About a Major Crisis

Today, on January 11, we finally have every chapter of our book submitted. Out of the total of eighteen chapters, including the introduction and conclusion, four are still being reviewed, but they are really small ones. Even if our technical reviewer would suggest some changes, there won’t be massive rewriting. I am doing a final walk-through with all examples, ensuring everything works as expected, and creating the source code files in the process.

I feel very good about this accomplishment, and if there weren’t a major crisis, everything would be in place a week ago. I know that I kept my friends uninformed, so here are some details about my family’s happened in the past two weeks.

For three weeks, we were going back and forth about Christmas and what is safe. Finally, we decided on a hybrid solution. 

Anna and her family came to my house on Sunday morning, Vlad and Dylon drove to my house shortly after. They stayed on my deck, and I took their and Igor’s present out along with the food. They left their and Igors’ presents and their food. They left without entering the house.

Then we had gift-opening on zoom, and the next morning Anna and family were going to leave. 

But just before that, Nadia felt unwell, and then there was ER, and then the hospital, where she stayed with John, while Anna was at my house with Kira. Nadia was tested for COVID, and the next morning the test came back positive. 

Tuesday was all spent on solving the logistical problems of getting a rental car so that two parts of the family could travel home separately and coordinate with release from the hospital. Anna went to get a rapid test, which was negative. 

At home, they had to isolate on two floors. The next day, John tested positive. The same day Vlad told me that he feels sick, and he tested positive on Thursday. Igor started to feel sick, yet another day later, but he didn’t get tested until next Wednesday.

If you still follow the sequence of events, by that time, I had four of my immediate family sick with COVID, with only in one case of clearly infecting one another. Neither Anna nor I had anything. Anna tested multiple times, and I tested twice. 

My mom didn’t get sick, and after Nadia tested positive, I had to tell mom that I can’t see her until I will get tested, for which I still had to wait for two more days after my contact. 

As a result, mom had to celebrate a New Year alone, and I was celebrating worrying about four people.

I worried most about John and Igor since John has respiratory issues and Igor is immunocompromized as a cancer survivor. I worried a lot about both of them, especially because they had it worse than the other two. 

Vlad had only a couple of really bad days, but he was the only one of all who lost a sense of smell, which is especially critical for him for his professional career. He is saying that it is returning now. 

How all these cases can be related, I do not know. Knowing all of those two days’ logistics, I can’t understand how Nadia and John can be related to Vlad’s and Igor’s cases, although the coincidence seems unlikely. 

And on top of that, just a couple of days after I had my negative test, I started to develop cold symptoms and rushed to get tested again. 

That was my life between December 28 and yesterday, and yesterday I had additional stress, but that will be a separate story:)

Yes, and about the book. I’ve asked for a one-week extension, and Anna was able to finish, for which I am thankful to her beyond imagination. 

And hopefully, we are all out of the woods 🙂