Chinese Version06-06-2022, Monday, Sunny

On Thursday morning, June 2, the air in the rain was very fresh. After thinking of the fragrant hanxiao (sweetbay magnolia flowers), I jogged two miles from home to see the flowers. Standing in front of the blooming sweetbay magnolia in the drizzle, although my sweaty wet body was particularly sensitive to the cold wind, I still took photos of the flowers one-by-one and smelled them one-by-one. Watching blooming sweetbay magnolia always brings back vivid memories of my late mother to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of the flowers with me. I told my mother: “The sweetbay magnolia flowers that were in full bloom last night are back in bud shape this morning. The sweetbay magnolia that was in bud on May 19th has seeds now. The fragrance of the flowers in the rain is more subtle and pure. ”

After enjoying the sweetbay magnolia with my late mother, I felt chilly in the sporadic drizzle. After jogging back home, I felt very warm. Thinking that tomorrow will be the Dragon Boat Festival and my daughter likes zongzi (rice dumpling), I took the frozen pork belly out from the freezer and thawed it in hot water. I also prepared other things, such as washing the sweet rice and then soaking it in water, washing bamboo leaves and then soaking them in cold water for later use.

In the afternoon, my daughter took her son Ben to see a performance in school for the first time, so I went along in case she could not handle the baby by herself. After the performance, there was a traffic jam in the parking lot and we couldn’t back up our car, so we walked around the school campus for a while. I didn’t wear enough clothes for a long outdoor walk and felt very cold while walking around. After coming home, I found that the pork belly had not been thawed yet. Because the pork belly needed to be cut and marinated using ginger and soy sauce for at least two hours before making rice dumpling, I had to break the frozen pork belly pieces with my bare hands and then cut the very cold pork belly into small pieces to marinate. It was unusual for me to touch frozen cold meat for such a prolonged time.

In the evening, Ben went out with his parents to meet his friend Vincent. I spent more than two hours to make rice dumpling at home, taking a cold bamboo leaf from cold water and wrapping it into a cone, putting cold water dripping sweet rice into the cone, adding a few pieces of cold marinated pork belly in the sweet rice, then wrapping close the bamboo leave cone and using string to tie it tight. My hands were touching and holding the cold bamboo leaves all the time for more than two hours, which made my body feel very cold at the end.

In the morning of Friday, June 3, I had a stuffy nose, hoarse voice, and sore throat, all obvious cold symptoms. I took my temperature and saw no fever. The COVID-19 pandemic situation of more than two years has trained me well, I immediately did an antigen home test, the second test in my life. I was happy to see the test result was negative.

I stayed in bed on Friday and Saturday. Lying in bed, I felt pain from every breath I took: my lungs seemed motionless and could not take in air and my nasal cavity seemed to be pricked by thousands of small needles when I inhaled the air. Lying in bed, I also felt aches everywhere: every muscle on my face was in pain, all the muscles in my body were also hurting, and I had a bad headache, like my head would blow up. The pain of the common cold had made me doubt life when I was alone in the empty nest period in the past. I remember that after climbing up to the bedroom on the second floor and falling on the bed, I felt so desolate, painful and hopeless. At that time, what helped me was my dream: don’t let my parents worry about me and be ready to help my children. Today, I have no concern about my late parents’ worries about me at all, but it is more practical to be able to help my children. My mind is set to recover quickly so I can help take care of my little grandson, Ben.

On Sunday, the third day after I caught a cold, I got up and went for a walk at Walden Pond in the afternoon.

On Monday, I was basically fully recovered and ready to take care of my grandson Ben.

Little Episodes

1. 04-21-2022, First antigen test in Germany: