Covid Day 3

Day three started at 5:30 a.m. That means that I had slept for more than five and a half hours; I'm not sure how mach more. I awoke for the usual reason and after a trip to the little room I worked on the NYT Spelling Bee for a while and wrote some on my blog and Facebook breaking at six to take my morning Covid drugs. The anniversaries of the next few weeks have Mother on my mind, of course, so I spent some time thinking and writing about that, but still managed to go back to sleep for a couple of hours till Sheila woke me at about 10:30 to say she'd have breakfast in a few minutes.

I’m doing great and definitely being spoiled rotten by Sheila. Still I AM under house arrest in my bedroom. 

Last night Sheila gave me a one hour reprieve!

Good behavior, I reckon.

She covered every thing in the kitchen with plastic.

She sprayed/wiped every thing with sanitizer.

She made me sanitize myself and mask up tightly. 

Then I was actually allowed to come downstairs! 

I was instructed from far across the room to sit at the end nearest the stairs at the plastic-covered kitchen table on a sanitizable stool. She sat on the far end of the couch at the far end of the den. 

And we watched the latest episode of Better Call Saul “together”.  

Other than that, I see Sheila only when she sticks her masked face into the bedroom to announce that my meal is on the table by the door. Or occasionally when I stick my head out and she is at the head of the stairs twenty feet away. 

Last night we compared our daily NYT Spelling Bee results via telephone from our separate bedrooms — our most intimate moment since Sunday morning. Between us we got all the words. 

Lowes has complicated things a bit. We bought a new range from them in June. They delivered it and I unpacked it to attach the power supply line and put it into place when we reallized it had been damaged. Evidently it had been dropped hard on the right rear corner/foot, which was badly bent, and making the stove-top cattywhompered (and also chipping the enamel). So we reboxed it and took it back. Lowes was very accomodating but did not have another in stock. SO I reattached the power supply to the old stove so we could use the stove top (the oven doesn't work, hence the need for a new range). The old stove has served us well. We bought it used from Bambi Waters who was getting a new one over twenty years ago. It had a design flaw that we came to dislike. The heating element in the oven attached at the back and had no support at the front, so over time it tended to sag at the front. You had to be careful taking pans from a hot oven not to touch the hot element.

Well we kept calling to see if the new range had come, and finally last week we were told it was here in Rome but could not be delivered till Sunday (church day!) between eight and eight! Then we assured it would be at the house between noon and eight Sunday. Sunday morning about three was when I realized I had a "cold" and later that morning took the Covid test and began my quarantine. But before I talked to my doctor I did manage, masked, to disconnect the old stove again and remove the power supply so it could be used with the new one. They did not come on Sunday. They did not come on Monday. It is still not here at noon on Tuesday. 

That paragraph will explain the inventive "egg muffins" on my plate in the attached picture. 

I love my breakfast, which is the same ninety percent of the time or more: egg frittatas (about half regular egg and half egg white with chopped whatever-veggies-are-available and a chopped piece of Canadian bacon) with salsa and plain Greek yogurt and coffee to drink. 

Since Sheila had no way to cook our usual breakfast of egg frittatas, she mixed the eggs and veggies as usual but poured them into a muffin pan and cooked them in the toaster oven the last two mornings. They are still a treat. 

I feel pretty good and very lucky. The drug cocktail leaves a bad taste in my mouth constantly now but it has surely improved things in every other way. And, as the yucky drug and the delicious breakfast illustrate, I can still taste!