Dinner and Plague

RantMom at Christmastime
proudly in a new chair

RantWoman has been meaning to offer up a #Pandemic plus 5 years piece. RantWoman would prefer NOT to be offering up today's post.

Yesterday the RantSisters received a normal conscientious email from RantWoman's new abode: a small number of residents and one staffperson had tested positive for #COVID.

RantWoman did not immediately pick up the phone and demand "Mom, are YOU all right?" Instead RantWoman decided that either RantMom would share news herself or it could wait until the RantWomen's nightly phone chat. On the call, RantMom definitely sounded drippy and congested. She also mentioned knowing of the cases among her neighbors. AND she mentioned another common COVID onset symptom, as well as plans to stay home from a Tuesday volunteer gig. At this point, RantWoman had to say "MOM, GET TESTED."

Tonight, when the RantWomen chatted, RantMom sounded a little worse than yesterday. RantWoman's experience from her own long-avoided encounter with "the 'rona" is that the cough and effect on a person's voice are different than a regular cold. That was definitely true for RantMom who ruefully acknowledged what RantWoman suspected. RantMom tested positive and this time has symptoms!. RantMom also said she had eaten dinner with one of the other cases that tested positive a few days ago. 

Bah! It's not like RantMom would ever let anyone tell her not to eat dinner with her neighbors. RantWoman also considers it a blessing that the dining companion this time is alive and recovering, not falling over dead.

So now RantMom is isolating. Meals come to her. She puts on a mask to run out and get mail or toss out trash. RantWoman would SO like to run over and give RantMom a hug. RantWoman is scratching her head about whether she can and should deliver something supportive. The RantWomen also talked about masks. Neither of us is crazy about paper masks. Cloth masks are imperfect but some mask is always better than no mask.

Maybe another day RantWoman will go on some about:

--the assortment of different masks still lurking in coat pockets and bags

--how good it felt to move along some mail order shoes that never fit right to their destiny in the rest of the universe.

--assorted meditations about cooking and technology

--the colorful but not always perfectly fitting blouses RantWoman spent some of her #Pandemic stimulus payments on.

--the new bed from Amazon and why RantWoman is definitely peeved with Jeff Bezos on Constitutional and political grounds.

Tonight, though, it's all about RantMom. If you pray, prayers would be appreciated.