We woke up Monday morning, and Calib was still feeling fine, which meant we needed to stay isolated from him. The two covid rooms were our room and the office, with our bathroom being the covid bathroom. Hayden and Peyton had slept in the office, while Asa and I contaminated our room.
We tried to limit people going out into the "common" areas, and we were always masked when we did that. I was usually the designated "runner", because I had little to no symptoms, so we figured I was shedding the least amount of virus (whether or not thats scientifically accurante, I have no idea). Anyway, I went out to empty out the inside of the car (Calib later got the trunk), and I brought all kinds of stuff back into our room.
With all the stuff we had packed, we really had a nice set up. I had the picnic dishes (plus the dishes from our dinner last night) which I washed in one sink and dried in the other, and of course from the car, I had snacks to put out. And then I grabbed the mini fridge, and a slow cooker with a couple of cans of soup, and the instant pot for some tea (which we filled up with our shower water). I also filled Asa's giant water bottle for ice for an ice bucket.
I set it all up in the bathroom, and unpacked what I could in our room (luckily we had the switch and the oculus with us on our trip, so that had been brought in the night before). We also had all the pillows from the front couch still in there from when we were gone (I try not to leave them out for the dogs to distroy), so I made a nice little seating area so we didn't have to sit in bed all day. It wasn't long before Hayden asked if he could come over because we "had ammenities" in there.
So Hayden put on his mask and came over to hang out for the day. We caught up on tv (we had so much of it, since we were gone), played some games, and hung out with drinks snacks, and our covid 19 care center for those of us experiencing symptoms (poor Asa had it the worst with a continued fever, sore throat and exhaustion- but luckily no breathing issues!) By now Hayden and even Peyton was feeling better, and I was still feeling fine (but waiting for the symptoms to come for me).
Peyton came over for lunch, though at this point Peyton was complaining of a headache On my one trip out of the room, I had grabbed a couple of cans of chicken noodle soup to put in the slow cooker. I was trying to limit how much Calib had to wait on us.
Later, I placed an Instacart pick up order for Calib to go to Publix and get some things curbside. We also had a couple of Kroger deliveries (thank goodness I got that boost membership before we left so deliveries were free). Anyway, I just grabbed some easy to heat up stuff. But, here's the progression of dinner in a 4/5 quarantined household.
Calib took what he wanted and dropped the rest off for us. I dished it all up and mixed some bag salad up for everyone in the covid room. Not bad for a quarantine dinner.
And then I did all our dinner dishes in bathroom sink. It helped to make the best of things that I didn't feel shitty. In fact, I've said it before (and probably put it in blogs before), but if I didn't know I had covid, I'd never had known I had covid.
See, having covid at the end of a vacation isn't the worst thing in the world. I didn't mind spending a whole day in my room, or even 10 whole days at home. I'd just been gone for two and a half weeks, I planned on soaking in home anyway. The worst part was not being able to see my puppies when I got home. I missed them so much, but we didn't want them to know we were home, because then they'd just whine at our door and bother Calib. But, by Monday night, I think Etta had figured it out.
The worst part was trying to figure out the shower. We had the "covid" bathroom in our room, but the part of the bathroom with the shower doesn't have a door. I jimmied up a curtain so everyone could shower in privacy.
After some more tv, Hayden finally said goodnight and headed back to the office, where he spent the night with Peyton.
It was late Monday, into Tuesday when we got the text from Calib: he had a sore throat and felt feverish. We told him to take a covid test, but he argued it was a waste of a test. I agreed, he obviously had covid. So, that was a bit of good news bad news. I felt bad that Calib got it, because we know exactly who gave it to him: his brothers, likely in the car on the way from the airport. The average of 3 days from exposure to symptoms was pretty spot on for him.
But, the good news was we could all have free reign of the house. If we all had covid, we didn't have to isolate from each other, just from the outside world. This was great news for me, because I really wanted to see my puppies! It was so weird to get home and not have them greet me at the door!
Coffee with my couch buddies, even with covid, was a welcome change from the last few weeks.
Plus, I had my loyal buddy Porkchop to keep me company.
We did have to get the rental car back, though we called ahead to tell them we had covid, so nobody would go in the car and get any of our covid-y germs. Apparently they have a code for that: drop the keys in the lock box in a ziplock bag, and they know to leave it for a few days. They were really nice about it, so shout out to Enterprise in Carrolwood!
I posted this note on the door, just so everyone would know. But, again, we had texted all of our neighbors, who have all just been nothing short of amazing.
We've had soup deliveries, homemade bagel deliveries, offers to do our grocery shopping and general well wishes from everybody. So shout to to everyone. You guys are all just the best. We've also had family across the country checking in on us, and even sending us some tests to help us out.
We had a nice little covid-19 care station set up for everyone. I took a lot of vitamins, and had a lot of tea, mostly pre-emptively.
Even Asa's bosses have been amazing. He's been warned several times not to over do it, and work back at his own pace. Of course, he worked from bed anyway, because he loves his students. But, it's nice to know he didn't have to.
Asa and Calib really have had it the worst. Peyton and Hayden had some sore throats, though Peyton thinks one night there was some fever involved. But, after about two days for Hayden, he was totally better. Peyton took about four. Meanwhile, I never had anything more than the sniffles. I am sleeping really well lately, so it's possible I'm also more tired than normal. But, I even started my new anxiety medication at the same time (and got my period), so it was hard to tell when I had a headache what that was related to.
Interestingly, and totally anecdotely, the three of us have had the Pfizer vaccine. Hayden had all three doses of Pfizer, while Peyton and I both had J&J with a Pfizer booster. Meanwhile, Calib and Asa who really struggled through it had J&J and Moderna. Possible link? Maybe. Maybe not. But those Moderna guys went through it.
The rest of us have done our best to help them out. Asa is working his first full day today, so we'll see how he's holding up by 9pm tonight. Calib has always been a few days behind. He seemed better yesterday, and even better today. He still has a nasty cough, and was really the only one of us with that symptom.
It's so weird how it's the same thing, but it hit us all differently, and with different symptoms- though except for me, everyone did have sore throats in common. Asa and I did both test on Sunday, since it had been a week at that point, hoping to test negative to go out into the world. I had a very light postive line, despite my lack of symptoms, while Asa's still came in fast and strong.
Now, I know the CDC Rules are different than they used to be. . After 5 days they say if your symptoms are resolving and you've been fever free for 24 hours (without the help of fever reducing medicine) you can go back out and just make sure to mask until you get to 10 days. They say you don't even have to test. Still, I felt a little weird about doing that, as I know a couple of people who went that route and ended up infecting people. I try to err on the side of caution, and I didn't HAVE to go out, so I opted not to go to Costco. Besides, being home with my puppies isn't so bad. We will just wait the full ten days before going inside anywhere again- besides, by then it'll be payday.
We did, however, put on our masks and get curbside pick up from Chicken Salad Chick. You might remember before this whole trip/covid thing, we waited in line at the grand opening to get free chicken salad for a year! Well, our first month of a free large quick chick was about to expire, and we couldn't let that happen. So, we masked, curbsided it, and enjoyed our chicken salad at home. Good news, in another two days we can get next months if we want!
And all this time at home it's been easy to unpack. I put a lot of things away before I remembered to take pictures (mostly Asa's hot sauces, mustards and jerkeys) but I did snap a picture of some:
Plus there is our mugs and my bowl from the Smokies.
And no trip is complete without a few magnets.
Last night we also held our Fantasy Draft. I was yet again, the first overall pick. I went with Jonathan Taylor this go around, so we'll see how I do. I can't believe football is back in two days!!
Plus, college football came back this past weekend. So, staying at home to watch all of that wasn't terrible either. I can definatly say for me, covid was nothing. I was one of the lucky ones for sure. Asa says he's been sicker in his life (strep throat, the flu), but he is having a harder time with being tired. However, with his history with asthma, he's been happy he never had any shortness of breath. Calib is the only one that has the luxery of knowing where he got it: from Peyton and Hayden coming back from the airport. He takes full advantage of letting them know they're the ones that gave him covid. They do say the average time between exposure and symptoms is 3 days, and it was almost exactly that for Calib. (The three days means we likely picked it up somewhere on Tuesday- or possibly Wednesday, who knows).
It is kind of disappointing though. We've tried to avoid it for so long, and it finally got us. I've been saying for weeks this new omicron varient is so contageous, we're bound to get it. But, the good news is now we've got that super immunity at least for a few weeks. Which means that cruise is a go, Peytons next trip to the UK is a go, and I'm about to eat inside places I haven't gone since pre-pandemic times. Buckle up Grand Floridian Cafe brunch, I'm coming for you!
Next up: No more covid (we hope), football and tacos!!!
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