Escaping COVID-Land, Part 1

It has been a WEEK.  Maybe one of the longest weeks ever.  And I suppose in many ways it's still not over because even though Craig's quarantine is technically done, he's still supposed to mask for a few more days so I can't say we'll be getting back to normal around the house just yet.  But at least he's not trapped in the basement even if he is still trapped in a mask.  

Craig weathered COVID okay.  It was a pretty bad cold for him--lots of congestion, sneezing, coughing, throat clearing, and general tiredness.  He worked a bit, watched a lot of TV, and slept.  He's getting better by the day, but is definitely still doing a lot of throat clearing as he waits for the congestion to clear.  He spent his five days in the basement, mostly masked or with the door closed.  We'd mask if we had to go down there for laundry or bottled beverages, but tried to avoid the bathroom, which was less than ideal.  In the meantime I was managing the needs of two kids while trying to keep up with my own work in between home tests.  I feel like all I did was drive Jacob around to the Y or to practice, and go grocery shopping (I lost track...probably five times across three stores?).  I worked an in-person event for work on Wednesday and took off Friday (more in a bit), but the rest of the week was working from home, sometimes masked myself--either to protect from Craig when he dropped off dishes or went to shower, or to protect the kids in case I ended up positive.  Jacob and I both had a couple negative home tests, but I finally bit the bullet on Friday and did a lab test through Walgreens because I was afraid I was just asymptomatic and it wasn't registering on the home tests.  I didn't really have symptoms but periodic headaches, scratchy throat moments, and post-nasal drip can mess with you.  It came back negative, so at this point I'd have to think I'm in the clear.  How, I have no idea.  We had rather close contact 12 hours before his symptoms started, so either my immune system is top notch right now, or I'm just super lucky.  

Of course, avoiding it despite that contact makes me think about my masking strategies.  If I didn't get it after two nights being breathed on in bed plus actual kissing, what are the odds I'd get it somewhere else a few feet from people?  Probably safe-ish at Wegmans, but I still hesitate to go maskless at the basketball tournaments or Knighthawks games (despite being one of the only ones masked) because sitting by strangers for an hour still seems iffy.  But right now it's just hard mentally to shift back to no protections at all, particularly on the heels of seeing what quarantine is like first-hand.  It's so frustrating.  I just hate looking like the only one who's overprotecting, but maybe all those people already had COVID?  I don't know.  I have a lot of thinking to do.

I tested Wednesday morning because I had a work event at the Eastman School of Music and didn't want to infect anyone, but despite the negative I used a better mask (with a UR mask over it) and basically felt like my ears were being cut off my head from the mask elastic.  Ugh.  But at the end of the event I did finally get to go in and see this beauty up close for the first time in more than two years.

It was a really nice day that day, although it clouded up over the course of my drive home.  At least I had one of my favorite college-era CDs and a college-reminiscent rice krispie brick to enjoy the ride, all on the kind of weather day I lived for in college, when the campus came to life and that first step out the door didn't make me cringe with a blast of cold.  In-person events are fun, but they are still exhausting post-pandemic.  It had been a long day already, but that evening Jacob wanted to go to the Y to shoot...again.  Despite the clouds, the temperature was still decent so I told Carter we could go check out the two playgrounds around the corner from the Y that we noticed on our way to Wegmans a few days earlier.  They were at an elementary school just down the road from my first-ever apartment.  As usual, we had fun checking out all of the different equipment and getting in some climbing.  

This one had a couple funky, sloping climbing ropes (center and right).

I love these roller slides because they're so fast, but Carter just sees a challenge!

Just off to the side from the main apparatus was a full climbing structure, much like at the Hilton playground that's one of our favorites.  It was a big one and it was fun to climb our way to the top!

Silly boy!

Such a handsome kid...holding himself up just with his arms!

We took a walk over to the other playground on the far side of the school.  It was probably the Pre-K/Kindergarten playground, but it was still pretty cool.

Spinny things!

Those rainbow sunshades were really pretty, and the moon rock seems like a little too good of a hiding place!

Cute little table with two seats--we were taking each other's orders!

We had a nice time and appreciated another almost-spring day before the weather started to go back downhill again.  We still had some fun up our sleeves for later in the week if COVID didn't ruin it, though!  In many ways it felt like we'd never get to that point, and it was hard to be the default parent for that long.  Single parents are truly amazing people.  Sometimes it's just easier because you know what the expectations are and don't have to worry about who's doing more or less, but it was pretty exhausting and my gas tank definitely felt the pain, too.  It's been a busy weekend since then and I can attest to having a hard time keeping my eyes open at 8pm on Sunday night, so I can tell it's been quite a week.  But stay tuned for a recap of our fun long weekend adventures!