Note: Before I get into the more positive things I experienced today, here's some difficult family news. Everett has not been feeling well at all for several weeks. On Saturday, the ER doctor in Kellogg determined that he needed better treatment for infection in his system than the local hospital can provide and he was admitted to Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene where, in addition to the infections in his system, he tested positive for Covid. Christy can't visit him. On Monday, Nov. 2, Everett is scheduled for a procedure to drain infection from a couple of abcesses in his system. I hope to have further updates tomorrow.
1. Christy took off for Coeur d'Alene this morning, thinking she could visit Everett. She thought because Everett's Covid test in Kellogg on Saturday came back negative that he was cleared to have a visitor. She learned, upon arrival, that the Kootenai personnel had to administer their own test and that Everett couldn't have a visitor until the results came back negative.
Christy got to talk with Everett's treatment team, though, and learned more about the infection they will work to clear in him. The doctor in charge was Christy's physician a couple of years ago when she suffered through a case of cellulitis. Christy is very happy that he's in charge of Everett's case.
Christy got a call from the medical center around 5-5:30 reporting that Everett's Covid test came back positive. Everett was transferred to the Covid ward and everything became much more uncertain, especially the question of how Everett contracted the virus.
When Christy left this morning, the plan had been for me to have Riley at my house until Carol and Paul were finished, around noon, with church and then he'd go over to their house.
While with me, Riley struck me as very confused about the commotion he's witnessed. For over an hour after Christy left, he paced, cried, howled, dashed outside, came right back in, and was inconsolable.
At some point, I put baroque music on. I don't have any proof that the music settled him down, but as the music moved from Bach to Albinoni to Pachelbel to Purcell and others, Riley settled in the cushiony chair next to where I was sitting, relaxed, and gradually accepted being under my care for a few hours.
2. Christy returned to Kellogg early in the afternoon. Riley was ecstatic to see her and, I'm sure, was eager to be back in his own house.
I volunteered to prepare food for tonight's family dinner. I began by putting three fat chicken drumsticks in the slow cooker, covered by a quart of chicken stock I had made some time ago. While the chicken pieces cooked, I chopped up onion, celery, and a couple of carrots and got out a package of sliced mushrooms.
I thought the chicken needed to cook more quickly, so I put the drumsticks in a pot of water and cooked them in boiling water. I put the mushrooms in the stock in the crock pot and sautéed the other vegetables until they were tender. Once cooked, I let the drumsticks cool, removed the meat, put the meat in the pot, and added the tender vegetables.
I got about three quarts or so of water boiling and fixed a package of Amish Wedding Foods Wide Egg Noodles and cooked them just shy of being all the way done. I didn't want the noodles to be too soft or mushy and they would continue to slow cook when I put them into the crock pot with the chicken and vegetables.
Before I added the noodles into the pot, I seasoned the chicken, vegetables, and stock mixture with sage and thyme, then added the noodles and set the crock pot on warm.
I succeeded in my first effort making chicken noodles. I would have liked to have had more chicken and compensated for the chicken by including the mushrooms.
That worked pretty well.
The noodles remained firm, cinching the success of the dish.
3. Christy came over to my porch around 5:30 to tell me the news about Everett's Covid test and to say she thought it would be safer if she stayed home from family dinner tonight.
I wondered what I should do. I haven't had any contact with Everett over the last couple of weeks. I've been careful the few times Christy has been in the house to maintain distance.
I decided to take the pot of chicken noodles over to Carol and Paul's. Their living room is big and we have no problem staying at least six feet apart. It did us a lot of good to talk about Christy and Everett, enjoy food together, and talk about some other things, too.
I returned home around 7:00 and delivered a container of the chicken noodles to Christy's front porch, as planned, and settled in for a quiet evening after a tumultuous day.
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