Well, after dodging Covid for two years, despite some traveling and hanging out with friends, and kids’ sports (most of this stuff was our family unit, and mostly outside), it finally caught up to us. Harlan started feeling a little sick on Wednesday last week, asking me for a tissue more than usual and wooling around. We gave him a day off skiing on Thursday, and he sledded all day with Patrick. (The older kids and I had a dynamite powder day, amazing). Thursday night, he slept on the couch because he was congested, but we still didn’t think it was Covid, since he didn’t have a fever, and he wasn’t coughing or having changes to smell/taste/breathing.
On Saturday morning, I went to get a test a friend of mine had left in my mailbox at work. We had planned to go to Patrick’s mom’s on Saturday to enjoy a little time at the lake and see their big snow piles. However, since Harlan was still a little congested, and we’d read that Omicron can often be just a runny nose in kids who are vaccinated, and because we found out we’d had some exposure, we tested him to be on the safe side. The rapid test didn’t need 15 minutes. It rapidly showed his infection. I had four tests, so I tested Porter on Sunday when he looked a little flushed, but it was clearly negative. I tested myself yesterday before I went back to work, and it was negative, and Seamus and Gilbert haven’t had any symptoms (except Gilbert was short of breath last week when we were at a condo at 9500 feet, so I thought it was altitude, but could have been Covid, I guess? Who even knows?) whatsoever, so I’m not wasting a test on them, when the tests are so hard to get.
Harlan is back in school now, because they shortened the quarantine time, and thank goodness, because he feels 100% and never had a fever and doesn’t even have any lingering congestion. I really could not handle him being home for a week after being out of school for break and asking for screens approximately 100 times a day.
Classes are virtual for the first two weeks, and I taught from 9:30-3 yesterday on Zoom. I was pretty fried afterwards. My eyes hurt. I have to do it again tomorrow, but my students seem excited about the classes and we should have a good time.
Academic Leigh Speaking 