Peace and Pest

A photo taken from the front porch of our AirBnB near Lonoke (rhymes with Polk), AK.  It was a two-bedroom farmhouse with a generously-sized living room, a working kitchen, and a round King Arthur-sized dining table.  And we had it all to ourselves!

And there was Internet.  There is nothing better than a farmhouse with Internet set amid the beauties of nature, because that’s the sort of place where we live most of the time. (Not that our farm grows anything but tumbleweeds.)

We drank our coffee on the porch rocker and watched the rising sun burn off the mist and reveal the lovely views beyond.

We are now in Oklahoma, in a small town called Scaryville.  People don’t wear masks here, and march around in packs breathing on each other and on people standing nearby, like me.  I ordered some Chinese takeaway tonight and had to wait ten minutes for the food, and viewed unmasked people wandering up and down the buffet tables spreading contagion on the food and on each other.  As someone from a state where the response to the pandemic has been (mostly) rational, I found this not only scary but insane.  I feel as if I’m stuck in a pest house.

Not that my own state is entirely exempt from the insanity.  I had to take a COVID test to be allowed into New York State, and I had my test a week ago.  The results hadn’t come in when I arrived in New York, but I was able show I’d taken a test and they let me in anyway.

I was in the state for less than 48 hours, but the New York Department of Health remains my most devoted correspondent.  I receive several texts each day inquiring about my health, and reminding me that I’m supposed to get tested about now, and asking me to confirm that whatever I said entering the state was true.  (I didn’t lie, but I also don’t remember all the questions I was asked.)  When will it stop?

But anyway, what happened to my original test in New Mexico?  Today, a week after my test, I got an email saying that they’d lost my sample, and suggesting that I get tested again.

Forgive me for thinking that I am on the Ship of Fools, and that it is sinking.