negatives

10312024-89

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी नौ —

Shobhit and I both tested negative for covid this morning. To call this a relief would be an understatement—particularly in my case. I really went back and forth regarding my expectation of how this would go, and I had a terrible night's sleep last night as a result. Given that my test on Saturday was positive, and this was only three days later, I became very worried that I would still test positive today—and what it might mean for my plan to test again Thursday, and again Saturday, even though technically it wouldn't necessarily meant anything, beyond the test result today itself.

Still, I basically spent the entire evening dreading a positive test in the morning. I dreamt about it when I was asleep, I thought about it the many times I woke up. It was like a "dread" version of the excitement you felt as a kid waiting for Christmas morning. It was Dread Christmas.

But, then the test was negative. I have to set a timer for 15 minutes, and there was still no second line after 5 minutes. Considering how wildly different this experience has been from the first, I saw that and still just thought to myself: That's making me hopeful—but, in a suspicious tone. The clock ran out, though, and still no second line on the test.

Shortly after Shobhit woke up, I mentioned it to him. Somewhat to my surprise, he suggested he take another test too—mostly because of his persistent cough. He actually tested negative on Saturday, remember. He also took his final dose of Paxlovid last night, and I do recall there have been some reports of people rebounding after finishing that medication. So, I set up the test for him too, and had a new bout of minor worry, though not nearly to the degree I had about my own test last night. And: Shobhit still tested negative. That's two negative tests for him, three days apart.

With this turn of events, Shobhit emailed our building management conpany to get our unit back on the schedule for the Building Repair (residing) Project. I still prefer that I be back at the office when they do this, it's going to be so disruptive in our unit.

I want to have two negative tests of my own, 48 hours apart, before I return to the office. So, I'm still going to work from home tomorrow—but, plan to go back to the office with all my stuff on Thursday. That's also the in-person POS meeting at the Burien store, which starts at 10:00 a.m. My plan is to test early that day and, assuming it's negative again, take all my stuff back to the office—and, hopefully, get a ride from someone to Burien. The Pricing, Promotions & Project Management ("P3") team also has a Happy Hour outing scheduled after the meeting in Burien that day, which I'd rather not miss.

Laney and I have plans on Satuday, and I will test again that day just for good measure. I'll be really glad to get back into the swing of things with both work and social lives.

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी नौ —

10252024-17

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी नौ —

We spent all day at home yesterday though. We might have gone for a walk, but there was a Zoom Boarding meeting for The Braeburn that Shobhit wanted to be in. I sat in the living room while that was happening, working on selecting grid photos for the family calendars I'll make for Christmas this year.

Speaking of which, it did occur to me to wonder, how long will I keep making these calendars? I don't know that I want to keep making them forever. I know that everyone who gets them really appreciates them, and that makes it worth doing, but I don't know how much use the younger generation—my nieces and nephews—actually get out of them. And maybe more importantly, they are a lot of work. I've been making them since Christmas 2006, the only year I skipped being 2011 when I made the tribute video to Grandma McQuilkin instead. That makes this year's calendar the 20th year since I started them, but the 19th calendar I have made. I thought about it, and right now I'm thinking: maybe I'll just keep making them as long as Dad and Sherri are alive.

That likely means a good number of years still to come, of course.

After the Board meeting was over, I decided to watch a movie. I had looked at my favorite movies from last year and which I'd like to see again that are also available on streaming. I found Robot Dreams to be available on Hulu, so I decided to watch that.

Shobhit had never seen it, and although he eventually went back to Tetris on his phone, he locked in for a surprising lot of it. There's no dialogue though, so when he wasn't looking at the screen he would miss key plot points—and then, of course, ask questions. It's like I married my grandfather.

Anyway, we did discuss taking a walk, but I wanted to watch the movie, and Shobhit made delicious aloo (potato) parathas that we ate too much of with our otherwise-leftovers dinner of garbanzo beans and rice (Shobhit also had okra, yuck). We were neither of us up for a walk after eating all that and finishing the movie. I got a fair amount of calendar photo work done though, so it was actually a pretty productive evening for me. I often don't even start on this work until early November, so I'm feeling ahead of the game. One of the upsides of being mostly stuck at home for a week, I guess.

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी नौ —

10312024-69

[posted 12:31pm]

asymptomatic

10042025-03

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी आठ —

I tested positive for covid Saturday morning. Still fully asymptomatic, straight through to now as I write this, and am still working from home as already planned. The pink line was faint, but it was definitely there. Having not gotten sick at all, I still fully credit the booster shot I'm so very grateful I got in September.

Shobhit, for his part, actually tested negative Saturday morning—I tested us both. So I went out to the living room to say: "Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news."

It can be so hard to decide when to keep testing, without feeling like I'm wasting a test. These things are expensive. I rather wish now that I had tested again on Wednesday. For all I know, I've been positive since then. We could have not bothered sticking to separate rooms. We stopped bothering with that as of Saturday night. I just didn't test again because I was working from home anyway, and figured I would test again if symptoms developed—which, so far, they haven't.

I even got on a telehealth appointment with a doctor Saturday, mostly because Shobhit was so sure that I should start taking Paxlovid, and he was trying to convince me to start with some of his prescription and then regard that as borrowed until I could pay him back with my own prescription—something I was certain was a bad idea, but Shobhit was never going to shut up about it unless I spoke to a doctor. The only Virginia Mason doctor available was at the Edmonds clinic, and he got on a video call with me between patients, so it was brief. But after answering a bunch of questions about symptoms or lack thereof, the doctor said he would fill the prescription in case I needed it, but said I had no need to take it unless symptoms started. The whole point of this medication is only to shorted duration of illness, so if I'm not ill then there's no point in taking it.

And, so far, I haven't. I did pick up the prescription—actually Shobhit walked down to Walgreens to pick it up for me, just as I picked his up for him on Thursday—but I haven't taken any. Laney told me way back when she had covid that it's really gross and leaves a metallic taste in your mouth, and Shobhit has since reported basically the same. I'm happy to not be taking it.

Furthermore, given that Shobhit tested negative on Saturday (and although he's still coughing—very typical for him; he'll keep coughing for months after just a standard cold—he was feeling better by Friday), that means he tested negative five days after testing positive. If by chance I have a similar trajectory, and assuming I was positive before I tested on Saturday, I plan to test next tomorrow morning; it seems plausible I could test negative by then. I'm working from home Monday through Wednesday this week no matter what, but I plan to test a second time on Thursday. I've ready that you're basically okay to re-enter society if you test negative twice 48 hours apart, in which case I can feel okay going to the all-POS meeting scheduled at the Burien store on Thursday, which I'd really like to attend.

I plan to test a third time on Saturday, when I have plans with Laney—the earliest plans we kept in place after we rescheduled others between last week and then—just for both our peace of mind. Even if I still test positive tomorrow (though I really hope I don't), that will give me a chance still to test negative twice 48 hours apart by Saturday.

In any case, as you can see, I've got a game plan.

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी आठ —

10042025-17

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी आठ —

I did still go out on Saturday. Don't panic! I didn't go anywhere near people. Shobhit and I have both been wearing masks indoors, which in my case has only been in our building, the couple of times to and from the car; there was no one around in the hallways or lobby either. And then, we went to do some hiking at Discovery Park, which is Seattle's biggest park and was thus very easy to stay way away from people. Most of the time there weren't even any people in sight, the mostly full parking lots notwithstanding.

It was quite lovely, and this had been my idea: I suggested to him that we go to Discovery Park if he tested negative on Saturday. He did, so we did. He was super behind on his steps as he hadn't left home in five days, so this was a perfect suggestion to make. It was partly sunny and just warm enough for some light hiking. It was a beautiful day and we were both really happy to have gone out.

We did a similar thing yesterday, walking through Volunteer Park, which is admittedly much smaller than Discovery Park but we were still able to stay well away from people.

Other than that, we just watched TV or movies all weekend. I actually reviewed The Lost Bus after we watched it on Apple TV Saturday—not only the first streaming movie I reviewed in 2025, but the first streaming movie I reviewed since September last year (the Netflix documentary Will & Harper). I'm not fully averse to reviewing movies released to streamers, but they have to be something that would have been released in theaters pre-pandemic—big stars, a big director, or otherwise having a significant cultural interest. The Lost Bus was directed by Paul Greengrass and stars Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera, so it certainly qualified. There's always a few such movies each year, although Netflix Oscar bait at least tends to get a small theatrical window so I go see those in theaters if I can.

— पांच हजार आठ सौ अस्सी आठ —

10052025-01

[posted 12:35pm]