Ryan's COVID-19 Chronicles

Intellectually, I know that the only correct answer to the question of "is it alright to hang out with someone outside of my household during a global pandemic?" is "nope, just stay home to keep yourself and others safe." Emotionally, however, there's really no right answer to that question. My brother had a birthday recently and my parents naturally wanted to throw a little family party. While my partner and I have occasionally interacted with my parents recently and then even interacted with my brother for Father's Day after debating the decision for quite a while, this party would reintroduce two more people into our social circle; my grandmother and one of my uncles. It can be a slippery slope to let people back into your physical vicinity these days. It's so easy to think "well my grandmother is already interacting with my parents, and I already interact with my parents, so what's the difference if I interact with my grandmother now?" ...

I had a great six-year anniversary weekend with my partner and our daughter. And while I'd love to tell you all about it, there's something more important I want to discuss today: should we relax our self-isolation or not? Despite the fact that COVID-19 is on track to kill more US citizens than died in all of WWI, and despite the fact that cases are spiking in several states after reopening , my state of Wisconsin seems to still be flattening the curve after being forcibly reopened–at least it appears that way for now. And with summer just around the corner, there's more and more pressure and desire to cautiously return to normal. Father's day, Independence Day, and various birthdays are just a few occasions coming up in my personal life that I'd love to spend with the family and friends I've been missing. The odds are, apparently, in favor for relaxing my family's self-isolation. So why am I still hesitant to get back into close physical contact with anyone...

My family had a pretty great weekend. My partner and I got a new free outdoor toy for our daughter, did a bit more work around the house, grilled some hamburgers infused with the delicious smoke from mesquite wood chips, watched a bunch of the new season of Queer Eye, and most fun of all is we went on an hour-long hike at which we got to watch our daughter excitedly walk on a beach into the beautiful water of Lake Michigan for the first time. Despite all the madness this year ranging from Australian fires and US protests to a global pandemic, I'm incredibly grateful that I'm able to enjoy and provide a fun and productive year for my daughter. While I'm still incredibly hesitant to leave my self-isolation given the continued threat of an invisible virus that could end with a painful and lonely death of myself or someone I love, I must admit that the temptation to lower my guard for some more quality time with said loved ones is much greater than before. Seeing or...

I am fortunate enough that although I'm still very busy at work, my employer has been encouraging everyone to take some time off when possible. As such, I took yesterday off of work so that I could have a three-day weekend with my family, and I'm so glad that I did. Saturday was just about perfect. My partner and I awoke from a good night's sleep feeling well-rested and ready to enjoy the day, which promised a high of 57F and sunny weather. We made homemade biscuits and gravy with cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast. We played with our daughter for a bit, did some house chores during her impressively long hour and a half nap, had ham sandwiches using some of my parents' delicious leftover Easter ham, went to the city drop-off site to dispose of our yard waste, and then I played with my daughter outside while my partner dug out a corner of our yard to turn into a rock garden. Also, earlier that day we had talked to my parents about the health precaut...

The idea of starting a third whole week of this isolated lifestyle is suffocating, as I'm sure you agree. Fortunately I have a little bit of good news. We were keeping tabs on my brother-in-law's progress through his unknown illness since he revealed it to us , and based on his description of the symptoms and his incredibly quick recovery we've determined–insofar as we can without being medical professionals–that he had a mundane cold or flu and not COVID-19. Not only is that good for him and my partner's parents, but it meant there was once again the option of our family seeing them on the regular again. After talking about it and discussing the pros and cons yet again, my partner and I have decided to resume taking our child to her grandparents' house for the mornings of the workweek. We have no idea how long this pandemic and resulting isolation is going to last, but we're going to take advantage of what little luxuries we feel comfortable with for...

As a brief update to my post from yesterday, I did end up going for a run outside and it was absolutely wonderful! While I anticipated it would be difficult and expected to need a break or two since I haven't run outdoors in months, I ended up running even further than I planned without a single break! I ran for 4.3 miles, which is pretty close to my all-time best distance of 4.9! Unfortunately I also have bad news. The situation I detailed yesterday regarding my toddler spending the mornings with her grandparents may be compromised. As a result, she's home with us while we work today and will be until we can guarantee (to whatever extent that's possible) that it's safe again. Yesterday while my partner was visiting her parents to pick up our toddler, her brother stopped by to pick up something. Unfortunately, after getting closer than 6ft to his parents, he disclosed that he had been feeling mildly sick since Monday but was feeling relatively bett...

Wisconsin's "Safer at Home" order went into effect today. The gist of it is that we should stay home unless it's absolutely necessary to travel, such as for groceries. Fortunately, "essential travel" includes to care for minors (under definition 15b) and "essential activities" includes taking care of others (under definition 11e) so for now my partner and I are still driving our toddler to and from her grandparents' house for childcare in the mornings. It's a decision that my partner and I talk over at least once every single day and will no doubt continue to reassess each day of the forseeable future. Here are the points that it always comes down to: Reasons against: Nobody wants anyone to get sick. Symptoms take two weeks to show and some people are completely asymptomatic but still infectious. What if we're being stupid? Reasons for: All of us are taking every possible precaution with cleanliness and health. None of...