Assignment #1: Coping With Covid

For this first assignment, from April 4, 2022, we were required to simply describe a typical day of our own during covid.

Coping With Covid

Waking up to the mechanical scream of a cheap grinder isn’t the nicest way to start your day, but at least it promises fresh coffee. That’s Hitomi in the kitchen, I stay in bed until she’s poured her first cup before heading down in my sweatpants and T-shirt. She’s standing at the open fridge deciding what her lunch might be while I fill my favourite mug and shuffle into the living room, careful not to spill. Remote in hand, should I watch CBC or switch to CP24, meaning do I want to feel depressed from world events or just Toronto murders. Whatever I choose, even if I go straight to Turner Classic Movies, I have to keep the volume down to a level I can’t quite hear so that Hitomi can listen to her evening news from Japan on her iPad while she finishes off yet another container of yogurt.

When Hitomi goes back upstairs to get ready for work, I return to the kitchen for my small glass of orange juice to wash down my morning pills, trusting they’ll keep my high blood pressure and cholesterol in check. Weekday breakfasts are either cold cereal with milk and yogurt, and maybe sliced banana or blueberries if Hitomi has left any, or my speciality, toasted fried egg sandwich, but only if there’s ham and cheese in the fridge. She’s out the door by nine, leaving me to fill up the next few hours with the same daily routine; take a dump if the coffee has worked its magic, then shower and get dressed, shaving optional and unlikely. Then back down to my easy chair in the living room, having already decided my body isn’t up to doing the exercises my conscience tells me I should be following through on. Nobody’s perfect, I remind myself.

Social media eats up the rest of the morning; Email, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, in that order. If there aren’t enough likes for what I’ve already posted, I’ll google a few other sites and find something that I know will provoke a reaction from my followers, or leave a passive-aggressive comment on one of their pages. Lately I’ve also been watching the old Andy Griffith shows, just to take me back to a time that never was. Floyd the barber always brings on a smile, and at least momentarily helps me forget the latest covid stats.

Lunch is leftovers or something frozen from the freezer, the dishes get done, and then on to my favourite part of the day, my afternoon nap! What makes it special is that Yuki, our white cat, follows me up, knowing there’s a sweat-stained plaid shirt laid out for her on the bed beside me. If I had to be frozen in time, it would that moment, her fuzzy white paws wrapped around my hand pressed against her soft warm belly. There’s never a set time limit for the nap, except on Monday when I have to go grocery shopping, but by three I start to feel a little guilty about not having done anything with the day. That’s when I turn on my iPod and listen to the latest episode of Slate, Bill Maher, Sam Harris, CanadaLand, or any of the other fifty odd podcasts I subscribe to. It counts as doing something.

By four or so I’m back in the kitchen searching for what might turn into a supper, knowing Hitomi will be home by 5:30 with what’s usually a much better idea. We time it so that the food is ready for the start of Coronation Street, and that’s always followed by Jeopardy, after which I do the clean up. Tired after a hard day at work, made more challenging having to wear an N95 mask all day, Hitomi usually heads to bed by nine, while I spend the rest of the evening watching shows I’m not interested in, or searching without success for something good on Netflix. At eleven it’s time to get depressed again, only now it’s with Lisa LaFlamme on CTV. On most nights I try to read a few pages of whatever book is by the bedside, then express a silent gratitude for all the horror I’m not experiencing firsthand, and which at worst will only reach me in my dreams. I don’t expect tomorrow will be much different, and that’s okay with me.

Ken Bole

CW Assignment #1