Mrs. Brad and I catch up with the world by finally getting COVID

It took a while, but we finally caught up.

In the same way Mrs. Brad and I were late to cell phones, using streaming-only for Netflix and watching "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," we were late to COVID.

By the time we were hit with the pandemic-causing virus in mid-June, three years had passed since our first friends got sick. Two years had passed since masks largely disappeared from public places.

No one worries about COVID anymore. We're vaccinated multiple times. Most people have had the virus. COVID is so 2021.

Mrs. Brad and me getting COVID in 2023 was like falling in love with "Saturday Night Fever" in 1981 after everyone else was sick of Bee Gees music. We had Saturday Night Fever when everyone else had Stars on 45 Mania. (That is the greatest reference you'll see this year to 1981 pop culture.)

We returned from a brief work-related trip to Washington, D.C. feeling great. I got sick and tested positive for COVID-19 two days later. She followed shortly three days after me.

Illnesses are always worse for Mrs. Brad than me, so it was unsurprising that her symptoms – cough, fever, headaches, tiredness – were worse. But since I'm a Type 1 diabetic, I'm considered at risk, so my doctors put me on medication while she soldiered through.

The good news? My symptoms were mild. The bad news? I got "rebound COVID," and tested positive again after going through an entire isolation/masking/testing cycle. It meant a second week of isolation and wearing a mask.

Two weeks of isolation. I felt like I was in prison – if prison involved working from the kitchen table, watching TV and taking naps every afternoon on the deck. Still, I didn't leave our house for six days, meaning a lot of TV and naps and reading and naps.

Unlike the darkest COVID days of March and April 2020, we were doing this alone, which was good news and bad news:

The bad news was that we didn't have friends going through the same thing with whom to commiserate.

The good news was that all sports continued: We watched a lot of baseball and cycling and Formula 1 and even some USFL football. We watched a lot of Netflix and "Shark Tank."

The bad news was we couldn't even play games (first because Mrs. Brad was afraid of infection, then because she was too sick to play, then because my doctor advised me that my rebound COVID was possibly contagious to Mrs. Brad again).

The good news was we survived, of course.

Nearly everyone survives COVID now, which is why it's no longer such a big thing. We were appreciative of our vaccines. We were grateful for the advances made over three-plus years. We were reminded how difficult it can be to be sick and isolated and unable to leave your house.

But we also joined the majority. We're now part of between 52% and 82% of Americans (depending on your source) who have had COVID.

Like listening to "Stars on 45" on repeat, it's not very pleasant.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.