I started to feel worse over the weekend, and then worse…  Having not been tested for the Coronavirus, I wasn’t for sure I’d actually had it, but if I had, I was pretty sure I’d been blessed by having it lightly…until I wasn’t so sure.  So today we fashioned masks for ourselves and drove to Chapel Hill for a “drive-up” COVID-19 test and, for me, an exam, since I’d been wheezing more and more, as well as coughing.

An eerie experience it was, too, driving through deserted city streets, occasionally seeing kids out playing on their bikes (where were their parents?), and stopping at Whole Foods and Weaver Street for a few things, watching the “socially distanced” folks file in and out.  Everyone, employees and customers alike, were masked, and shopping carts of “to be delivered” stuff were being wheeled out into the parking lot.

I was scheduled for a “drive up test,” and an exam, as well, and we wove our way through an intricate pattern of parking areas to get to where we were going.  Hospital staff were all over the place, masked and suited up, directing us to where we needed to be, and I was duly screened by the folks doing the screening, and then by a young doctor who I would guess was probably a resident, who literally examined me in my car and said I’m fine as far as oxygen goes and prescribed an inhaler for temporary use.  I won’t know for a day or two if I actually have “it” or not, but I’ve definitely got something, and it would be just fine with me if it wasn’t “it.”  Stay tuned.

Here’s the thing:  every single person we met today was kind and helpful and gracious to us.  I would have thought that hospital personnel at this time would have been a bit cranky with all that’s going down, but they weren’t:  they couldn’t have been more helpful, and may I just say:  it was HOT, and they were all bundled up in hospital gowns, rubber gloves, masks, the works.

So where are all the jerks these days?  Any guesses?

May all people know love.