It started simply enough: drip, drip, drip.
For the first time since before the pandemic, I had those old familiar symptoms of the common cold. I was sneezing, my throat hurt, my head hurt, and I must have gone through a whole box of Kleenex.
Day one was bad enough, but then came day two and day three. The cold kept getting worse. On day hour, my daughter said, "Dad we should get you tested. There's a drop-in testing site at the local school."
I got myself ready and we drove to the venue -- a little temporary building about the size of a double Porto-Potty, with a couple friendly young people who greeted us right away.
"Here for the Covid tests?"
Those all-too-familiar swabs in each nostril, swirling around until the discomfort caused me to sneeze -- one, two, three times.
There were two rounds -- the Rapid Results Test and the other test, which takes a day or two to produce results.
As we waited for the Rapid Results verdict, I considered the options. If I had Covid, I would probably just keep on doing more of what I had been doing -- isolating myself in my daughter's house, not seeing anyone except her and her three sons.
But of course the boys come and go with school, sports, playdates, skating, biking -- the routines of healthy, active youth.
I had seen nobody else -- not one person in a week. But I thought back before that -- who had been close enough to me to infect me with the virus?
There was the long Bart trip south, an hour and a half along the edge of San Francisco Bay. But everybody, me included, was masked and no one came with a few empty seats of me on that entire trip.
Then ether was one trip to Safeway with my daughter when we'd gotten the family's groceries, but we were masked and nobody came close to me that time either.
That was it.
Then my mind turned to the consequences of a positive test result; it would mean that despite being fully vaccinated, I'd somehow gotten a "breakthrough" case.
But would that be that a bad thing? I know that getting a case of the coronavirus would confer immunities that vaccinations can never provide. It would teach my body to provide antibodies, thereby insuring an additional layer of protection the shots simply cannot guarantee.
So I should hope for a positive, right?
Still, what about the social consequences? Would friends suddenly view me in a different way -- "He had Covid" -- and keep their distance as if I were somehow contaminated permanently. Fear is irrational.
And as I've written many times, isolation kills as readily as Covid ever could.
Finally, one of the friendly young ladies came out to hand me a card. She wasn't smiling; she was all serious. I steeled myself.
"You're a negative. You don't have Covid-19."
So it ended the way it started -- drip, drip, drip.
But in our post-pandemic society, nothing is as it used to be.
***
SATURDAY HEADLINES:
* Biden bill would give local news outlets ‘shot in the arm’ -- The help would come in the form of a payroll tax credit for companies that employ eligible local journalists. (AP)
* Climate Hype Might Be the Ticket to Decarbonization -- Glasgow is a spectacle. That’s kind of the point. (Atlantic)
* For many ICU survivors and their families, life is never the same -- Physical, mental and cognitive problems can last years after covid-19 or other severe illness is conquered. (WP)
* Donald Trump isn't sorry about the "Hang Mike Pence" chants (CNN)
* Menace Enters the Republican Mainstream -- Threats of violence have become commonplace among a significant part of the party, as historians and those who study democracy warn of a dark shift in American politics. (NYT)
* Immunizing children against Covid-19 is viewed by authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere as critical to get the upper hand over the virus. But in some parts of the world, such efforts have generated deep controversy. (WSJ)
*
* VIDEO: Flooding in Oregon Prompts Evacuations (Storyful)
* How Trump Transformed the Supreme Court (New Yorker)
* The fever can't be tamed (Politico)
* A record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September as labor market tumult continued. (WP)
* Pope thanks journalists for helping expose Church sex scandals (Reuters)
* Project Veritas Tells Judge It Was Assured Biden Diary Was Legally Obtained -- But a search warrant in the case suggests the Justice Department believes the diary kept by the president’s daughter Ashley Biden was stolen. (NYT)
* In new book, Hayley Mills looks back on her Hollywood start. (AP)
* Progressives ruined San Francisco, but at least ‘advocacy’ is thriving. (George F. Will/WP)
* Return of the Taliban (Financial Times)
* Thousands of Afghan children and teenage refugees will soon be enrolled in America’s public schools. (WP)
* Rare Antarctic penguin accidentally travels 3,000km to New Zealand (BBC)
* Researchers Discover Galaxy-Sized Goldfish Astronauts Discarded From Space Shuttle In 1988 (The Onion)
***
SATURDAY'S LYRICS
"This Little Bird"
Written by John Loudermilk
Sung by Marianne Faithfull
There's a little bird that somebody sends
Down to the earth to live on the wind.
Borne on the wind and he sleeps on the wind
This little bird that somebody sends.
Down to the earth to live on the wind.
Borne on the wind and he sleeps on the wind
This little bird that somebody sends.