A World Without Smells

So last week I finally did something I’ve been putting off for years.

I got Covid.

I figured the best place to get sick would be on a cruise ship, so I could spend five of my eight days in isolation. I also wanted to avoid getting the best possible medical care, while missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure at sea.

Yep, I went on the BGG cruise last week, and somewhere between the Las Vegas Airport and breakfast on the third day, I got a nasty case of Covid. They moved me straight into the “Red Zone,” where I stayed in a tiny little cabin for five days, ordering room service, sleeping, and using the crappy internet on my phone.

Interesting places passed outside my window. Even more interesting trash was left outside my door.

The BGG Cruise was fantastic, for as long as it lasted. I would have liked to play more games before I got sick. And I’m sure I was probably a vector for somebody, and I’m certainly sorry for that, but we all tested negative the day before we sailed, and I hid away as soon as I felt bad. So I’m really doing the best I can.

A few other gamers got this crap, along with a bunch of the general population, so it was basically just a bad week all around. According to the staff at the end of the cruise, they unloaded a lot more sick people than usual. Like, usually it’s 3 to 5 patients, last week it was about 25, and this week it was easily 60. 

So what happened? Crew infection? New variant? Relaxed rules? Perfect storm? There’s really no way of knowing, because the tools for checking really aren’t there.

On the way to the cruise, I stood in a knot of passengers at Harry Reid that was the most unsafe place I had been in three years. It was one of those budget airlines where they don’t have assigned seats, you might know the one, and on top of that usual hell they delayed opening the boarding door for mechanical problems, so we were all in a crush in the boarding line for something like 40 minutes.

And I also waited for hours at the Texas airport, before boarding a 90-minute bus, to stand in another crowded line at the cruise terminal. And nowhere along this obstacle course was anyone wearing a mask, except for me and the other folks from the BGG group.

At the end of the adventure, after I had been in isolation for five days, the cruise line gathered all the infected people in a tiny room and held us for an hour, including some folks who were still testing negative, but who were traveling with positive cases. This was an unacceptable procedure for five cases, let alone for 60. But hey, we were mostly already sick, right?

And now I’m hunkered down in a Houston hotel until my T line fades. This sucks almost as much as the Red Zone, though if I really wanted to I could at least go for a walk. When I checked in, the hotel dropped a plastic bag of towels and water bottles at my door and was like “don’t come out.” And I seem to have offended the Room Service gods, because every day my meals are getting weirder. Yesterday I got oatmeal in a cardboard box.

I did lose my sense of smell for a bit last week, which was actually the most depressing part of this whole thing. But it has come back now, and at the eight-day mark I have no more symptoms but a pale red line. On the plus side I was already very used to this level of isolation, because it’s essentially my daily life, though not usually in Texas.

I haven’t produced much of value during this ordeal, except for taking about four editing passes through a 45,000 word short story that will soon appear at the Library. Keep on the lookout for the Ballad of Canyon Red, or whatever I eventually decide to call it. It’s a story about a game.

I expect to fully return to functionality on Day 10, when I will fly home from Texas and begin the important process of rebuilding. My Animal Crossing island, that is.

Be safe, play games, and I’ll see you at the table.