Pandemic paranoia?

Paranoia is no fun when you are dealing with a deadly disease and the potential — no matter how remote it might seem — of being sickened by it.

I now shall explain.

I came down three days ago with a head cold. Classic symptoms: a little scratchy throat, a bit of a cough, runny nose, sneezing. You know, the usual. But wait! My mind started racing. Was it COVID-19, the virus that is still making people sick, sending them to the hospital, forcing medical personnel to roll out the ventilators, putting people into medically induced comas?

No. It wasn’t that. I sought to get a test. I couldn’t find a place to obtain one immediately. So, I waited it out. I’m well now. I am back to my usual effervescent self.

This is one of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic that is annoying me to no end. I know what a head cold feels like. I’ve been getting ’em for, oh, more than seven decades. 

It kinda reminds me of when someone cuts me off on the street. My initial instinct used to be to lay on my horn, possibly shout a bad word or two and maybe offer an obscene gesture. No more, man! This is Texas! You never know who’s got a firearm with him. Too many damn road-rage episodes are being reported and too many of them are ending tragically.

Am I paranoid when I drive my truck? Not really … but I could get that way.

No, I am not paranoid because I caught a three-day head cold. It’s just that the killer virus has given me pause.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com