Blog #28

June 30-July 16

Visit Mom for Fourth of July

On the evening of June 29, David and I headed out to my mom’s farm in Oxford, NC. David had been coughing that morning, so both took a Covid test to be sure his summer cold wasn’t really the bad thing we’ve been avoiding for 2 ½ years. We were both tested negative and while he was hacking away (please cover your mouth!), I told him to suck it up and let’s keep going. 

We left around 6pm, stopped a couple of times and rolled in around 11pm. David was tired, so I drove the whole way. That wasn’t a problem; I was pumped with adrenaline, excited to see my mom and meet brokers to sell her place.  Now that she’s moving to Asheville with us, we can start the selling the farm process.

On Thursday, we had plans to meet two brokers, and two more on Friday. Then we could enjoy the weekend with my mom – and my youngest child, Brianna who at the last minute decided to join our fun.  

Covid Test: Positive

David still wasn’t feeling great on Thursday morning, so, just for fun-sies, we both took a Covid test.  David was positive, but I wasn’t. We hadn’t been in contact with anyone yet and Brianna was on her way from the airport. Before even exiting the Airstream, we called my mom and worked out a plan.  David was now relegated to the Airstream, but I would wear an N95 mask and meet brokers — mostly outside – with my mom.  The last thing we wanted was to give anyone Covid, especially my mom who had recently gotten over it.

The day went well with lots of information passed back and forth between us and the brokers. Later, mom took Brianna out for dinner and I made David some chicken soup.  I stayed in the house that night, but in a room far from the rest of the family.  My stomach wasn’t feeling great, but the well water at my mom’s farm sometimes affects me.

The next morning before I saw anyone, I took another Covid test.  It wasn’t the water; now I was positive. The Quarantine Airstream would house another Covid patient. The first thing I did was to try contact my doctor, but the Friday before the Fourth of July is not a great time to get in touch with medical personnel. I missed a couple of messages because I was napping. After a lot of back and forth and me practically crying to the nurse, the office finally called my doctor’s cell phone and she prescribed the antiviral Paxlovid. I got my first dose around 3pm. I knew I would get better soon.

…But not until I had a pretty good fever that night. With only one dose in me, I spiked a fever of 104.7 on the temporal thermometer. My worried husband stayed up taking my temperature for the next hour. Needless to say, it went down. 

Airstream Quarantine

We stayed in the Airstream for about a week at the farm. Fourth of July came and went without much fanfare but a red, white and blue smoothie and some movies to celebrate. Luckily, we had stocked the refrigerator with fruit and food. And we had plenty of dry goods as well.  That did not stop my mom from being a lifesaver. She delivered dinner to our door as well as medicine (we had some but needed things like throat numbing lozenges).  When we told her the antiviral left a taste in your mouth like you were sucking on an iron railing, she brought Jolly Ranchers and Werther’s caramels. She and Brianna seemed to know we needed ice cream and brought that by on those super hot days.

It was the perfect place to quarantine. We could let our dogs out the door, stay away from people but still be nearby. Everything is close quarters in an RV, which is good when you don’t want to have to walk far to get to the bathroom or kitchen. Mom’s 30 amp service plus our EZ start system and the 800 amp hours of lithium batteries that allowed the AC to work without such a deep draw of current when turning on. Starlink worked great to stream movies in bed when we weren’t asleep. 

While I heard that the BA 5 variant is super transmissible and manages to work around vaccinations, all I could keep thinking about was my friends who had Covid before vaccinations and antivirals were available.  I could totally imagine David going to the hospital for the congestion that kept threatening to go deeper into his lungs. This was only a couple of days of scary. I don’t know how people early in the Pandemic overcame this. 

Hit the Road Jack (or Helen & David)

We finally hit the road when we both felt well enough to drive 4 hours home which was about a week+ later. When we got back to Asheville, we stayed in the apartment. We still felt weak and foggy. David’s cough kept going and my muscle weakness sometimes made basic movement feel questionable. We wore masks well past the 10-day CDC recommended time period and were still testing positive on day 14. It took longer to recover than we expected but we’re feeling MUCH better now.

Real Estate Gods Smile on Us

Another lucky blow was dealt to us by the real estate gods. We love the new property, and were dreading trying to close with Covid. It turned out that we had a delay to confirm some easement issues (the driveway was outside the proscribed easement and we wanted to make sure to dot the “i’s” and have that legally included before we signed). 

Homeless No More (well, we never Really were)

Now it’s official; as of July 14, we are the proud new homeowners of a beautiful property in the Fletcher Fairview area.  It has an airplane hangar (you heard about that), is on 26 acres and has 2 ponds and is surrounded by creeks. There are views of local mountains. It’s about 10 minutes from where we presently have an apartment, 20 minutes from downtown Asheville and 15 minutes to the airport. We are about equidistant to Hendersonville, a charming little NC town that I think we’ll end up spending lots of time in. I haven’t measured the driveway yet, but it’s long and winding, maybe half a mile. Wanna see some pictures?

We don’t really move in until August 5.  The current owners need some time to move their lives to their new digs in Knoxville, TN. They’ll be building a house, but first they’ve got to get settled in their rental home. Their entire family is in that area and quite frankly, if Knoxville was near mountains, I’d move there. Such a fun town. I’m sure we’ll stay in touch and visit them there.

In the meantime, we drove out to my mom’s on Friday night to pack some of belongings we’re storing there. We brought back our trailer filled with David’s 1972 Corvette, some garden statues and other odds and ends. We put them in the hangar for now. While dropping them off, we met a few of our neighbors. They are SUPER friendly and I’m so glad we’re moving to such a welcoming community.

If you read this far you deserve some pictures.