After all my anxiety about Covid at WorldCon, I came home healthy and tested negative.
Probability, as always, is a jerk and delights in rewarding risk and punishing caution. While I was away, my husband, who has been very careful and staying home, decided to take the car in for service because the “service due” thingy kept popping up on the dash.
He wasn’t there long, he masked indoors. I suspect, however, the mechanic did not mask inside the car. Whatever the reason, my husband has Covid, and a few days later, his brother, who lives with us, got sick, too. I came home to two sniffly coughing boys who hadn’t been tested yet, but were sure it was “just a cold.”
As you know, test kits are thin on the ground, and test appointments moreso. This was Sunday, Dec. 19. As I had no symptoms, I was able to immediately test at the university. Brian was able to schedule an appointment to be tested at CWRU health services on Tuesday, and my friend Nyla provided three home kits for John.
It was not just a cold. They both tested positive.
I had come home from WorldCon expecting to isolate myself from them, so I kept my mask on and kept out of the same room on Sunday and Monday – until John came down for Monday Night Football and sat right next to me on the couch, breathing heavily, no mask. I was quite irked. “Are you isolating from Brian?” I asked.
“No. I figure whatever he has, I have.”
“Well do you mind not giving it to me?!”
We worked out sitting a good eight feet apart for watching the game, but as pizza was delivered and wandering happened, I got anxious and went up to the third floor and watched the rest of the game on my laptop.
Siiiigh. Shoulda had that one. I wanted Priefer to have a 2 for 2.
ANYWAY it’s all okay because that was three days ago and the gestation period for Omicron is 2-3 days so I would already feel sick if I’d caught it then. (Or at least by 5pm, which was kick-off time? Yay?) Bad news: the university testing site is closed for the holidays so I can no longer routinely confirm my negative state. (I realize that was a huge privilege.) For now, I am isolating both from the boys (in case I’m negative) and the world (in case I’m positive.)
SO what’s it like? Well, Brian and John are staying in their bedrooms upstairs, only leaving to go to the bathroom down the hall. They are masking for the hallway and non-face-involved bathroom activities. I put on two masks to bring trays of food or beverages upstairs, leave them outside their doors and knock to confirm delivery. I open the windows downstairs and blow a fan for as long as I can tolerate the cold. (I make myself tolerate it for at least 40 minutes.)
I’m sleeping on the sofa, with the dog, who can be quite a sofa-hog I’m discovering. We got in a fight over the blanket last night. It was cold.
Every morning, I wake up on the sofa way early – 2am or 4am – I try to stay down to 7am. Every day, I expect to wake up sick, and it’s a pleasant surprise not to be.
I get dressed. Ironically, I’m dressing out of the bag I packed for WorldCon. I didn’t want to go up to the bedroom and root around. The only problem was a lack of braseire. I’d already dumped the dirty laundry into the hamper upstairs, you see. But Brian left me a bra with his dirty dinner dishes. yay.
There’s not a lot of space on the first floor of our house that isn’t floor-to-ceiling windows, so I dress in front of the washing machine.
Then my morning is sorta normal. I make tea. I message Brian and John what they want for breakfast and beverage. (I have to be proactive or they’ll come downstairs!) Then I walk the dog and log into work and … am just the most distracted remote employee.
Thank goodness the winter break starts today at 3pm.
Today when I brought Brian up a cup of gatorade, I saw him stamping his feet up and down just inside the door, making sad, loving sounds. “Aboo. Aboo? Aboo.”
Yeah, the separation sucks. I miss my bed! We chat all day online, though, and tonight we’re going to try chrome-casting a movie to all the screens so we can watch together and separate.
Mostly I’m just … having a hard time thinking of anything beyond: Walk dog. Make tea. Make food. Plan next food. My hair hasn’t been combed and fuck that diet I was on. I’m making real instant food for me so I can concentrate what little energy I have on preparing vaguely-healthy stuff for the sick boys.
My niece was at her boyfriend’s house for the weekend when this all fell down. She was supposed to come home Sunday night and we were going to have a Family Dinner and decorate the tree. But we decided to let her stay away, rather than be exposed, and those plans were nixed.
Yesterday I gave in and put some lights on the tree, even if I’m the only one here to look at it.
I want the kid to come home but I also don’t want her to be exposed to Covid. She’s vaccinated but not boosted. (Brian and I were both boosted, John wasn’t). Then again, I don’t know how safe she’s being over there, if the people in the house are all vaccinated, if they’re isolating. Though this way, she DOES get a Christmas. Here it would be just me, maybe, or we’d wait, until the boys could join.
Right now I have no plans to celebrate Christmas and honestly I can’t even start to think how to. I’ll wrap some presents today, though. I have a few I bought. I was always planing on having a low-present year. One thing for kid. One thing for sister. One thing for sister’s husband. Brian already agreed to no presents, and John I don’t think will mind. My dad and sister Lizzie are getting contributor copies. Hey! I made it myself?
Five days done. Five to go. I can do this.
