Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness

Today Facebook told me that two years ago I wrote this:

D said "if my second LFT's negative..." and even though I had no idea how he was going to finish that sentence, when it ended up being "wanna go to the pub?", I said "yes!" almost before he'd finished asking.

So: celebratory pub garden selfie.

He's clearly still easily tired but I'm so glad we could get out in the nice weather.

This morning I guess I was in a thoughtful mood, because I said:

D was the last to recover from this acute stage, so I am grateful to be able to celebrate two years of none of us having covid.

MB had persistent hearing loss that was especially debilitating for someone with as little hearing as she has anyway, but fortunately it seemed to recede after about six months. It can be permanent -- Paul Simon is no longer able to perform because of long covid that took the form of hearing loss.

Our continued carefulness, the sacrifices we make, the social ostracism...all the costs: financial, mental and emotional, continue to be high but they are worth it. This was such a terrible fortnight, full of worry and fear and isolation that was far more mental than it was physical. I was only a week or two into my new job and this really made me wear my heart on my sleeve in front of my team, who luckily were kind and supportive as they have been ever since. But oof.