In the past 11 years I think I have called in sick to work a total of one time. That instance occurred with what I like to call the Chow Mein Hot dish fiasco in which I got sick from eating hot dish with an Asian flare. Of course, when you are the boss and no one else is around to do your job, you tend to not let a simple cough or cold hold you down.

That all changed last Thursday when I felt like I was hit by a freight train. On Wednesday morning I received my second COVID-19 vaccine and felt relatively good. By Thursday morning I was dressed like I was on an ice fishing outing on Lake of the Woods and still couldn’t get warm enough to stop shivering. 

Twenty-four hours later and I still felt like I had a boxing match going on in my head. 

I guess my reaction to the vaccine was a bit of karma as I made it through my first vaccination without so much as a headache, while many of my other family and friends were laid up for a few days with a foggy head, headache and pains. Though I had to call in sick, to myself nonetheless, I guess getting sick for a day from a vaccine is better than missing two weeks of work due to contracting COVID-19. 

Never in a million years did I think we would still be dealing with this COVID-19 mess 13 months after our state started to shut down last March. Yet here we are, still living the dream by having to wear masks and living with a myriad of restrictions that are apparently helping to prevent the spread of this virus. 

Two weeks ago, I met with someone who is far more important than me via Zoom, who expected certain restrictions like limits on crowd sizes at sporting events, could be in place for another 18 months. I’m sure my face said it all as he quickly backtracked and said this was just a projection and no one knows for sure. All I could muster out was “I’m not dealing with this in 2022” and several other people on the call laughed at my overall shock. 

Regardless of what you think about COVID-19, I think we can all yearn for things to go back to normal as quickly as possible. 

Spring sports

Speaking of karma, or Murphy’s Law, it seems like this is the nicest spring we have had for spring sports in nearly a decade. Yet, because of COVID-19 our spring sports had to get the start of their season pushed back a few weeks. 

Given what happened last year with the entire season being canceled, waiting a few weeks long to start baseball, softball, track, golf and trap is a minor inconvenience, but it’s just ironic that this year we could have had games at the end of March, but we’re still waiting for the first games to get underway.

Here’s to hoping for a successful spring sports season to all of our teams. As we were shown over the past year, nothing is guaranteed anymore, so make sure to make the most out of the opportunities you have been given. 

While I had my meeting over Zoom the other week, which completely ruined my day when this person said we may have some restrictions for another 18 months, I shared about the amazing success the sporting teams in our coverage area has had over the past few years. It’s amazing if you think about it how many games and tournament success we have had in the past five years. 

That success doesn’t come without a lot of work and sacrifice, but also makes for an exciting time in our area with the anticipation of a state tournament berth.