Good morning. Hello. How are you? I am… sick. Got Covid from that trip, like I feared and dreaded. Dammit dammit dammit that was so stupid. I knew I shouldn’t have gone, and I did it anyway, because I had FOMO and envy of all thoe glamorous New Yorkers who were fearless of Covid and I got it. I got it in a bar, I gave it to someone else in a bar the next night. I am an asshole, and I feel terrible about it.
I am also, it turns out, not a lucky individual! So that is good to have confirmed.
And my great run of not getting Covid has ended, not the last man standing.
My wife and child seem to have escaped, though, so far. Fingers crossed. But at the house when I got home we were all very careful, did not spend much time together. I did hug my daughter but I did it a) in a mask, b) while holding my breath, and c) with my face turned away, before I scurried right back to my quarantine office.
I tested every day of the trip, and three times the day I got a positive. I tested at 4:30 AM before I left for Laguardia, negative. I wore my mask on the plane, so you’re welcome, all those plane people who judged me for wearing a mask, I spared you, hopefully. I got home at around 10 AM and I tested negative again, but my wife knew this whole trip was a terrible idea (though also encouraged me to go on it and enjoy myself if I did go on it hrm maybe she is trying to kill me) and we were both being very careful upon my return. Just before dinner, around 4, I was on a phone call and decided I should take one more test before dinner, and sho’ nuff, it was positive, and it was positive so fast, so fast. That line turned red in like a minute and a half.
I had some symptoms by Friday morning, but also a) I had been very bad about taking my battery of four different allergy medications while in new york, b) hadn’t slept well in three nights, c) had been drinking too much on this trip. (n.b. I actually drank a lot less on this trip than any other trip to New York but it was still three nights of alcohol and one night of a decent bender, so, yeah, still too much). I was definitely aware of the possibilities, hence the triple testing, but there were plenty of other possible explanations at hand.
So, luckily, so far, my symptoms are not too too bad, and more reassuringly, they are not getting worse. I am three days in (I’m writing this Sunday afternoon because I fully intend to sleep in tomorrow) and things aren’t getting worse.
4PM Friday is a shitty time to get a Covid diagnosis, but theoretically at least, my doctor’s office was still open so I immediately sent an email and called them but, lol, they had decided to close at 2 just for the hell of it this Friday, no reason. That’s what the answering service told me. Imagine how much logistics goes into closing a doctor’s office early. Like… do you just coincidentally not have any Friday afternoon appointments? Seems possible, does seem like a time most people would avoid going to the doctors. But no lab tests? Nothing? Seems crazy. But they did. And my doctor did not answer her email.
I made an appointment at an urgent care clinic that said they could do Paxlovid but it wasn’t till Sunday morning.
Then Emma had the bright idea to check Aetna’s site and sure enough, they had an integration with a 24/7 remote telemedicine CVS minute clinic that explicitly handled Paxlovid requeats and before too long, like in less than a half an hour, I was on a telemedicne call with a doctor in Raleigh who prescribed me Paxlovid cuz I am old and not thin and have high cholesterol and not great blood pressure and happened to have a UNC medical sheet with my recent vitals just sitting on my desk from that pain doctor last week so I just uploaded the positive covid result and that sheet and the guy was like “no problem I will call it in.”
There was some confusion that resulted in a three hour delay where the CVS system did not get the CVS doctor’s CVS prescription, but I plowed through and called him at home and he re-sent it in and I got my Paxlovid at 7:58PM when the pharmacy was closing at 8. The pharmacist there was amazing, which is a whole fascinating side story because this is the pharmacy with the evil pharmacy Nazi whom I can’t stand, and I am trying to leave this pharmacy but, you know, CVS doctor, CVS pharmacy, thought it would be quicker but it was not.
This is also relevant to the horrible experience I had yesterday at the same CVS where I went back to in order to get a positive PCR test because Emma bought a different, non-Binaxnow brand of Covid test and my red line was barely visible. Like the average, not-worried person would not see it. I did another Binaxnow and it was immediately positive again but figured screw it let’s just get the PCR to be sure. So I go back, I am early, there’s no line at the drive through, I pull up, the woman asks why I’m here and I tell her a PCR test and she says: “one moment.”
And then I proceed to sit there for thirty minutes with zero interaction or ability to interact with anyone.
Then she comes back and says “okay.”
And I say “I have been waiting for more than thirty minutes.”
And she says “we’re busy.” Not “I’m sorry, we’re busy.” Just “we’re busy.”
And I say “You guys scheduled this at this time.”
And she says “if you’re finished being rude we can get started.”
And I say “It is not rude to state facts. But okay let’s do this.”
And then she gets so mad she hangs up and go takes a sip of her coffee drink which is probably what’s aggro-ing her out, and we get through it.
It’s fascinating because it’s the same non-apologetic condescention mixed with aggro that the other guy who works there has. But not the super kind guy from the night before.
Anyway, that was really something.
Emma, being open-minded and kind, mustered a half-assed defense of her and said “well did you yell” and I said no, I did not yell. I was clearly seething and angry but I stayed calm and stated facts, calmly and firmly. That is not rude!
Anyway. Test hasn’t come back but whatever I feel like ass and have had three positive Binaxnow tests now.
Emma is watching Jane for, god, five days without me. And of course Janet’s gonna hide over at her house she’s not gonna help until Emma and Jane have been negative for five days, and by then I might be out. That’s the best thing — we didn’t expose Janet. We all knew it was not the most responsible trip, and our battery of defenses at home, afterwards, seem to have held, and the most at-risk of us is definitely safe. So we have that, at least.
It took a good while for us to figure out where I’d quarantine. Bedroom makes sense, cuz it has a bathroom and shower, but that’s it, it has nothing else. It’s also on the main HVAC system. In the end I decided to do it in my office. It has it’s own separate HVAC system via minisplit, and a door to the outside, which was another thing that was an issue with the bedroom. It has no bathroom, but I can pee in the woods, so, really, a couple times a day I have to wear a mask to a bathroom, but it’s on a floor of the house Emma is basically completely avoiding. Sort of an airlock system.
Emma had to haul a ton of shit down here — air mattress, sheets, pillows, medicine, food, my clothing. But it’s pretty comfortable, I have plenty to do. I have my machine friends and records and, as Paul Simon says, my poetry and books to protect me. I am taking Paxlovid and Mucinex and advil and aspirin and Vitamin D3 and Zinc and Quercetin and Malatonin and it is mostly working I mostly feel okay.
But god, I feel like a fucking idiot, so stupid. I knew. I knew. I was weak. No defense.
I texted everyone I saw and met and so far one more is positive. I also turned on the New York contact tracing app when I got to New York and my friend Guan explained to me how to report a positive result, and I did that, and a bunch of the people I saw got notifications from New York state, so, hey, that still works.
I tried to do the same with North Carolina because of the flight and my very quick, masked walk through RDU, but North Carolina has turned off its contact tracing app because “this phase of the pandemic has passed,” which I assume means “fuck it everyone can get it at any time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.”
So I have listened to all eight LPs of the Love and Rockets The Albums 1985-1996 box set, my new VinylMePlease edition of Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, my new vinyl copy of Dimensional Bleed by Holy Fawn, the Anaïs Nin spoken word album with music by Bebe and Lous Barron.The new Beggar’s Archive reissues of Bauhaus’ Sky’s Gone Out and Burning from the Inside and the new reissue of Wish by the Cure, which sounds fantastic, and there’s a great song on there I have zero recollection of, but the inner sleeves are both torn and wrinkled even though the thing was shipped in an insanely protective sleeve, and I am sad about it. I ordered it from somewhere I’ve never ordered before so, no idea if they’ll replace em or not. Also bought a copy of Helium’s second single, “Hole in the Ground,” which I did not have. Thank you, Bill, for putting that out 29 years ago.
I watched all eight hours of the Civ Giv, the Civilization VI charity marathon. I have now watched this from two different perspectives — one from one of the 12 players and one from the hosts “god mode” perspective. I was so worried about how I’d find the time to watch this but, lol, that worked out just fine. And then I watched another hour of Civ livestreams.
My wife is heroic, and I am so so sorry this whole thing is so stupid I was so stupid I feel terrible. I hope I didn’t get you sick.
Here’s a mix for you it’s just a mix it’s mostly new stuff except for that awesome boygenius song that came on driving the other day my god it’s so good. And the Tricky song with the guy from Live I wonder what happened to him I take back all the bad things I ever said about Live they were a legitimately good band. New 100gecs is very excited, and this Naked and Famous song came on at Tom and Jerry’s probably exctly when I was getting Covid maybe the song gave me covid. New Yo La Tengo too, very exciting.
I’m sorry I cheated and wrote this Sunday because I am sick and wanted to sleep in and now we can’t talk about how stupid Elon is until tomorrow but we can also talk about my exciting photo sorting then that’ll be fun.
rick, you need to stop beating yourself up about this. covid happens. it just does. and it’s not a moral failing. ALSO: if you caught covid in a bar, NO WAY did you pass it to someone the next day. that’s not how that works. when i came down with covid, i had been at a party the night before. NO ONE ELSE GOT IT. i didn’t even give it to al, and we made no efforts to quarantine in the apartment—continued to sleep in the same bed and everything. (he’d go on to catch it elsewhere after i was better.)
glad you’re having a mild time of it, though! and i hope you steer clear of the paxlovid rebound! BE KIND to yourself in every way please!