Work Life and Sick Days

No one plans to be sick.

I definitely didn’t have it in my Outlook calendar this week when a sudden fever took me down.  

I tested positive for some current variant of COVID that is going around. Yep, COVID is still here and it got me a second time.

I have just now been able to sit upright for extended periods of time and thankful that my fever is gone.  I’m just left with the coughing and congestion now while quarantined in a separate bedroom.

I hate being sick.  I confess that I am not a good patient.  Too often I try to rush the process.  I feel bad that my absence due to sickness has caused my co-workers to be shorthanded this week.

 

I have rarely used any sick days during my career.  When I left Government employment a few years ago,  I actually had a huge amount of unused sick leave which I had accrued.

Many times I have just pushed through whatever was ailing me.  I have worked sick and various pains many, many times.

  

The average American worker takes an average of 2-3 sick days per year with about 26% surveyed which said they didn’t take any sick days.  I don’t know about this unless they are super beings.  Those who work from home take less sick days because they feel like they can work sick from home.

Well, I couldn’t have worked sick this past week.  I was completely down for the count.

One thing that is important is that we value our health and take care of ourselves.  When we take time to take care of ourselves - especially when we are sick - we can get back to being fully functional for the people who count on us.  I mean, the nature of my job requires a lot of focus and detail so I need to be as fully functional as I can be to do it.  

It’s like I wouldn’t want to go to my dentist appointment if my dentist wasn’t feeling well or just not 100% at that moment when you need a dental procedure done.  You don’t want your doctor to have a “my bad” situation during your procedure if they aren’t feeling well.

It’s nice to have employers who understand when you are not feeling well and need to take sick leave to recover.  I think I have had one in my entire career who took an attitude with me when I called in sick.  Fortunately, those who know my work ethic and know me understand that if I’m out sick then I am really too sick to function.  

As I climb out of this recent illness, I am thankful that I have had good health over the years.  If there’s one thing that sickness shows us is that there is more to us than our work.  We have to take care of ourselves.  Work will go on with us or without us.  

This Is a “sick” Post

Today I am writing this blog from my bed.  I have been sick with COVID for the past four days.

Yes, COVID is still a thing.

No, it is not a hoax.

Yes, I had the vaccine.

It came out of nowhere.  I was working and suddenly my body was on fire.  I had a raging fever that took me down.  

I have been quarantined to our bedroom while my wife is forced to sleep in the living room. 

She has taken care of me and endured my endless coughing, sneezing and groans.

I am not a good patient.

She knows I hate asking for things and being helpless.  

I thought I was making progress yesterday.  No fever or pain but then another wave hit and my temperature spiked again with a vengeance.

  

Yes, I have prayed.  I never really prayed for my own healing much before so I tried it. 

No, I am not healed.  I am still sick.

I don’t know why God didn’t heal me but I still believe He could if He wanted to.  These are things I really don’t understand and won’t waste my time trying.

When God doesn’t heal you, you just push through it the best you can. 

That’s what I am doing now.  

I lay here in bed angry at our politicians for making this virus a political issue.

Remember when they said it was a political thing when it was a WORLDWIDE pandemic?  We have these morons trying to take away the vaccines from us.  I can’t imagine how bad this would have been had I not been vaccinated.

I remember all the idiotic things that went on during the pandemic yet we elected the SAME president who was in office then. How did we let that happen?  

Right now I am sick of being sick. My nose is running constantly.  I have to stop typing so I can cough.  

This is the second time I have had COVID.  It is just as bad this time as it was before. 

When you get COVID one of the first thoughts you have is wondering how you got it.  I wondered how it got me this time but there isn’t anything I can do about it now.  I just want to get over it.

It’s a good sign that I am typing this blog since I couldn’t do anything for the past four days.  Maybe I am making progress.  

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) - since we can’t trust the idiots in our own government - there are currently 27,000 cases of COVID worldwide.  According to the WHO website, the United States is not providing any data to them.

Although our country wants to bury its political head in the sand, cases of COVID are growing in 16 states and likely growing in 14 others, plus in Washington, DC.

Over the past week, test positivity for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, rose from 10.2% to 11.2%, with levels as high as 17.9% in the south-central part of the country, followed by levels in the 11.3% to 14.3% range in the West and 11.6% in the Southeast.

You won’t hear about this on the news.

Do you know how we are getting this data?  They are testing wastewater in cities to get these numbers.  Can you believe that crap (no pun intended)?

What a responsible and honest government of the people would do would be to admit it still exists and find a cure for it.  Wouldn’t that be the thing to do?  Instead, they choose to ignore it, stop testing and end vaccinations.

Remember when Trump said:  “If you don’t test, you don’t have any cases.”

And some of you actually voted for him.

Sad.

Bottom line is that I am sick.  This is day four and the real experts say I have about 10 more days to get over this.  

So be warned.  COVID is still out there waiting to strike.  At least carry a mask with you and if you are in a crowded space at least wear it while you are there.  

I’m not going to get started on masks either.  I don’t like wearing them either and I’m not going to go crazy and wear them everywhere all the time again.  

Okay, enough of my ranting.  I have COVID and I just have to get through this once again.  It just would have been good if we had taken it seriously when it first started spreading.  

Don't Be Deceived About Being Deceived.

I don’t know what to say about Charlie Kirk. I am not an advocate of violence and in no way do I condone what happened to him. I also did not agree with his message or his tactics. What saddens me more is the venom of hate that I see coming from it. 

Sadly, we live in a time when people call evil good and good evil even the people who are supposed to know the difference. The great deceiver is actively working in our world and he is even deceiving people who we would consider the very elect among religious leaders.

It’s a crazy world right now. It’s very nasty and ugly. We used to be able to disagree and respect the opinions of others. I may not agree with you but I’m not going to attack you and I’m not going to waste my time debating you. I will just go my separate way.

We make heroes of people who have a message that is contrary to the Gospel. What is wrong with us? I am disturbed that many have been deceived by political activists who claim to support the message of Jesus Christ.

There are many warnings in the New Testament to be vigilant against deception.

Jesus cautioned his disciples to  "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many" (Matthew 24:4–5). He further warns that false messiahs and prophets will perform signs and wonders to deceive, "if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).

The Apostle Paul gave warning that, "I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3).

The Apostle John advised, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).

Peter also gave warning that "there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies...and many will follow their destructive ways" (2 Peter 2:1–2).

Many people assume that anyone who speaks positively about Jesus is of God. However, false teachers can present a different version of Jesus or the Gospel that is not biblically accurate. The Bible also warns against seeking out teachers who say what people's "itching ears want to hear," which can lead to rejecting sound doctrine and chasing myths (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

So if the Bible gave us these numerous warnings then we should probably pay attention to it and not jump on the bandwagon of people who appeal to our political views.