Flying home from Chicago in September, I was on the right side of the plane and got to see the sunrise.



For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flight.
Flying home from Chicago in September, I was on the right side of the plane and got to see the sunrise.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flight.
Cormorant, I think.
About to take flight.
A good take off point.
It takes five years for bald eagles to fully mature. This one is close.
And a great blue heron in flight in the fog.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flight.
Taken in September 2014.
I had covid recently AND I have been very lucky with it.
WHAT?
Ok, so when the war started I had been talking to a friend in Europe about visiting. He said nice seasons were May and September, but he and his wife have a kitchen make over planned for September.
“My son is getting married at the end of April, after two year long postponements, and so May doesn’t seem feasible. Maybe next May.”
Then the war starts. And it is affecting gasoline and causing inflation. I call my friend. “Can I come in two weeks?” March to early April.
“Yes. We have other guests a week after that.”
“Ok.” I try to get a British Airways ticket to stop in London to see an old friend from high school. British Airways has a computer attack and three days go by. To heck with it. I buy a ticket to Paris and on to my friend’s country.
I spend an hour on the phone trying to change to a layover in Paris for three days. I manage that. I fly to Paris and then take the train to London. Three wonderful days with my friend in London. I mask on planes, metros and trains. I double mask on the airplane, with my oxygen, and use a ceramic straw to drink liquids.
After three days I take the train back to Paris, the local train to the airport, and fly to my old friend’s. I arrive at midnight and we take the metro.
We do lots of sightseeing and take a memory trip to his parents’ graves and the town we lived in when I was 17 and he was 18.5. I was an exchange student. The language comes back. I can read but listening is more difficult. My brain won’t process it fast enough.
Four days before I am due to fly back, I get an email from AirFrance. I need a negative PCR covid test within 24 hours of flying to return to the US.
Well. I have a mild headache and muscle aches. Probably not covid, BUT. I go online, register in the country for a test and go to the testing site. Positive. I read about covid. The muscle aches of this strain usually happen at day 4-5. I did notice that going from London to Paris to my destination four days earlier, I feel a little off balance. Not bad, not spinning, just slightly weird. So my guess is that I am at day 4 or 5 of covid.
My hosts have both had covid within the last month, so I am not confined to my room. I read the rules for being allowed on the airplane once you HAVE covid. I have to wait 11 days, have a certificate of the test and then the eleven day certificate saying cleared. I isolate for 5 days, spend about 8 hours rescheduling the flight with Air France and Delta, and contact my doctor. My doc wants me to take medicine, but the local medical people where I am say I am not sick enough. I agree with the local people. The headache is gone the next day, I have mild sniffles, and my lungs are fine. Well, at least, they are no worse.
When I am out of isolation, I take a train to another town masked and stay at a hotel for four days. In that country, 80% of the people are vaccinated and 80% have had covid. They are no longer masking, except a few. I am feeling good. I mask when I am around other people and in all public spaces in the hotel.
The trip home is rather more exciting than I would like. At the airport I am informed that I need a doctor clearance ALSO. They say retest. I say “I AM a doctor.” and pull out a copy of my license. I brought it just in case the war spread and I needed to help out. They let me on the plane. In Paris I nearly miss my connection, but am one of the last 8 people on the plane. I am very relieved once we take off.
The silver lining is that at my son’s wedding I am now very unlikely to get covid or give anyone covid and mine was very mild. The Omicron BA2.12.1 that is circulating in Europe is milder than the previous strains AND ten times more contagious or more. So the covid is morphing towards a cold, which is what coronaviruses used to do to us. There are some strains that I read about that are going in a more virulent direction, so I would prefer to have the mild one and be protected from the nasty ones.
Here is the CDC section about strains in the US:
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions
I arrive home on April 12 and then am unsurprised to see covid cases starting to rise again in the US. Here is the CDC tracker: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
I am hoping that it’s more and more Omicron BA2.12.1, since it seems to be milder. I am reassured that covid did not make my lungs worse. Within a week I am better from covid and then get what seems like a normal cold. Covid testing negative. I am feeling well for the wedding and reassured that a normal cold does not force me on to continuous oxygen. I am feeling lucky about the version of covid that I have but I am NOT recommending that people get it on purpose, because even with mild covid, some people go on to develop long covid. Here is an article that I got yesterday through the American Academy of Family Practice:
Long covid is very worrisome and we don’t know what it will look like after a year or more. Many of the present studies are on unimmunized people, from the first year of covid, so the studies of immunized are still evolving. There is hope that there is less risk of long covid with immunization but there is still a risk.
Covid will continue to morph into different strains. We continue to get “colds” or “upper respiratory infections” because the viruses are very very good and fast at changing and avoiding our immune systems. Consider checking the CDC data tracker above regularly to see if your county or your destination has a high covid level and if so, mask back up.
One caveat: my local health department says we have a high level of transmission right now, here:
https://www.jeffersoncountypublichealth.org/1429/COVID-19
while the CDC says low, here:
Remember that all of these sites have to exchange data and update everything. My best guess is that the local has the best numbers, but that is a guess.
I post this poem a year ago in February. It comes back up today. My sister was born in the year of the dragon, so I think of her and miss her.
There appears a flight of dragons without heads
The flight appears
the dragons have lost their heads
they flame indiscriminately
but since they have no heads
the flame does not appear here
they loop in the air
in formation
and are beautiful
nearly silent
no heads to scream
just their wings
on the wind
we stand transfixed
and watch them
the flight
the dragons
who have lost their heads
written February 17, 2021
The headless dragons make me think of the leader dragging countries into war. I hope that other leaders do not follow.
The flight appears
the dragons have lost their heads
they flame indiscriminately
but since they have no heads
the flame does not appear here
they loop in the air
in formation
and are beautiful
nearly silent
no heads to scream
just their wings
on the wind
we stand transfixed
and watch them
the flight
the dragons
who have lost their heads
I have photographed lots of eagles in trees. Now I am trying to catch them in flight. It’s tricky. Against a gray sky, I am still happy with this one.
She is mistress of all she surveys.
For today’s Ragtag Daily Prompt.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: book.
My house is full of books. But… I don’t have a photograph this morning. I want to book a flight with this flier instead!
For the Ragtime Daily Prompt: lingular.
Singular lingular lobe of the lung
infective invective now what’s to be done?
rolling and trolling and speaking in tongues
vote heath here not wealth here until healing comes
Look at this pair of eagles flying in tandem, together. Maybe they don’t agree with each other about everything. They are both individuals. But they fly together. A symbol for our country?
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flight.
This photograph delights me. The young eagle is so ruffled and scruffy compared to the parent. Feathers all every which way, like a gangly teenager. And looks a bit sullen and grumpy, too. My teens were certainly hungry all the time and I suspect that the eagles were out because they are hungry too, so early in the spring.
Thank you, eagles!
As we walk away from the tree, here is a shot back. Both are still present but you do have to look for them. I look for the shape from a distance.
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