Well it's about time: I'm Covid negative, Ed has finally shed his fever (though he does still have a faint positive line).
On the one hand, I was never very ill. The literature confirms that past infections do strengthen your overall immunity, and I've had Covid twice before. Nonetheless, I was a walking caldron of infection. And Ed? I'd say he slept through much of his illness, but oh my, did he sound awful in his awake moments! All that is (fingers crossed) in the past. We wake up on a new platform of good health.
But I think about Covid and how it continues to cause problems for so many, in part because so many choose to ignore its unique dangers. Not vaccinated, never testing, they spread the virus in the same way that they spread colds before. And in many ways, I can't blame them, because I know how disruptive to your life it is to admit that you have Covid. For Ed, for me, Covid came at a fairly good time. Some postponements, some scrambling for child care, but really, no great loss resulted from our isolation. But here's a hypothetical: I know a couple who just embarked on a voyage of a lifetime: 150 days, halfway around the world. If one came down with Covid the day before leaving, would she (or he) really say -- I guess we should not travel. Maybe another year..., losing money, losing a life's dream. Would you do that? Isn't it easier not to test and say "it's probably just a light cold?"
I suppose I favor the middle ground: when they can, at only a small cost to themselves, it would be so good if people would isolate. But if they must head out, because, well, it's 150 days of travel and after a week they will be fine -- wouldn't it be good if they could at least minimize the risk to others? Masking, avoiding public gatherings as much as feasible, that kind of thing. It's not a perfect situation, but Covid is not a perfect virus. We can't help much of its spread (because we aren't aware of being contagious initially), but we can do so much more to help curb its pernicious desire to infect as many as it can.
We also wake up to bitter cold and it will only get worse: next week will be colder still. But, let's take one day at a time. I appreciate the sunshine! So do the chickens -- despite the bone chilling Arctic air, they head out toward the garage. I greet them with leftover crumbs from the poppy seed cake. (Do chickens get high on a concentration of poppy seeds? Well, they deserve their moment of joy!)
Breakfast, still alone, still healthy.
And then I kind of lose it, time wise. I've had an easy ten days, but now I am back to a schedule and today's is especially complicated because we will finally be celebrating Snowdrop's birthday (without Ed, who has to hang out in the shed all day to keep the house free of his germs). I refrained from baking a cake until I knew for sure I'd be negative. So I have to bake one this morning. And I have to do some initial dinner prep. And I must clean the house and wipe down surfaces Ed might have touched yesterday.
Suddenly time slips away from me. I'm not used to hurrying! A rough draft of a post should be in the works by the time I pick up the girl at school, but there was no time for a rough draft and I'm doing it now, in the car, on my lap, waiting for her to come out from school.
Too, I had selected a recipe for a chocolate cake I'd never tried before (by Yossy Arefi, whom I know from her books and publications). And I tweaked the ingredients. Some random commenter suggested an oil substitution (olive instead of canola) and I went with that, in addition to using a cocoa that seemed awfully... intense. And I started in on the whole project very late in the morning because the recipe is rated as easy and heck, I'm a skilled baker.
(Dance watches: don't you love the way cats tuck in their paws snugly under their chest?)
This was all plain foolish. Bottom line, the clock ticked, I had no time for a walk, a lunch, anything actually. And I had to start in on frosting a still warm cake (that looked... awfully dark). Ever put buttercream frosting on a still warm cake?
Lessons never learned!
But I made it! (She wanted chocolate, but not flourless, frosted with fluffy frosting, not glaze or ganache, and importantly: decorated with candied violets!)
And now finally I pick up the girl. She is so very happy to be returning to normal routines!
At the farmhouse, she reads...
... I cook, we read, I secretly frost, I cook some more, we read again, she eats, we keep on reading. We had dropped a story in midstream back on their last day of school in December and it was so good to get closer to a resolution!
And toward evening, the whole family comes over for a very belated birthday celebration. It is good to see them again!
(Snowdrop got her presents finally; the boys got some new books...)
(Sandpiper needed a little help with the story line...)
(the girl joins her mom and me for some catching up in the kitchen...)
(dinner)
(cake!)
Happy, happy belated birthday to you! And so many more!!
Ed was to come back to the farmhouse when everyone left, but last I heard, he fell asleep in the shed early. So not quite a full throttle return to normal yet, but we're getting there!
with so much love...
