Month: August 2025

You never remember the story you told…..

This is an update to my last blog about Covid never going away.

90-day guy is a special creature. The guy will tell you to your face one thing, then decide he is neutral when confrontation hits.  He likes to fancy himself as Switzerland then right afterward claim he had your side the entire time, but it’s about harmony.  Make love not war right?  He is also one of the most gullible people on the planet… but then again what do you expect from a guy who views as much as 12 hours of tv a day at least?

So, he claims he called my colleague to discuss the Covid situation last night, a call that lasted 10 minutes, I highly doubt this to be true.  He proceeded to text me saying “we all need to do a better job of staying home when sick.”  All of us?  Why me?

The following morning my colleague wanted to speak with me about the incident.  I simply stated if you know we both got it at Chipotle, I need to file a complaint, we cannot have a business that allows people to flaunt the Covid 19 laws regarding restaurants.  (For those not in the know, you CANNOT under any circumstances come to work in food service with any symptoms of virus/illness).  I could tell by the look on his face, he knew I was on to his BS, and unlike the 90-day guy, I was going to actually make him prove it.  When he said “we both felt sluggish” yep, but I said how did you know to test for Covid in the AM with no symptoms?  He tried a retort, but I once again called him out saying “if you were Covid positive, why wouldn’t you demand I test? Or warn the other two (he has a temp replacement who comes in when he is out) about me likely being a Covid positive…. Because you know we both got it at the same time, right? 

The look on his face said it all, it’s the same look a married man gives his wife when he states “sweetheart this is the only times you cheated on me right?”  and her “well honey….” Response. 

He knew the gig was up, and it was time to come clean.  He told me he was exposed to it via friends over the weekend.  Not a crime, it happens. Parties/events etc. It’s a thing.  He said symptoms started Monday afternoon, he simply ignored them, figuring this would just go away.  Tuesday it was worse, so he was downing the Robitussin to suppress his coughing symptoms.  He took me to lunch to try to place the blame on me.  When returning to work, he could no longer hide his cough because I sat in the breakroom the entire afternoon so he couldn’t grab said Robitussin.  He tested positive Wednesday morning early, and decided he was going to take the day off.  He continued throughout the day texting me asking if I had any symptoms, since I didn’t, his master plan wasn’t going to work.  You can’t say we both got it at Chipotle when I’m not sick yet. 

He told me that he told 90-day guy the lie simply because he knew he would believe it, much like the second time he gave me Covid and he said I got it at the gym.  He thinks 90-day guy is stupid, I think he is just very gullible.

The real lesson he needed to learn was not that he got Covid and was not exactly forthcoming, it’s that he created chaos.  When you give a very contagious virus like Covid to someone you are also exposing their entire network.  By not being forthcoming you allow said network to be exposed when you are likely highly contagious.  I have always lived by “its better for ask for permission than to ask for forgiveness” having to explain to folks you may be exposed to covid is a hard thing to do.  As a result, I had to burn a day off work, and am out of pocket around $600 for doctor visit, official covid test from a pharmacy, and Paxlovid.  All avoidable.  His temporary replacement was supposed to go to a 1-year-old’s birthday and a family party the following day, out of abundance of caution he stayed away.  He got lucky, he was briefly exposed and did not test positive over the 5 days. 

If there is a lesson to be learned here, I will say this, Paxlovid works.  Really well.  I was over this in about 3 days, as I started feeling better Saturday night.  He on the other hand, waited until the symptoms were so bad Paxlovid didn’t work.  It must be taken at the first sign of symptoms, which I did.  I lost about 7 lbs. over those 3 days, but I came out alright, he did not.

It could have been a lot worse.

Johnnie Does

Editor’s Note: This was submitted right after I went to Europe, but I couldn’t post it until today.

Why Won’t Covid 19 go away? Ignorance

If you are wondering when the covid 19 plandemic will go away, the answer is likely never. It’s our own damn fault too.  What was the saying during the height of the lockdowns? We are all in this together or something like that?  Well turns out some of us are serious about infectious diseases, others do not give a rip. 

I will give you a run down of my now 3rd exposure to covid by the same person and explain why this will never go away.

Tuesday last week, my co-worker basically guilt tripped me into going out to lunch, I’m talking like he had a gift card he wanted to use up, in the amount where 2 would be required to do it.  We went to Chipotle.  There was no line, and we took our order “to go” please remember those facts. 

Tuesday afternoon he develops a loud barking cough within minutes of eating his meal, he also appeared to have a fever as he was sweating profusely.  He left a little early but felt a need to declare he “didn’t have covid.”  Upon him departing I noticed a half-drained bottle of Robitussin cough suppressant in the break room that wasn’t there until that day.  Immediately I had a feeling something was up.

That following 7am he texts me that he is positive for covid.  Yep.  He claims “we” got it at Chipotle.  I guess that Chipotle didn’t smear the chik-fil-a sauce above the door like the Babylon Bee said to do way back when.  It was weird, as I had zero symptoms at all.

Fast forward to Thursday, he claims he “had two bad days in a row.”  I was fine, until around 3pm when I started sweating, and had a gnarly sore throat, I’m talking like a large piece of glass cutting my throat each time I would take a breath, or swallow.  The pain was unbearable.  I tested at a pharmacy, and viola! Positive!  A full 2 days after eating and being “exposed” to some mystery person at Chiptole who doesn’t exist.  Friday was a rough day, even after taking government mystery drug Paxlovid, and copious amounts of NyQuil (the sore throat and barking cough were painful, sleep was at a premium.  Finally on Saturday around 6pm I began to come out of this.  Sunday I was back to being a fully functioning adult.

As mentioned above this was now my third bout with this highly contagious virus that attacks your lungs…. Did I mention I race obstacle courses competitively and rank 12000 in the world?  One would think your co-workers would at least give half a damn about that but no.  Oh did I mention my father is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer?  Guess who I was with Monday and Tuesday last week?  Yup.

Monday at the office he stuck to his Chipotle story.  So, I guess there is now a wild variant of this virus, one that has a time lapse of 2 days prior to releasing, while simultaneously having on that impacts instantly?  He also denied any symptoms on Monday or Tuesday, yet had the presence of mind to test himself Wednesday early morning?  Maybe Warren Buffett has competition when it comes to predicting things?  Makes no sense. The only people who we interacted with were each other, for 2 straight days, Monday and Tuesday. 

That’s when it became abundantly clear.  He was exposed over the weekend.

He likely developed sore throat symptoms on Monday circa lunchtime, and that part is easy to hide.  He developed the cough symptom I’m guessing Tuesday mid-morning, hence the downing of cough suppressants to “fool” those in the office.  If you do not cough, and don’t complain of throat soreness did it ever exist?  The gig was up Tuesday evening as he likely had such a bad cough, throat and fever that he knew he could no longer hide it.  So he pulled the Chipotle excuse.  By doing that he could say we both got it at the same time.  Timelines do not lie though.

Covid will never go away due to the actions of the above culprit.  Rather than staying at home or getting tested at first symptom, he waited yet again until it was too late.  The bigger issue is by doing so he rendered any sort of isolation pointless and moot.  The virus very likely could have impacted my father, or anyone I play basketball with ay the gym, or interact with at church or my extracurricular activities.  It’s not just about yourself.  People like him are the reason we keep needing new boosters/vaccines.  I am not sure what is so hard about isolating/distancing when sick, but obviously that’s too much to ask.

I have permanent damage to my lungs from this virus and being exposed 3 times to it.  I do not want to have to pay for this in my 60s and 70s but I fear I will.  While I do not think my racing career will be affected in the near term, it likely will be if I plan to keep it up after 50.

On a serious note, I am making a big change.  I will be telling the head man in charge here next time I get any virus form my colleague I am quitting on the spot.  Yep, I have had it of the gaslighting and prolonged exposure to communicable diseases, my father is in immunocompromised state (Jesus, I sound like Fauci) and I am sick of burning vacation days when I get sick form a colleague.  Oh yeah, the covid 19 test, subsequent doctors visit (required for a prescription mind you) and Paxlovid has run me about $600.  I do not mind exposure to a common cold/flu due to seasonal nature, but folks all 3 times I was given covid the early symptoms were enough to know something serious was wrong, I am too young and energetic to have to worry about long term health effects.

I guess we will see what next poo-poo platter of viruses my coworker tries to hit me with.

Johnnie Does