Author: Bob Harrison

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COVID Update…week two

I came down with COVID-19 symptoms and tested positive on Friday, October 20th. Today it’s Sunday, October 29th, and I’m definitely still under the weather, but things have changed.

That first Friday, I started feeling worse and worse into the evening and most of the way through the night. My fever ramped up to 103F, I had a terrible headache and a sore throat. At around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, my fever broke, and by the time I got up, I felt a lot better. Not well, but the headache was mostly gone, the sore throat was just a scratchy throat, and my temp and O2 were normal(ish).

I improved a bit throughout the week, though I was tired, my voice started sounding awful. By Thursday, that symptom had turned around a bit, and I started to sound a bit better.

Then came Saturday. I felt good. Not one-hundred percent, but good. I had some errands to run, so I went out on my Xootr and took care of business; masked, of course,

I came home and thought that perhaps I’d over done it a bit, but I’d had a great time.

By that afternoon, my nose started running and congestion moved into my nasal passages. My temperature was, and is, still normal, and my O2 is fine. But I feel like I have a terrible cold today. I hadn’t taken any antihistamine during any of this time, but I succumbed last night so I could get a little relief and sleep.

Today, Sunday, I have a headache, though it’s mild, and I’m still quite congested in my head. Thankfully, my lungs have never been affected to any great degree.

This just sucks.

I’m debating what to do about work tomorrow. I’m thinking a few more days off are in order. The first of November will be here soon and that will be a busy day or two. I’d like to be healthier.

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Aging…beef that is

I’ve been using an UMAI dry aging bag process a big strip loin for the last week or so. I’ve written about this before, so this is just an update.

I have discovered that I should have left the fat cap side up for 7-10 days, not 2 days. Oh well. But in looking through the help forums, this should be fine. Maybe I’ll gently turn it over again for a bit.

The meat looks like this today, a week or so after putting it in the fridge. You can see that the color is a lot darker than it was in the images below. There’s still a month and change to go! December 1st is the target date. Yay!

This is what the meat looked like when I first put it in the bag.

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Here is another update on my COVID

I’m feeling a lot better today, but still testing positive. I noticed that last night my appetite, which was always present but a bit subdued, came back, and I ate twice yesterday! Yay!

I had this single NY Strip in the evening, matching one I’d had earlier in the day.

Today I’m hungry again already, so I’ll be cooking shortly.

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COVID-19 update

Yay! I woke up this morning feeling better than I have since last week before I came down with symptoms. I’m still sick.

I had been waking up every morning with a dry, scratchy, and painful throat. Today, upon awakening, it wasn’t a problem. Still scratchy? Yep, but not painful.

I never really developed a cough. I’ll admit I took some OTC dextromethorphan when I did start noticing a tendency to cough. But even so, had I developed a lot of congestion I would have noticed.

My headache, the most painful bit of all this last Friday on Day 0, has been at a very low level since Saturday morning. Today it wasn’t noticeable at all.

I understand that this may or may not last. COVID-19 is nothing if not strange. It’s possible I’ll turn for the worse, but this morning, it looks good!

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Morning bone broth

Here’s some rich homemade bone broth in my pot with butter heating up for my morning dose.

And this is what it looks like a big mug, perfect for this use, though too big for coffee.

I’m upping my bone broth intake while suffering from COVID-19. I’m doing better in some ways, but I am still sick and feel it. The bone broth helps keep me hydrated, full of nutrition, and, because of the oils and butter, coats my throat to help with pain and scratchiness.

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One Linda’s many frogs

I’m trying out my new iPhone 15 Pro Max and Lightroom Mobile. The object of this exercise was actually to try using the photo portrait data. That is, you take a photo of a subject like a frog or even a person, and with the right setting turned on, it will also capture portrait data so you can change the apparent depth of field. That’s what I did here.

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Four more meditations

Here are the recordings from the last four meditations I facilitated at work.

The first is from 10/10/2023, World Mental Health Day! This is based on the acronym HALT, referring to hunger, anger or anxiety, loneliness, and tiredness. None of those conditions are particularly good for mental health.

The next sitting was two days later, 10/12/2023, and was a practice in Mudita, or sympathetic joy.

The following week, on 10/17/2023, we returned to a “crowd favorite,” Ocean Belly. I out and out stole this from Jeff Warren, but he stole his meditation from the Buddha.

To close out the two weeks on 10/19/2023, we practiced an anchored open-awareness meditation.

The next day, I discovered I had COVID-19. I was pretty sure my coming down with the virus was unrelated to all this. Dependent origination would probably suggest otherwise.

All the best!

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Today’s carnivore feast…during COVID

Yes, I have COVID-19. It’s been a thing since Friday, which was the worst day so far. I started Paxlovid on the evening of Day 0 as the first day of symptoms is counted. By Saturday, my temperature had dropped, my O2 had returned to more or less normal, and the worst headache I’ve ever been gifted with had gotten manageable.

The good news is I’ve not lost my sense of taste, nor has my appetite fallen off much. That’s not quite true. I’m eating about half of what I had been eating. But it still tastes good. I think I’m a little blunted taste-wise, but this was yummy.

I’m also not expending any energy through exercise or even getting out of the house, so I’m sure I don’t need quite as much food. I can’t say much about how much I need to fight the virus, though. Heck, I might need more food and not want it.

Anyway, that was today’s steak. It’s a smaller ribeye that dry brined in my fridge for several days. It was delicious, even with COVID.

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Dry Aging at home!

I’m experimenting with dry aging beef at home in a regular refrigerator. Admittedly, mine is given over to beef, butter, eggs, bacon when I have it, and water. It’s still a regular refrigerator and does get opened from time to time every day.

I’ve used UMAI Dry Aging Bags to start the process on a fifteen-pound strip loin for NY Strip Steaks!

The process is easy but pretty specific. After bringing home the cryovac of meat, I had to wash the outside and my hands. I also put on gloves.

Next, you open one end of the cyrovac completely and drain the liquid. You don’t dry the meat, it helps “stick” the UMAI bag to the meat itself, which is important.

I put the UMAI bag around the opened cyrovac and then pulled the original bag out, leaving the meat in the UMAI bag. Next, I tried and failed to seal the UMAI bag with my vacuum sealer. These bags ARE NOT vacuum seal bags, and instructions are included. I did manage on my second try, though.

I popped it in the fridge on a cooling rack with the fat cap side up. This helps the bag seal on the meat side as it is pressed down by the full weight of the strip loin.

The image at the top shows the fat cap side after a couple of days. It’s hard to see, but the bag has bonded to the strip loin. Then, after two days, I flipped the meat over, the second image, and noted that the bag had bonded there as well.

That last shot shows the end of this Choice Grade cut of meat. NY strips are fairly lean. This stip loin shows good marbling for Choice, but I’ll still be eating the steaks, when they are ready, with some butter, maybe lots of butter.

And just when will they be ready? The standard time for this would be thirty-five days. That would be on or about December 1st. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll post updates as the color changes inside that bag, and it gets closer and closer to being totally delicious!