My wife and I recently had COVID. One star, do not recommend.

OK, let's not bury the lead here (NOTE: I should have spelled that "lede" since that's how journalists spell it and I used to be one of them.)

Three things that should first be noted:

• Yes, I had coronavirus, as confirmed by a test at CVS (which I realize isn't exactly the Cleveland Clinic) and a host of symptoms that simply wouldn't go away for the longest time.
• My wife also contracted the virus, though hers was never officially confirmed by a test. But she was right there with me in the duration and severity of her symptoms.
• As annoying as the whole thing was, we had decidedly mild cases in that they did not result in either of us having to go into the hospital or be put on a ventilator like several people we both know.

Like many who have had COVID, I would compare it to a nasty flu bug that hangs on and on. The funny thing was, I really didn't think I had it all the way up until the moment the nurse practitioner from CVS called to tell me my test had come back positive.

Yes, I had been experiencing symptoms for a week-plus at that point, and when I get sick it never lasts that long. But I also never lost taste or smell, nor did I at any time have much of a fever.

I thought those were the two main telltale signs of coronavirus, and in many people they are. Just not in everyone. It turns out the virus manifests itself very differently from person to person.

My main symptoms were constant fatigue and an overall heavy sick feeling that hung over me for two weeks. I was also pretty congested, though that part isn't uncommon for me in the winter.

Terry had an on-and-off fever, that same general sick feeling, and congestion. She was a day or two ahead of me in the cycle, so I could always look to her to get an idea of how the next 24-48 hours were going to go for me.

Thankfully, none of our younger three kids who still live with us got it from us. My daughter Melanie was actually the first in the family to contract the virus a few weeks earlier and managed not to relapse (helped by the fact that she temporarily moved in with a friend after I was diagnosed). And despite significant exposure to both of us, neither Jared nor Jack got it, either.

That was a blessing.

Bottom line: If you get it and are fortunate enough to have a mild case, it's going to take you a while to really feel normal again, but you'll be fine. It's annoying, but it's light years better than a severe case.

Still, if you can avoid it, I would. Stay home when you can, take care of yourself, mask up to protect others in case you are carrying it, etc. You've heard all of this before.

Oh, and break out that Beverly Hillbillies DVD boxed set. You're going to want something to distract you from the fact that your head feels like it got run over by a truck.

Getting sick suddenly isn't what it used to be

(NOTE: This post was written a few weeks ago as I was starting not to feel so great. In tomorrow's post, I'll let you know what the outcome of that process was. Hint: I'm proud to now be an official U.S. government statistic.)

There was a time (say a year ago) when you could start to feel sick and it was...OK. You took your zinc pills or drank orange juice or threw back a quart of your grandma's magic elixir or whatever and it was fine. The only question was whether you were getting a cold or the flu.

Now, however, it's a little different. You may have heard—it's been in all the papers—that we are in the midst of a pandemic. The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 or The Rona or whatever you want to call it has inserted itself into our lives in the rudest of ways.

So now, of course, whenever you start to feel achy, tired, feverish, stuffed up, etc., you're thinking, "Is this COVID? Can it be COVID? I have COVID, don't I? I HAVE THE RONA."

Even if you don't.

It's difficult to rule out coronavirus in your self-diagnosis, even if your taste and smell are perfectly fine. Everyone seems to manifest the symptoms of the virus differently, so having your taste and smell intact doesn't necessarily mean you only have a common cold.

It could. It's just not definitive.

As the virus has spread, it has gotten to the point that each of us has either definitely had it, knows someone who has had it, or we're pretty sure we had it but never got a test.

As of this writing, I'm in the "known someone who has had it" category, but every little symptom I manifest makes me think, "THIS IS IT."

So far it hasn't been it.

As I type this, I'm not feeling great (NOTE: In English class, they call this "foreshadowing.") Given my chronic lack of sleep and generally packed scheduled, I can expect to get that "not feeling great" thing about once each winter.

Because someone in my house had COVID and recently got over it, The World's Most Famous Virus is naturally on my mind. Do I have it? Have I joined the ever-growing case numbers?

<Takes sip of coffee>

Ah, the unmistakable taste of Maxwell House.

I never thought I would say this but, if I'm lucky, I'm only coming down the flu. (NOTE: Again, this may or may not have been the case. Tune in tomorrow...)

Love and peanut butter in the time of corona

It is, by all accounts, early days yet in the Great Pandemic of 2020, and all I want is to know how it's going to turn out.

Don't we all.

The way I see it, there are three ways it could go, each with drawbacks:

(1) We could successfully flatten the curve and minimize the overall impact of the outbreak. The Internet nut jobs who claim it's all media-driven hype will still have been wrong, but they won't know they were wrong. They'll think they were right all along ("What did I tell you? It was no big deal!") This is the best possible outcome for society, of course, but the people who still, this far into it, insist it's some sort of hoax admittedly irritate me. There's a part of me that needs them to understand how dangerously crazy their thinking is.

(2) We could find that we were too late in acting and the hospitals become overwhelmed and thousands of people die. The nut jobs knowing they were insanely wrong is of little consolation in this scenario.

(3) I myself could be one of the people who die, which as far as you're concerned, assuming you survive, is the same as either outcome #1 or #2, but obviously a very different circumstance for me.

Understand, I don't think I'm going to die from this. I probably won't even get infected.

Probably.

That's the morbidly fascinating part of this whole coronavirus ("COVID-19," the cool kids call it) brouhaha. Few people think they're going to get it, even fewer truly believe it's going to be fatal for them. Many of us will be wrong in those assumptions. At this point, we all just want to know what lies ahead in the days and weeks—and months—to come.

Is this the apocalypse? Or have Mike DeWine and his sign language interpreter already saved our lives?

I don't know. What I do know is that the associated working-from-home gig has been the mother of all mixed blessings for me.

PROS: No 70-mile round-trip drive to work every weekday. Also, the dress code is decidedly relaxed.

CON: I am gaining 6 pounds every 24 hours.

That's a big, big con. I am not eating well. I am not exercising. In my defense, I had a nasty cold for a couple of days earlier this week. And my ankle is still slightly swollen four weeks after I twisted it on a run, so exercise has been difficult. But I can at least exercise some discipline in the things I shove down my gullet, because so far that has been nothing but a wild free-for-all.

I start each day with good intentions, but then somewhere round about mid-morning I start feeling a little peckish and walk over to the kitchen cupboard, only to find the jar of Cinnamon Raisin Swirl still there. This concoction, which we swiped from my mom's house, is described on the label as "peanut butter blended with cinnamon and raisins." And It. Is. Delicious. I sneak spoonfuls all the time, racking up the calories without any corresponding physical activity.

So, we wait. We wash our hands. We practice social distancing. And in some cases, we get fat.

This far into Corona-mania, I dearly hope that's the worst thing that comes out of this.

(NOTE TO INTERNET NUT JOBS: In case you turn out to be right, my apologies in advance.)