20200607u-2329 Austin, TX – About 48 hours ago, I arrived at my home in Austin, TX after driving 2 long days from Santa Cruz, CA. I slept quite well the first night, but last night I didn’t sleep most of the night. I had a bad headache all day yesterday and sinus congestion, both on the right side of my head. I finally got to sleep around 5am and slept almost until 11am. I felt a bit better but then had a new symptom – diarrhea.
Googling “covid19 symptoms” right now gives this list with the note that “Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:”
- Fever or chills
- Cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
Luckily, I only have 3 symptoms from this list and I can imagine other reasons for my symptoms that seem more probable to me than being due to COVID-19. I partially blame my Aunt for my headache. She graciously offered me coffee yesterday morning and neglected to tell me it was decaf. Apparently, my caffeine intake the previous few days involved more than my 1 cup/day limit. This, along with possible dehydration, likely caused my headache.
That said, I did drive through a number of states, including Arizona which is second to California in having the most number of new daily cases of COVID-19 at 1438 yesterday (CA had 2763). The other states I drove through were Nevada (189 new cases), New Mexico (140 new cases), and Texas (935 new cases).
There were a couple of different universes I was feeling as I drove through Arizona. In one universe, I got a hotel in Flagstaff and then stayed at an AirBnB in Lubbock the next night. I had confirmed the AirBnB room was available but didn’t reserve it. In the other universe, I drove past Flagstaff and then drove another long day to Austin the next day. When I was an hour from Flagstaff around 7pm, I noticed highway signs “Emergency Curfew 8pm – 5am”. I assumed this was due to the recent protests against police brutality. As I entered Flagstaff at 8pm, I exited to look for a hotel. I didn’t see any hotels at the exit and saw the road was carrying me to downtown Flagstaff. I made a split decision to u-turn and get back on the highway instead of going downtown. About an hour later, I saw a large number of police car lights on the highway. As I approached, I saw that the opposite lane of traffic driving towards Flagstaff was blocked and there were miles of mainly 18-wheelers stopped on the highway. Luckily, the road out of Arizona was not blocked and I made it safely into New Mexico by 10:30pm. I was thinking of stopping at the Rest Area just across the state border, but it was closed. I ended up staying at a hotel in Gallop, NM. Masks were required at the hotel (and all of New Mexico). This was different as most people were not wearing masks at all of the stops I made for gas that day.
I have a slight headache and a bit of congestion now. I’m looking forward to sleeping well and feeling better tomorrow.
surfing the universe 