Just a thought… Think positive, test negative. [Erin Davis]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Well, well. Guess who came to our house for a visit last week? I’ll give you a hint: there’s a beer by the same name and you could sing it to the tune of “My Sharona.“

It all began two weeks ago when Rob was invited to play in goal at a seniors’ hockey tournament. There were teams coming in from Saskatchewan and even Tokyo. And Rob will cringe to know I’m telling you he was voted by his teammates first star of each of the three games he played. There was no trophy, although upon undressing after one of the games, he did discover a puck that got lodged in his padding somewhere (which is weird). Oh, but he brought home more than some kudos and an errant puck.

By Saturday (over a week ago now), Rob felt something coming on. At first he thought it might be a dog hair lodged in his sinuses – he was sneezing that fiercely – or allergies because of all of the trees here in riotous bloom. But then Sunday, it seemed like a cold. Okay, so Tuesday the cold was mild enough that he played hockey on his birthday and all was right with the world. Except…that night he got an email from a fellow player in the tournament who had tested positive for Covid. Rob swore, took a test and there it was: positive.

Great. Not only was he going through Covid for the second time, but we’d all had dinner together, our family, for his birthday that night. He’d sat between three-year-old Jane and her mom Brooke. We’d been passing food at the Chinese restaurant, and we gathered for birthday cake later at home. Here Rob is with the kids, pretending to blow, not wanting to add extra spit to the cake when he’d had what he thought was a cold.

Now this is where pure luck and some precautions come in. When Rob first started sensing a cold, he moved into another bedroom for a few nights. We didn’t want me getting sick for our upcoming trip to Ontario. I tested negative. Then Brooke and Phil and the kids tested negative. Again and again we tested and took precautions like keeping Colin out of school, masking everywhere and so on.

And I’m relieved to tell you two things: we are all negative, including Rob, and yes, Rob and I are on our way to Ontario tomorrow for a few nights in Toronto so that I can be on CTV’s The Social this Thursday at 1 pm local time (set your PVR) and for a visit with my radio partner and best friend Mike Cooper. A lot was riding on us testing negative, including the main reason for our trip, which is an appearance for a live podcast recording on stage in Ottawa for the Canadian Real Estate Association a week today.

We are thanking our lucky stars. We’ll continue to be careful and mask on the plane trip tomorrow, pray that our luggage arrives this time (unlike the debacle last November) and hopefully have some fun stories to share with you. And speaking of stories, we go back to mythology for our newest Drift tomorrow: Narcissus and the Echo, a tale of nymphs, of vanity and love-caused insanity.

Take good care and we’ll talk to you then, and on Thursday this week for Gracefully and Frankly.