Adventures In Caronavirus Land, Episode 12

Good thing, I guess, this isn't episode 13.

4:40 AM:
Back from the hospital. Without Steve. Not a good start to the day.

This wasn't even the start. That was more like 1:15 AM. I woke up, unable to get back to sleep. After trying for over an hour, I gave up and came to the living room to read for a while. What kept me from going back to sleep was my desire to re-engineer this day. It's supposed to be the one where I go pick up Rich from the county jail from serving his two weeks for not having an income to pay his fine, then take him to the homeless shelter. I don't want to expose myself to everything he's been exposed to, nor do I want to send him to where he'll be exposed to even more of this current world without any kind of social distancing possible. I also won't bring him here to share whatever with us.

 I haven't heard from him the while he's been there. I have no clue how it's been for him. It's possible he has to pay for phone calls, and I know he went in with no funds. No phone either, as that "grew legs" just before I picked him up two weeks ago. At least he knows my phone number. (I need my cell for calling most everybody.) I've heard crazy things about having to pay for necessities like soap while inside. Obviously, I worry. Thus, no returning to sleep. I'd gotten it planned that I was going to load everything he left the shelter with into the car, go pick him up, and drive him straight to the shelter. Maybe bring him a burger, depending. I think he expects to be driven back here to sort through his belongings before heading to the shelter, but no way. As it is, I worry about the 4 miles or so between the stops.

The teensy bottle of hand sanitizer is in the car, and he'll need to use it before getting in. I'm thinking about a wet washcloth to have him hold over his face in lieu of any mask, but not sure whether I'll feel silly about it. And kicking myself for letting myself wonder if it matters.  But anything I pick up from him will be brought back to Steve, though I've planned for that too. I've told Steve - last night - that when I come in the house, he's to stay away until I strip, shower, and change clothes, and probably also Clorox wipe down the car.

Now it may not matter.

I dropped him off at the ER.  We think it's a kidney stone. It's been four days now, and he's been waiting for his "insurance" to approve a referral to a urologist. Around 3:00 AM it was the last straw. The pain, formerly localized, had now traveled back to his kidney. Time to get medical attention, loath though we both were to test out our hospital's precautions against covid 19.

They took both our temperatures with a swipe across the forehead when we got in side the ER door, before letting us advance to the check-in desk. We're both fine, that way. After asking why he was there, they assured us he was going to a separate area from respiratory / fever patients. They also assured me I was not allowed. No visitors. I can see their point, and feel safer for both of us because of it. No, all of this concern is not because of panic about the virus. We're not panicked, but we just don't trust the rest of the right-wing idiots out there to have been taking it seriously enough to do their own social distancing. Fox certainly hasn't encouraged them to, nor their dear leader. And while this hospital hasn't run short of protective gear and equipment, they are rationing it for the "possible", aka inevitable surge in cases. So after making sure Steve had his phone, I returned home.

Still not sleepy.

7:30 AM:
Steve called. It's a confirmed stone, 5 mm. OUCH! They think they will keep him. It may be necessary to go in and get it out. At least I don't have to worry about him needing a ride home at the same time I'm transporting Rich.

Had a couple catnaps. Not restful. I'll probably sleep when the jobs are done. I can "stand down." Nodded off with news on, caught a couple stats. We have the ignominy of now having more (tested only) covid cases that any country in the world, nearly 86,000 now.  AZ has "close to 600", morning news vague on actual stats, with over half of them in Maricopa County. Makes sense, it's Phoenix plus. Most of those so far are among younger adults.

Maybe our seniors are taking this seriously. Let's hope so. I still see the walkers passing along the sidewalks, usually by twos, but occasionally with one trailing the other by 6 feet. Those who still walk side by side appear to be couples, so one can extrapolate they're already sharing every germ that comes along. We still see traffic on the street, including those truck/trailer combinations equipped for yard work. If they're smart or lucky, most of their customers right now are snowbirds who've fled but whose yards are just as good at growing weeds as this one.

One kind of traffic is missing, oddly enough. Fire and rescue trucks like our fairly straight street as a route to everywhere, and it's typical to hear them 3 or 4 times a day. I can't recall the last one. UPS and mail seem to be on their usual schedules, though we've come up with several ideas on why mail is an hour or two earlier, and a local utility project is proceeding. Haven't driven anywhere for a few days now, till today anyway when nothing was open yet, so I have no idea if crowds at the grocery store are still there, or what's on the shelves. A friend hasn't seen TP, milk, eggs, or butter for a couple weeks. TV news shows are warning about all the wet wipes folks are using, possibly believing the "flushable" claims, and how they're clogging up the machinery.

Wouldn't you love the bonus employment of having to clean up that?

Driving past the gas station, I noticed gas prices have finally come down from $2.89.9.  By a "whole" 30 cents. Prices around downtown Phoenix have been that low for over a month, a classic example of supply and demand. We seniors do not drive like everybody else as a whole. It may have taken this long for the tanks to empty enough to put in lower priced fuel. About a week ago Steve read me something from Facebook where gas was down to just over a dollar a gallon. I'm torn between envy and hoping this doesn't signal an increase in air pollution.

Speaking of, when I take garbage out after supper I check out the sky. Haven't seen a plane for about two weeks, and we're under the flight path. Either they come in over the Superstitions and leave over us, or the opposite. A normal evening the sky holds half a dozen moving lights any given time. There are still some flights however, the jets from Luke AFB. We don't have to see them to know they're up there. Our boys in blue don't worry about the noise.

11:00 AM:
 Still haven't heard from Rich. Called the jail and confirmed his discharge is in process. Also made sure he will have free access to a phone to call me. So, waiting. The car is loaded with everything I can think of he might want with him. He can sort it out at the car.

Checked latest stats on virus in state. Typically they post by this time each morning. Since last numbers, overall cases went from 509 to 655, deaths from 8 to 13.  399 cases are in this county. Last stat I saw for whole country from CNN was 90,700 cases with 1347 deaths. Florida, which just couldn't bring itself to do anything about spring break, suddenly has 2,900 cases, a rise of 500 in just one day, and is just starting to put in stay home orders for part (!?!) of the state.

Now a warning?

Steve calls every couple hours. He's been given both pain meds and something that's supposed to relax the tube coming from the kidney so the stone might pass. Later he called and said surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. He let me know his daughter has been informed so I assume the rest of his family knows as well.  We're staying off the phone as much as possible so Rich can reach me.

5:00 PM:
Cases jumped to 670 in state, rise happening in outstate counties, with the same number of cases in our county as this morning. Same death toll so far, but they've clarified 5 of the deaths are from this county. By bedtime the numbers will have changed.

Rich has been delivered safely to where he needs to be. During the time we had for conversation, I brought him up to date on family and virus news, as there was no TV in the jail. We stopped in a MacDonald's parking lot so he could go through his belongings to sort what he'd take with him into the shelter, without it happening under snoopy and acquisitive eyes. There was a sign on MacDonald's door informing folks that their restroom was no longer open to anyone but employees. I warned Rich that he'd be finding a lot of that for a while.

Discussing his two weeks, he assured me there were no covid cases he was aware of, though a couple of people were in isolation just in case, waiting for symptoms to increase or vanish. When Rich heard about the loss of smell/taste symptoms, it was news to him, and he pledged to spread the news around the homeless population. His worst experience while in jail was finding out that two meals out of three had foods labeled "not for human consumption."

Is that legal? Or "just" Arizona?

He returned within the shelter's rules' timeline for returning after absence with cause, saving his bed. If he hadn't been that prompt, he would have had no bed. Not no-bed-for-a-night-or-two, but no bed. Period. The shelter has been filled with as many of the virus-vulnerable homeless people from the surrounding streets as could be crammed in, and the only open beds will result from rules violations or... well, patients leaving for the hospital or morgue. Those openings still wouldn't be for him.

Most of what Rich left in the car is old dirty laundry. He hadn't time either to or from jail to do laundry. But since he's heard buses are free right now, he plans to swing by in the morning to get it done and take back a supply of clean clothes. Steve should still be in the hospital, and I'll take precautions.

We'll have to forgo hugs though. Have to settle for loving words.

6:00 PM:
US cases now 100,700+. Deaths 1,540+.
Bedtime soon.