Week 25 - An Unwelcome Souvenir

With the trip pretty much over, we'd be starting the week with a LONG trip home. Little did we know how long it would be.

Monday was out last morning in The Faroes and we enjoyed another fabulous breakfast at the hotel. We were all down in the lobby waiting for our coach to the airport but it was late. Our flight wasn't until mid-afternoon so we just chatted until it arrived and off we went. The weather was not looking good though, with pretty dense fog. Well, that fog prevented our plane from landing and after circling hoping for a hole to punch through, it was sent to Norway to refuel. And since Atlantic Air only has 3 planes, we just had to wait for it to come back. The 2 other planes managed to land but we didn't end up leaving until 5:30, at which point we'd all missed out connections. The travel agent at Arena got on the phone with United and not only rebooked us but talked them out of $1,200 each in extra fees. She also booked us a hotel because now we'd be staying in Edinburgh overnight and flying to Frankfurt at 6:00 a.m. the next day. By the time we got to the hotel, it was nearly midnight and we had to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m. so we didn't get much sleep. We were both snotty and coughing too. Hmm.....

I slept the entire flight to Frankfurt (2 hours) and then we waited for the long flight to Chicago. We had some yummy pastries, both sweet and savory, at the airport and I spent the entire flight watching movies and knitting as we flew with the sun. I finished the scrappy socks with the gansey section that used the design I'd made in one of the workshop. Aren't they fun? But that's as happy as it got because when we got to Chicago, all hell broke loose.

Our flight to Lincoln was delayed but when we got to the gate to wait, we checked our phones which had come back to life. Well... all the Brits, who had already made it home, were texting to say they had Covid. I can't say I was surprised because Anne was worse off than I was and was coughing BAD. Mine was more like a bad cold. We put on our KN95 masks and sat away from everyone for another long wait. Our flight was delayed over and over again and didn't land until almost 1:00 a.m., where Andrea was waiting to pick me up. I'd warned her that I had Covid but she came anyway. I walked into my house ~2:00 (4 hours late), took a shower and went to bed. I tested when I got up and was positive. Bummer.

Having been awake for more than 24 hours after 2 nights of only a few hours of sleep plus having Covid, work was not happening. Of course, my AC decided to quit. I called my AC guy and warned him that I had Covid. He came over but stayed far away from me and got the AC going again (needed freon) and wouldn't even let me pay him. With my house cooling down, I sat like a zombie in my chair, just triaging emails and doing nothing else. I didn't even knit! Now that's sick. I forced myself to stay up until 9:00 and then slept for most of the night, although I did stuff a kleenex up my nose in the wee hours so the dripping wouldn't wake me up. SO pretty! 

A decent night of sleep made a big difference and I was able to work a bit on Thursday afternoon and slept well again. It really was like a bad cold (double vaxed and doubled boosted helped for sure) but I was coughing from post nasal drip so my boss insisted I put in sick leave for the afternoon so I did. I felt good enough to knit and made comfort food - tuna melt and tater tots. Yum! I did nothing else all weekend, vegging like a champion, knitting and eating out of my freezer. I watched the final season of Peaky Blinders and recharged.

So even with catching Covid and the hellish trip home, I was still happy that I'd gone on the trip. And part of me was relieved that I woulnd't have to worry about catching Covid for awhile. I wasn't 100% over it but I was less snotty, which meant less coughing and I had plenty of energy. I still wonder if the fatigue was all jetlag and lack of sleep and not from Covid. I guess I'll never know but cross Covid off my list. At least there's that.