The pandemic has pushed me into a routine of laundry every other day and cleaning the bathroom on Saturdays

I don't know why it took the coronavirus to create this routine in my life, but ever since I've been home full-time starting last March, I have fallen into a nearly unbending routine of doing our laundry every other day and cleaning the bathroom on Saturdays.

Actually, on that last point, I don't clean the whole bathroom every Saturday. Most of the time it's just the mirror, the sink, and the inside and outside of the toilet. I reserve full bathroom cleanings (which include the shower and the floor) for once every 4 to 6 weeks.

The laundry, though, is thoroughly done every other day, almost without fail. To be clear, it's specifically the laundry that's thrown into the hamper in our master bathroom, which mostly belongs to me and Terry but occasionally includes kids' towels and other miscellaneous articles of their clothing.

When I first began this every-48-hour laundry thing, I would do it all myself. But then Terry began wondering where half of her stuff was, and eventually she had to tell me to just put her clean clothes into a laundry basket and she would fold them, put them away, and hang them up herself.

For some reason, I cannot figure out which of her stuff goes where. I'm sure it's not that difficult, but there you have it.

I can't stand to see an overflowing hamper, so I keep up with the laundry. This must be one of those things that helps me feel more in control of my life, much like my beloved to-do lists. If I do the laundry every other day, it can be finished in two loads every time and it's not that big a deal.

Not that three or more loads are a big deal, but I like to stay ahead of the curve.

As for the bathroom, well, as Terry once told me when I asked her how often the mirror, sink, and toilet need to be cleaned, the answer is always. Those three things can always stand cleaning no matter what. So Saturdays it is.

And no, for the record, I will not be coming over your house to wash your clothes or clean your bathroom. Just so we're clear.

I must have my to-do list every week

One of the things I do every Sunday afternoon is create my to-do list for the coming week.

It is exactly as it sounds: a list of things I want to accomplish over the next seven days.

I do it every Sunday not only because that's the start of the new week, but also because making my weekly list is always on my Sunday to-do list.

Yes, creating a list is on my list.

And I do whatever the list says, no matter what. How else am I going to enjoy the sublime pleasure of checking a task off the list once it's complete?

This may sound a bit compulsive, and I suppose it is, but checklists are my tool of choice to bring some sort of order to what is otherwise constant chaos swirling around me.

My home and work lives are built largely around Microsoft OneNote, a tool that among many other things creates excellent and easy-to-manage checklists.

When I accomplish a task, I check it off the list. It makes me feel better. It ensures I don't forget things.

Because otherwise, believe me, I would forget things. My mind is whatever you call the opposite of a steel trap.

Things fall into and out of it all the time.

If a thing falls into it and I write it down or type it into my phone, it gets retained. And in the case of stuff to do, it gets done.

I admire people who think to themselves, "You know what? This week I need to wash the floor and renew my car registration," and then they just remember to DO it. It sounds simple, but I cannot do that. I must remind myself of everything.

You will not be at all surprised to hear that, at this moment, there is a small notepad to my immediate left that includes this entry: "Write blog post."

I am about to check off that entry, and I will be smiling as I do it.

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...)

You will not deter me from my love of CVS

I do not shop.

Or at least, I shop very little.

Terry handles the shopping in our house, from grocery shopping to Christmas shopping, and she does it well. I figure, why mess with a good thing?

There are really only two stores in which you will find me with any regularity.

One is Marc's, a local chain of grocery stores that is quick and convenient when we need, like, bananas or whatever.

The other is CVS.

CVS, for my non-American friends, is a national drugstore/pharmacy chain (the Brits may call it a "chemist") that I have frequented for many years.

And when I say "frequent," I mean it.

I go to CVS twice a week, sometimes more often. There are many things I buy there, from the nasal mist to which I'm addicted to the gum I chew in the car to the 95% cocoa content chocolate bars I sometimes pick up as treats for myself (since no one else in the house wants anything to do with them).

I am not only a CVS ExtraCare member, which is like their frequent shopper program, I am also a CVS Advisory Panel member. This means I occasionally am asked to fill out extensive marketing research surveys for the company, in return for which they give me ExtraBucks, which are basically like cash I can use in the store.

I am also a member of their CarePass program, which contains a mid-word capital letter like all good CVS initiatives AND gives me $10 in ExtraBucks to spend as I choose every month.

Much like Apple, they have me hook, line, and sinker.

It has been explained to me that my loyalty to the good folks at CVS may be a tad misplaced, in that their prices are high and their merchandise is perhaps middle-of-the-road. Or some such nonsense.

Please understand something: MY DEVOTION TO CVS WILL NOT BE DERAILED BY YOUR FACTS. Much like many people's choice of political candidate, I base my choice of drugstore not on objective truths, but rather on the world as I wish it existed.

We recently undertook an exercise at work in which we had to identify our favorite "relationship brand" and describe what that brand does to connect with customers and why we like it.

I of course chose CVS. I described all of the wonderful things they do for me.

After my little presentation, I was summarily mocked by my colleagues. Something about being "90 years old."

They can laugh all they want. I'm going to CVS today with $12 in ExtraBucks in my account and a 35-stick pack of Wrigley's Peppermint Cobalt 5 Gum with my name on it.

Do not bother acting as if you're not jealous.

I remember delivering papers at 3 in the morning and people's front doors were wide open

When I had a News-Herald paper route back in the Paleolithic Age (1981-83), the Saturday morning papers were sometimes delivered to my house obscenely early. Like, to the point that it was still basically Friday night when they were dropped off at the bottom of our driveway.

When that happened, I would occasionally just stay up late and deliver the papers in the middle of the night so that I could sleep until noon the next day.

This was always an adventure because, really, it's not often you're roaming the neighborhood in the dead of night at 12 years old. So it was kind of fun.

Anyway, when I did this in the summer, it was not at all uncommon for me to open someone's door and toss the paper into their wide-open, not-at-all-protected house. Only a screen door separated their living room from the outside, which was presumably to allow cooler air to circulate through their house during the night in the age before central air was common.

I could easily have walked in and taken whatever I wanted.

Not that I ever did that or even thought about doing that. The point was, many people felt just fine sleeping while leaving their house entirely unsecure.

This would not happen today. People like to say society was safer back then, but I'm not so sure. I think there was just a greater illusion of safety, and people for the most part got really lucky they didn't get robbed more often.

Nowadays, if I purposely left the front door open all night long in order to cool down our house, Terry would kill me.

Even if I did it accidentally, she also would likely kill me.

I would rather deal with a burglar than an enraged wife, if I'm being honest.

Three things I actually miss about driving to work every day

For nearly 11 months now, I like many white-collar Americans have been working from home.

There is much to be recommended about this approach to work. The free and easily accessible snacks for one, and the massive savings on gas and car maintenance for another.

But I've come to realize there really are some things I miss about that drive to the office I used to take all the time, and that I presumably at some point in 2021 will begin taking regularly again. Here are three of them:

(1) THE GUM: I keep a stash of intensely flavored (and intensely scented) peppermint gum in my car, and my habit was always to pop a stick into my mouth at the start of my morning and evening commutes. It's not like I can't chew it when I'm at home, but I just don't think to do it and, for whatever reason, it's not the same. My wife, it should be noted, is not at all a fan of this gum or the way it smells, so I have to be careful not to chew it around her. She refers to my car as "The Mint Mobile" because of it.

(2) THE MUSIC: Over the last decade, I have become an avid fan of classical music. In that time I have built a considerable library of CDs covering most of the basic classical repertoire. I usually listen to those CDs in the car. Less commute time = less Beethoven time. This is unfortunate. I've tried to make up for it, but again, the car is my concert hall.

(3) THE 40 MINUTES OF QUIET TIME: Not that my life is the same sort of loud, chaotic daily existence it used to be when the kids were little, but there's something to be said for being by yourself, listening to what you want, and just generally enjoying the experience of driving to and from work every day. I do kind of miss that. It will return eventually, but for now, I miss it.