The Uninvited Houseguest

 Here we are the week after Thanksgiving and we find ourselves playing host to an uninvited and unwelcome houseguest—COVID-19. Looking back the signs were a little hard to see. Ben came home from Cookeville last Tuesday. We had our Thanksgiving meal last Wednesday afternoon and began decorating for Christmas that evening. Ben mentioned on Thursday morning that he had been feeling run-down the day before but said no to all questions when we ran down the list of other symptoms one should look for. Each subsequent day he said he was still run-down but improving. He usually experiences this sort of thing annually.

Davidson Academy, which had gone virtual with the high school before Thanksgiving is back to in-person classes now, so Nate and I went to school Monday morning. I filled out the daily health screening form in good conscience that I had not been around anyone who was COVID positive. Vicki texted me in the middle of second period to say that Ben had lost his senses of taste and smell and was going for a COVID test (not the rapid test). Nate and I left after I threw together some last minute sub plans for my remaining classes. On Tuesday Ben's test results came back positive. He is feeling pretty much back to himself, and his senses of taste and smell started returning today.

So here we are stuck at home for the duration. For those of you who have never seen our house, it is a comfortable size for a family of five under normal conditions, but the design is not really conducive for all of us to isolate from each other. The boys share the one climate controlled room upstairs, so Nate is hosed. On top of that, we only have the one bathroom, so it is inevitable that the infected among us have to come into the common parts of the house.

Ben is actually the luckiest of the five of us. He only has to isolate for 10 days from the onset of his symptoms. The nurse from Tennessee Tech gave him clearance to return to campus by Sunday. The rest of us have to isolate while Ben is here plus 10 days after his period of isolation ends, so through the 15th. Of course, if any of the rest of us develop symptoms then that whole clock is reset, extending our quarantine.

Before I neglect Nolan, he is having to quarantine as well as he spent the night here in the boys room last Tuesday ahead of our Thanksgiving meal. He has just started a new job. Fortunately, the rules dictate he is paid for his time off in isolation. What's very hard for him and Jenna is being apart. Jenna's quarantine will last longer than his because she lives in the same house with Ben, constantly pushing back her end date, where Nolan has a closer end date right now unless he or his parents develop symptoms. Jenna is trying to isolate even more to shorten that for herself per the instructions from her nursing professors.

While this is unpleasant for now, it will pass; hopefully sooner rather than later. It is, as I call it, the risk of living. I'd like to pass this time with some time together in the evenings as a break from the workday now that my home is once again my office and classroom. Alas, as much as we love each other, none of us really want to be together all the time under the same roof. At the risk of sounding callous, I am so thankful Mom is not still living through this. What a year 2020 has turned out to be!

Joe