COVID & Coffee

 I guess you know that you live during a pandemic when your Google Calendar has a recurring meeting entitled: COVID & Coffee. At Champlain, as long as you were teaching on campus, you were required to get tested for COVID weekly. Actually, I was more than happy to receive all the free COVID tests they wanted to dole out. In fact, now that the onsite portion of the semester is over and we can't get anymore free tests, I guess I'll have to be happy with the fourteen negative tests I've run up so far. My good friend Cindy and I would schedule our weekly COVID test for Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. and then we'd retreat to Klinger's Bakery, not simply because they have great treats there but also because they had plentiful outdoor seating under large umbrellas. By getting the tests that early we'd then get the results by the next evening, with mine usually showing up when I was volunteering at the South Burlington Food Shelf or shortly thereafter when I was picking up my weekly burgers and milk shakes at Al's. Cindy and I would be in constant communication to see who received their test results first. They usually showed up at exactly the same time, although several times hers were later because 1) technology hates her, or 2) the tyranny of the ruling patriarchy.

Sure, Cindy seems happy now, but then I brought up the terrible Tight Ends that she runs out every week for her fantasy football team and the tears began to flow.