What’s for supper? Vol. 291: C-O-V-D in the U.S.A.

You’ll notice there is no “I” in COVID. This is purely wishful thinking. Eight of the twelve of us got it this week, and two of them are waiting for test results right now. The spectacle of twelve people trying to carefully isolate from each other in a 1500-square foot home was downright three stoogic. (I know some families just bowed to their fate when one member got sick, but we had our reasons to try to contain it.) Anyway, nobody seems to be getting dangerously sick, and some of the kids barely feel sick at all.

The sad part is, this was supposed to be spring vacation. Which was good, because nobody was missing school and we could all sleep in and not get too far behind. But also bad, because the most exciting thing we managed to do all week was watch The Aristocats.

But someone who shall remain nameless got us a cake:

And that has made all the difference. And Damien and I spent five days quarantined in a small bedroom together and we still like each other.

I was the sickest on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and started to slowly recover on Sunday. At this point, I’m mainly just tired tired tired, and have a lingering cough, and this itchy rash won’t leave me alone, but all the other symptoms have cleared up. As you can imagine, we ate very simply this week, and I’m recording it mainly for posterity. I’m sorry about all the complaining.

SATURDAY
Italian sandwiches, chips

Dora went to the store for us and Damien made sandwiches, but then he got symptoms and joined me in quarantine.

I attempted to read to the kids remotely, but it quickly devolved into kitty cat and alien filters, which is exhausting even when you don’t have a virus trying to take over all your cells.

SUNDAY
Hot dogs, fries

On Sunday I put together a big Instacart order, took a big nap, and then sat in the yard with the little girls for a while, attempting to get birds to eat birdseed out of our hands,

and then took another nap. One of the kids made hot dogs and fries and brought us plates.

MONDAY
Roast beef sandwiches, pizza rolls

Through a series of increasingly unreasonable circumstances, Damien ended up masking up and cooking some steaks outside, and we had steak sandwiches with a side of pizza rolls. I ate outside partially for safety, partially so I wouldn’t murder anyone, which I guess is also a safety issue.

TUESDAY
Chicken burgers, hot pretzels, salad

I was released from quarantine and was able to do some extremely slow, cautious, shuffling errands out of the house, and then came home and took a nap.

Benny made dinner Tuesday. Very proud of herself.

WEDNESDAY
Pizza

Benny and Corrie packed a lunch and I masked up and took them on a short, chilly picnic by a pond,

where we were promptly swarmed with springtails,

and then it hailed. Did I mention this is their spring vacation? I did buy them some Silly Putty, so.

A kind soul PayPal’d us some cash and we ordered pizza for dinner.

THURSDAY
Ravioli

The only other exciting thing that has happened this week is that I’ve been waging this slow motion battle for many months to get someone to figure out what is wrong with our heating ducts. We haven’t super duper had heat in our bedroom for quite some time now. It’s not hard to get someone to say they will come to your house, and occasionally they actually drive out and sort of gaze at it, but then the part where they do any kind of actual work is a whole other story.

So on Thursday, suddenly the guy actually turns up! I couldn’t believe it! The dog basically turns inside out with joy, and banging noises come up through the floor vents for a while, and then he says he has FIGURED OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS. There is a booster fan that is supposed to push the air from the main duct into the addition, and that fan is burnt out. That’s it! But he can’t fix it, because he’s a duct guy, not an HVAC guy. So I made a bunch more phone calls, in which I learned that ducts are . . . old fashioned, in some way? And people don’t really have them anymore? I am dangerously close to making jokes about how I guess people must just heat their homes with the CYBER these days, but we’ll skip that.

So I made a few more phone calls and eventually found myself on the line with an honest-to-goodness HVAC guy, who said he could definitely send a tech to pop a new fan in there, but it would take two trips, because they would have to come and find out what size everything is.

By this point, you can tell I was feeling quite a bit better. I was so very very tired of being in my room and being home and not getting anything done and having to say no to any kind of project, because it would just be too exhausting. So I said, “Well heck, I know right where the fan is. I’ll get some measurements and save you a trip. Hang on, I’ll text you some photos.”

Five minutes later, I’m down in the basement, and this is what I saw:

And you know what, it gave me COVID all over again.

FRIDAY
French toast casserole

This is something I’m going to have to actually cook. I think I can do it. My poor kitchen is such a filthy wreck. The whole house is such a wreck. The yard is terrible. The garden is a wasteland. One good thing, I think of myself as such a lazy bum who never does any kind of cleaning or maintenance, but it turns out . . . I do. And you can really tell that I’ve been lying down for a week!

Anyway, thanks for listening to my complaining. Here’s what my onions have been up to.

So, happy spring, regardless! The daffodils I planted by the road have come up, too. A squirrel seems to have stolen my tulips, but the daffodils are there.

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8 thoughts on “What’s for supper? Vol. 291: C-O-V-D in the U.S.A.”

I finally looked up springtails. We don’t have them in CA. My first thought was “Snow fleas? Disgusting.” and then, “Oh, they don’t bite.” But that picture still gave me the shudders.

Oh man. I’m sorry. We got it too. My daughter tested the heck out of herself until it finally showed up on the home test. Right when she tested positive she was finally feeling okay, but still had to miss a week of school.

A mother at school said she never tested positive until she used the more sensitive pcr test. It’s so weird. I think I have it/had it but was dusted with it so many times this year that it never became full blown. I’m just soooooooo tired in the aftermath.

Our school auction became a super spreader event with 100 people coming down with it. I declined to go because my husband was touring colleges with our 6th. I thought I dodged the bullet, and then BAM! I haven’t felt this tired since I had a baby with colic. But I never stopped working because I never tested positive and couldn’t say, “See? I’m just not up to it..” especially when my co-teacher was very sick.

Hope you are feeling much better by now. We have a similar situation with ductwork in out charming(!) old house. Our bedroom is in a first floor addition and the heat just never fully gets through the ancient ductwork into that room. (Honestly, it never even occurred to me that a faulty fan might be the problem). Many years and piles of comforters later, we had the brilliant idea to get a full room, adjustable temp, oil space heater on Amazon. Problem solved! I can’t seem to post the link but this is our heater. Cost about $150:

De’Longhi DeLonghi TRD40615E Full Room Radiant Heater, 27.20 x 15.80 x 9.20, White

Covid comes for us all. I’m glad you are all on the mend and getting back to ‘normal’. It sucks and take it easy getting back to it.

In Australia, we’ve had major challenges whenever there’s was an out break in remote aboriginal communities precisely because housing is terrible (so terrible that the wiring deteriorates and electrifies the tin roofs sometimes and occasionally kills a kid trying to get a ball) and up to 35 people across multiple generations lived in one 2 bed cottage. The government offered places in a separate quarantine facility and free immediate transportation for willing individuals to try and get around it.

My understanding of the sciences is vaccines plus getting covid = immortality so theres that?

Throw those onions in the ground! This year, I’m growing both potatoes and onions in addition to my tomatoes and zucchini so our kids won’t starve when we can’t get or afford food anymore.

Speaking of me being a nutty prepper, you should invest in a new fan anyway. When you were describing your heating issue, the first thing I thought was, “Sounds like the fan.” We have two furnaces in our house and those fans die right on cue every few years. Last year, new fans ran about $40, this year, it looks like they’ll be a good bit more, and it doesn’t look like inflation or supply chain issues are going away any time soon. When the time comes, there will be detailed videos on youtube on how to replace the fan (and just about anything else).