Negative

Rocket Boy and I got tested for Covid-19 last Thursday and we got our results yesterday -- Negative. Of course. My symptoms were a "thunderclap headache" on Tuesday, milder headaches the next few days, fatigue, a slight cough, sneezing, bit of a sore throat (all of that could be allergies), some digestive discomfort (but that's probably just IBS). RB's symptoms were a fever of 99.4 Tuesday night and feeling lousy (though he was fine by Wednesday night), plus he was planning to fly back to St. Louis yesterday and wasn't sure if he should. Oh, and Kid B had headaches for a couple of nights. It's possible that we all had a very mild bug.

When I got the negative results I realized I was disappointed. I'm afraid of the virus, because I'm so fat and have breathing problems. But the thought that both Rocket Boy and I could have mild cases and then be done with it was very appealing. Now I have to go back to worrying about catching it.

Deaths in the U.S. as of Monday: 194,235. Last week: 188,983. That's 5252 deaths in 7 days. The week before it was 5500 in 7 days, so it is going down. Unfortunately, Boulder County's numbers are going up, and it's almost all from CU students. Our 7-day average is now 56 cases, which is 17 cases per 100,000 people. Maybe this is a Labor Day blip. I hope so. 

A week ago, September 8th, it was snowing. That's really hard to believe, even though I lived through it. How could it have snowed? We went from high 90s on Sunday, to 80s-90s on Monday, to low 30s on Tuesday. I think that's right. And a few days later we were back to temps in the 80s and not a sign of the white stuff except for the remnants of the kids' failed snowman (they rolled up two big balls, lifted one on top of the other, it fell over, and they left it like that). We only got about 5 inches -- they say -- it didn't seem like it was even that much. But it was very messy and wet.

Actually, there is still a sign of it -- everyone in the neighborhood has huge heaps of tree branches piled in front of their houses. The storm was really hard on big, leafy trees. We had a colossal branch come down from the elm tree, but fortunately it dropped in the back of the backyard, near -- but not on -- the back fence. Rocket Boy had to saw it all apart for us to be able to drag it to the front yard.

And of course you worry now that many branches were weakened and may come down in the next storm, even if they've lost their leaves by then. Oh well, life in Colorado.

I'd rather be living here than California, though, or anywhere on the west coast. I'm so upset about the fires there. And the terrible air. It's actually dangerous in Oregon and Washington. There's nothing really I can say about it, just that I'm sad. We have fires in Colorado, too, but as you can imagine, the heavy wet snow was a big help with those.

We celebrated Rocket Boy's birthday on Saturday, in a low-key way, as he prefers. He got cards from my older sister and his brother, as well as two from the twins and me. That's it -- no presents. He tried to get someone else to choose what to do about dinner (take-out or eat out), but no one had an opinion, so he was forced to do what he wanted to do -- eat out at the Great Scott's in Broomfield. They've created a nice patio seating area where you can watch trains go by, so that was fun. RB, very unusually, had an Irish coffee to drink, his one concession to the day. Oh, and I made a blueberry pie and we all had some when we got home. It was a nice day.

On Sunday he really wanted to do something special with the twins. He thought of taking them to the Colorado Railroad Museum, but they were having one of their Saturdays with Thomas the Tank Engine, and it was sold out. So then he decided to take them to ride the Georgetown Loop railroad instead, even though they'd just gone, back in June. Kid A threw a fit about going, so ultimately only Dad and Kid B went, but I think they had a good time together. It was a beautiful day and masks were worn by all.

Rocket Boy is now scheduled to fly back to St. Louis on the 20th, but he's thinking of changing his flight AGAIN, because he's now possibly being assigned to the 4th wave of employees going back to work in his building, rather than the 3rd. He'll find out for sure tomorrow. In some ways I wish he would just go back already, and then he could come visit us again in October. But it's a lot simpler, and cheaper, to extend this visit, so that's probably what we'll do. Then we might not see him again until Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure. We'll see.

Last week school was stressful, and this week is starting out a bit stressful as well. On the plus side, I had some important conversations with one of Kid A's teachers and his resource person, and I think we're doing better now. On the negative side, it's still so hard. Today, toward the end of "Advisory," Kid A came to me and announced that he'd finished all his homework. I said, "why aren't you in Advisory?" He said, "Oh, she's not meeting with me today." I said, "Are you sure?" We went and checked Schoology. Sure enough, he was supposed to be meeting with her today. "OK, sign on for the last five minutes," I told him. 

I just have to set it aside and move on.