My Summer Vacation: Another Potential Exposure

Today, after I returned from work, I got a call from The Potential Most Favorite Roommate. He wanted to know if I was at home; I thought he wanted me to move my car since I was parked in front of him. He was calling from his bedroom. He actually wanted to know how to get a COVID-19 test through Kaiser; he got a call from his supervisor, one of his co-workers tested positive yesterday. Auē!

Here are the somewhat fuzzy facts. On either Wednesday or Thursday, the co-worker took her middle school-aged son in to get tested because he was not feeling well; she stayed at home on Thursday & Friday to care for him. The son got his positive result back on either Thursday or Friday; the co-worker also got her test result back & it was negative (she did the right thing & tested at the same time her son did). After her son's positive result came back, the co-worker was conscientious & tested again, receiving her positive test result on Saturday; The Potential Most Favorite Roommate did not know what day she took her 2nd test. She contacted the supervisor who then contacted all the other employees today. Their credit union branch will be closed on Monday for professional disinfection & all the employees were told to get tested; they cannot return to work until they have a negative test result.

The very clear facts are that all the employees at the branch wear masks except during lunch & smoke breaks. Their work stations are more than 6 feet apart, they wipe down surfaces at their work station after every client, & their branch has an air circulation system with a HEPA filter which is maintained properly. The co-worker who tested positive was vaccinated & is also a stickler for wearing gloves while she is at work; she is not a smoker.

Here's where the fuzziness confounds things. Since we don't know exactly what day the co-worker was tested, if we assume it was on Saturday with a rapid test the result would be received on the same day & her 2-day infectious period prior to the test would be Thursday & Friday when she was at home caring for her sick child. If this is true, The Potential Most Favorite Roommate & the other co-workers have a lower risk of being infected. However, if the co-worker got her 2nd test on Thursday or Friday, then she was at work when she was potentially more infectious.

In the meanwhile, The Potential Most Favorite Roommate (who is vaccinated) is in quarantine & he will be in quarantine until he gets a negative test result; similar to what I did last week. If his result comes back positive, he will go in to isolation. For 10 days. If that happens, I will give you details in this blog about calculating the isolation period & letting you know what things might extend that time & how we are dealing with his isolation.

If you test positive for COVID-19, please do your co-workers, family, friends, etc., a favor when you tell them what happened. Give them all the information needed to allow them to get a better idea how likely it is that they have been infected. Let them know if you had symptoms & if so what day the earliest symptom started. If you did not have symptoms let them know what the date of the test was, not the date you got the result.

If you are a Close Contact, please quarantine yourself from the rest of your family or housemates until you have a negative test result. If you are sure you must have been infected but get a negative result, get tested again like the co-worker did; if you test in the very beginning of an infection you can come back negative. If your test result is positive & you become a Case, please isolate yourself from the rest of your family or housemates. That is, unless everyone else in your household is positive. In this time of the Delta variant running rampant, I have interviewed more people who are in that situation than last year when we only had the regular virus circulating. If everyone in your household is positive, please keep an eye on each other for the COVID-19 emergency warning signs & act appropriately.

As I was leaving for work this morning I noticed a box that had been delivered for DT; it is a trumpet. It was sitting on top of the cat carrier instead of on the floor like most of the other boxes that are delivered. I sent him a text letting him know it was there. It turns out, DT put it out there so he would not forget to take it to school with him on Monday. It had been there for a couple days.

Hiding in plain sight.

I lasted only 3 hours at OmniTrak today; I am looking forward to my trip to Hawaiʻi Island where I will not be talking to many people at all. It will give my vocal cords & larynx a chance to rest. I also needed to rest my body; I came home & took a nap today!

On my way to Kokua Market after work I noticed that I have now racked up more than 5000 miles on the Crosstrek! I was on my way to Kokua because I needed some supplies; I saw a feral chicken just outside their parking lot.

Took me a while to notice this too.

They're all over the place!

Instead of doing a soy-drink based collagen drink in the evening, I am now sprinkling my collagen powder over either yogurt or cottage cheese in order to get a bigger protein boost in the evening; I was picking up more yogurt/cottage cheese today. The extra protein reduces my junk food craving in the evening. I also picked up a couple of plant-protein-based pre-made frozen items; I am trying to buy a couple of new things on each visit to help them out. I also picked up Vegetable Tagine from the deli; I had to add Tajin to give it some flavor.

Today's deli menu.

I had some of the tagine with Tajin for dinner with some chipotle sauerkraut. I think Tomiko's tagine is better.

I finished at #18 on the Duolingo leader board that I was on. I have not been very good about doing my lessons; just trying to keep from losing my daily streak.

I heard from Evan earlier today. Sarah appears to still be in treatment but it looks like it is going to get worse before it gets better. She is blaming Evan for her mental illness & also accusing him of assault. Sarah has also said she is not interested in joint custody of Kaia, she would rather just leave Kaia with Evan. This weekend Evan was officiating at a friend's wedding that he attended with Kaia; Sarah was supposed to have been there but apparently declined to go. In spite of that it sounds like Kaia & Evan had fun at the wedding.

The Aix weather app forecast a light drizzle here this morning then becoming just partly cloudy skies; that seemed to be accurate. Since I did not check out any web cams, I have no idea how accurate the forecasts were for Kapaʻau & Marysville.

Nā Koʻolau at 8:31 a.m.

The only storm nearby is Hurricane Linda which is still in the Eastern Pacific region. It is expected to cross over in to the Central Pacific late Thursday or early Friday. When it does, it will be about 5 days away from making landfall here; if it is aiming in the right direction. Being a little speck in the middle of a big ocean makes it harder for a damaging hit. Linda currently has winds of about 110 mph & is moving westerly at about 10 mph; it is expected to maintain hurricane level winds at least through Wednesday.

There were 845 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 51,200. There were also 4 new deaths reported, increasing the death toll to 552; currently 7998 cases are considered active. As of Friday, 283 people are currently hospitalized with 50 in the ICU & 38 on ventilators. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 438 with a positivity rate of 8.2%.