A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

  The Covid-19 To-Do List   I contracted Covid-19. I don’t know how. I had both vaccines and the booster. I wore a mask in populated areas like the grocery store. I don’t know where or how I came to get infected, but I did. I wrote about that journey last week. If you missed it, CLICK HERE .    This week I am sharing what I’ve learned about dealing with the virus.    5  Things to do  Before  You Get Covid-19   1. Order your  free  Covid-19 Antigen Rapid Self Test. (You do not want to have your son-in-law scramble to bring one to your front door early on a Sunday morning.)   2. Purchase Nyquil or a similar cold and flu medicine. Trust me.   3. Make sure you have plenty of Chicken Noodle Soup.    4. Stock up on chocolate pudding cups.    5. Buy a big bottle of Dr. Teal’s Foaming Eucalyptus & Spearmint Bubble Bath.  An Absolute Necessity     6  Things to Do  Once...

 I Have Covid Sunday, March 20 : I have Covid. I don’t expect it to be as bad as some experience. I was vaccinated. I had the booster. Don’t misunderstand. It is yucky. My head feels like a balloon about to burst. (No “airhead” comments, please.)   The onset was Saturday evening. I tested today (Sunday). I didn’t even have to wait the full fifteen minutes for the rapid test to know I tested positive. I feel tired, worn out, achy, and stuffed up. And this is only the first day.   To be honest, I thought I had dodged the bullet. While others tested positive, I stayed healthy.    On Saturday night, I rummaged through my medicine cabinet for some cold and flu meds. I came across some ibuprofen I bought in Kosovo but it was sorely out of date. The Nyquil was within its expiration date so I took two gel caps and headed to bed.   Four and a half hours later I woke up with the stuffy head and took two more gel caps.   This morning, Sunday, my son-in-law, David...

  Meet Joe   This past week I’ve been caring for my neighbor’s cat. His name is Joe. Joey. I’ll share right up front: I am not a cat person.    Well, not normally.   My experience with cats has been limited.   Farm cats had a job to do. As a child I wasn’t particularly fond of a barn cat laying a dead mouse at my feet and expecting some sort of praise or reward.   Then there was Bigfoot. This six-toed ball of fur was cute enough. My oldest daughter liked to put him in her doll stroller and cart him around the house. He could have been a great addition to our family except for one little bad habit he had. Bigfoot preferred the built-in planter near the front door over the litter box we prepared for him. No matter what we did to stop it.   I decided we weren’t cat people. We were dog people. Goldfish people for a time. Hamster and bird people at one point, but mostly “dog people.”    Then I met Joe.    A few years after my husban...

The Necessities of Tomorrow I once read that something that seemed impossible yesterday and has become a luxury today will be a necessity tomorrow. I live in tomorrow.    My husband and I completed our undergraduate work at the University of South Florida in Tampa. It took a while. We were young. Tom paid for every penny of his college. My parents paid for my tuition.    Tom’s studies were in zoology. I wanted to be a teacher. We had dreams.   Not all of our dreams matched up exactly.   For instance, I remember the day Tom took his box of punched cards to the computer lab. (Back then you wrote a computer program and punched cards accordingly for the computer to read.) He handed them over to the woman at the front desk.    While we waited, Tom said, “One day we’re going to have a computer in our house.”   I looked at the large bank of metal cabinets behind the glass. The school computer took up the better part of a large wall. “Really?” I aske...

What is Your Super Power?  I grew up watching Superman episodes on our old black and white television. My friends and I would tie towels around our necks and pretend to fly.  Superman had supernatural powers. Superman was “Faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful than a locomotive; able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.” He had X-ray vision and enhanced hearing.  Superman was, in our minds, the real deal. I’ve seen reruns of the original Superman series and wonder now what I ever thought was amazing about them. The plots were forced and unrealistic.  I’ve since watched other Super Heroes come to life on the big screen. Special effects have come a long way. Maybe a bit too far.  I went with some friends to see Spider-Man: No Way Home last week. With rave reviews, I expected a great storyline. I didn’t get it. This was, in my opinion all about the special effects.  I pictured a bunch of “twenty-somethings” at their computers in a studio. The con...