Covid Again

I have so much to catch up with, but I’ve been pretty much out of commission. Last Saturday we got a call from J: just one week into college, she’d tested positive for Covid. As delightful as Smith College is, it didn’t seem to offer much in the way of accommodations for her: there was no particular plan to shield her roommate from infection. Plus, she was feeling pretty bad. We’d been in the middle of watching M’s soccer game online, but I set out to get her immediately. Cute W has his big annual conference next week, so we wanted to do our best to keep him Covid-free. J was flushed and and sweaty and achy and stuffy when I got to her, and the ride home wasn’t particularly pleasant, with both of us masked and the windows rolled down to hopefully whisk the Covid cooties away. Lucky for us, one long sleep was enough to improve J considerably, and while she had to isolate for 5 days, she was able to attend some classes by Zoom and even went for a run or two. But by Monday I wasn’t feeling great, and by Tuesday, I’d tested positive. There was a lot of musical rooms at our house. G was re-routed to the master bathroom to avoid J in the hall bathroom, Cute W started sleeping in the living room to avoid spending too much time with me, just in case, and then, once I tested positive, I moved into J’s room so that Cute W and G could use the master bathroom shower without walking through a Covid room.

On Wednesday, I dragged my Covid-self through most of my usual newsletter duties, slightly less sharp-eyed than usual, and on Thursday, it was another round-trip to Northampton since J was allowed to attend classes and activities while masked as of the following morning. On Friday I reveled in the glorious opportunity to just lie around and sleep all day. And today I remain pajama’d and sequestered for the moment, but I have tentative plans to attempt to rejoin the living, albeit masked and at a distance.

So far, knock on wood, Cute W and G have avoided getting infected, and keeping that up is my main objective for the next couple of days. Cute W’s conference starts on Monday, so my current Monday plan is to give the bathrooms a massive disinfection so that G and I can go back to our usual bathrooms (and I can sleep in my own bed) by Monday evening.

This has absolutely thrown a wrench into this weekend’s plans. Cute W is being a magnificent homeowner and tackling our Japanese Knotweed treatment, but I’d originally had plans to share information about/offer to help treat the invasive among our neighbors, and those plans have been scrapped. I’d also thought we’d have a super-fun apple picking outing this weekend, but I’m trying to avoid spending anything but the most minimal time in a car with anyone. So it’s all got me a little bit cranky, to be honest. I am really looking forward to not wearing a mask around my home.