Last Tuesday I felt fine until all of a sudden I started shivering just after I finished my monthly Monalog Zoom meeting.  I’m normally cold in my house and end up wearing sweatshirts or sweaters all year long. It’s either too cold because it’s freezing in the winter, or it’s too cold because my wife has the air on too high! But this was unusual. It lasted about two hours then all was well. I woke the next morning after a fitful night of sleep but felt pretty normal and good enough to make a trip visit a friend in Maryland.  He’s 81 years old, so just to be on the safe side, I decided to wear an N95 mask and sanitize my hands before I walked in the door. Good thing I did!  On the way home I had a few minor coughs … no big deal. When I got there and a few more coughs later, my loving wife told me I looked like #%^$*. She told me to take the test, and there it was … my second go round with Covid.

#$@$%^&*

Turns out it wasn’t as bad as the first time around, nevertheless by Friday I was getting ready to pull my hair out. What to do? Be creative!  While not 100% I decided to go into my darkroom and start to chip away at this year’s negatives. Great idea! Get ahead vs. my usual year-end printing ritual. I took things a little bit easier and continued working part of the day on Saturday and Sunday. A bit of a struggle but am very happy with the results!

So my week didn’t turn out exactly as planned, but once reasonably able I turned to my creative self and made the best of a bad situation. In fact, doing so was a good learning experience. There’s always time for creativity, even when things aren’t as you planned or hoped for. In fact, maybe these are the times for you to try to be creative!  Don’t stress it … just try something. What’s the alternative? Sitting around feeling sorry for yourself or watching the Gameshow Network all day?  Much better to do something, even if it’s just going over proof sheets to see if there are any gems you’ve missed.

I ended up working on some things that, who knows, may lead to a whole new creative avenue going forward, while at the same time thinking about and trying some new approaches to using my Focomats.

In a few days, things should be back to normal and I’ll be looking for time. I’d prefer not to be sick, but this time I used my downtime creatively … and well!

Stay well,

Michael