Notes from Covid-15 (Woodfield Road)

 A few random thoughts from Isolation Row:

 --Pop culture references usually evade me. I rarely watch movies or shows or anything. So, I never understood what people meant when they said, “It’s like Groundhog Day.” Now, I get it.

--When it snows and you’ve got nowhere to go, shoveling is not a huge priority.

--Not driving anywhere for days at a time is really weird.

--The ability to have food delivered in multiple ways to the house is a true blessing.

--When you leave a stick of butter within paw’s grasp on the kitchen counter, and you live with three ravenous dogs, that stick of butter is history. Man, they’re like animals!

--When you open a bag of potato chips and you live with three ravenous dogs, you create an instant Fan Club.

--The furnace is constantly firing. We are burning through fossil fuel (oil) at an alarming rate.

--You would think we would be “getting a lot done” in terms of organizing. Not. It’s very difficult to get into a “routine” and the days are very “scattered.”

Oh. Wait. Did I mention? We are currently at two (2) Covid-positive members of our household – wife Heidi and youngest son James. The odds are stacked against daughter Natalie (whose return to Siena for the spring semester has been obviously delayed) and The Old Man Writing This (this seems like one, big Grand Finale of home-bound isolation during the past 11 months … like a final exam or something!). Having to isolate two out of the four current residents (Joey is down on Long Island) in a 2,100-square-foot home is, uh, challenging. Not impossible, but not easy either. Heidi’s symptoms are moderate (loss of taste/smell, very fatigued, congestion) and slightly improving, but she’s not young and this isn’t “just a cold or a flu,” so of course we’re concerned. James’ symptoms are mild right now. But again, there’s a lot about this virus that we just don’t know. This shit’s real, and now it has found its way to our dead-end street in Hyde Park.

Staying calm is recommended. However, when a contact tracer nicely asked “where did your wife contract the virus,” I kind of snapped. Where did she get the virus? Let’s see: Maybe it was the 53 unmasked people we had over the house for the Super Bowl? (Not). Maybe it was karaoke night at the local brew pub? (Not). Maybe it was a family dinner out at the local diner? (Also, not!) While we have not been living cloistered at home (as we are now) through this pandemic, we have also been taking it seriously. No one but family inside the home. Quick trips to public places, always masked – doctors’ appointments, the public library (me!), grocery store, Home Depot, church, etc. We do go to work (Heidi way more than me) and we do go to school. Again, always masked. So, who knows. Where did you contract the virus? In this case, that’s like asking deep, eternal questions with no clear-cut answers: What’s the meaning of life? What’s causing climate change? Is the universe infinite? How come Marist doesn’t have a track? For all these questions and more, I have at least another week to ponder them. At home!