30, 2020

After the awful drought this summer, we’ve had some decent rain this fall.  Leaves need to be dry to mulch and suck up, so I had a couple of days off after the first bout of  cleaning up.  Eventually though, it was dry enough to complete the task.

Starting the mower was Much easier, and after some thought I decided to just use the dog’s pool to move the mulched leaves.  There is hole in the side by the top from a branch piercing it at some point and it’s the perfect  place to run a rope through to pull it around.  Much easier than using a tarp.

It probably took about three hours to just do the east half of the dogs’ yard.  I took down the temporary fence, that’s been up for 3 years… So much nicer without that bit of wire fencing cutting up the yard.  It was all hard work, and took several passes to mulch and several more to suck up.

By the time I was done, I was Done.  Exhausted. 

As day became night, I just thought I’d overdone.  I crawled into bed and realized that the ache in my middle was not wholly muscle ache, but also stomach ache.  Oh, no.  The dreaded norovirus had struck.

It was not the full-blown, OMG I’m gonna die version, but I felt miserable.  I took Zofran which mitigated the nausea.  I couldn’t sleep, just napped.  This went on for a couple of days.  I was concerned about “shedding” the virus, so I cancelled everything I had going on for the next week.  That included Thanksgiving and the entire weekend after. 

Normally I bounce back from norovirus in about three days.  This time I was miserable  for SIX days.  It was hard on the fur-kids, too.  Due to the 30 mgs of prednisone Piper is taking, sometimes she just HAS to go.  Poor thing had two accidents requiring FIVE puppy pads (each) to clean up.  I refuse to get upset at her, the combination of her meds and my infirmity created the problem. The only thing I really worry about when I get sick is the pups and Blackie.  Taking care of them is my responsibility, and I’m grateful that I’ve always managed, no matter how awful I feel.

Several friends were concerned that this might not be a norovirus, but instead the dreaded coronavirus.  CVS does Covid-19 testing, I made an appointment, and Saturday I went and was tested.  Late yesterday evening the results were available on their app on my phone.  Negative.  I do not/did not have Covid-19.  YAY!

The yard is done, the dogs are good, Blackie is good and I’m getting better all the time.