Chat with Deb — Back from Our Alaska Cruise

We each reminisce in our own way

Our backyard greeted us with happy flowers and trees on our return. Also weeds. Lots of weeds. I spent Friday morning out pulling weeds. I thought it might help me feel better from my cold, but it didn’t. Stupid cold. (photo by author)

DEB: Okay, I could have done that better. Next time, I break up the loads so I’m not committed to staying up with the dryer until late.

When we get home from a vacation, the first thing Deb does is organize the laundry. And after packing (and unpacking) for two weeks in Alaska, that’s a LOT of laundry. In her defense, we were both brain-fried when we got home. We flew out of Anchorage around 9PM local time — well before sunset—and got into Chicago around 6AM, having slept hardly at all. We maybe napped, maybe, on the hop from Chicago back to Harrisburg, PA, getting in late Thursday morning. So very little sleep, mostly bad, between Wednesday morning and Thursday night.

Also, besides tired, we had picked up colds on the trip. Mild coughs, drippy noses. Hey, we went from a snowstorm on Monday to summer in PA on Thursday, of course our bodies behaved badly.

ME: Thank you for doing all that, luv!

DEB: No no, honey, I enjoy it! It’s like you and receipts. I pull out one of your shirts to throw into the washer, and I remember, “Oh, he wore this one when we had dinner at the Sel de Mer and Marko took our picture!”

After our dinner at the Sel de Mer on board ship (photo by Marko, our waiter)

“Receipts?” you may be wondering? (I know you are, Dennett, probably anticipating yet another odd Jack thing; yup, good call!) I keep track of all our spending, so I know where the money goes and when we need to panic. So coming off vacations, I usually have a big wad of receipts to enter. Or used to, until Deb got me organized into envelopes. (Deb is the family planner and organizer. Just a reminder.) And I’ve mentioned to Deb in the past (because she can think of fewer things more awful than entering in transaction after transaction, coded and labeled) this helps me relive events. Ah! Here’s where we bought the “Madonna and child” figurine from Alaska Ivory Exchange in Anchorage!

Madonna and child — soapstone (bodies), bone (faces), fur, and some sort of fancy stone base that Dusty Craig would recognize, I bet (photo by author)

This was our first dinner in Denali National Park, with Svetlana, only she preferred we call her Lana; she was from… from…

ME: Debster, where was Lana from? Our waitress our first night at Denali?

DEB: Bulgaria.

See, she remembers stuff like that. Also still a little muzzy-headed from lack of sleep, on my part. Or maybe the cold?

There was still laundry left to do on Friday, and then grocery shopping to restock after two weeks away (wow, prices seem higher — did we miss something while we were gone?), wearing our N95 masks because the numbers are up in PA and hardly anyone wears a mask around here any more.

Man, nothing like breathing into an N95 mask for half an hour to make nasal dripping worse! And despite sleeping like a rock Thursday night, I am still tired! But it’s not age! Definitely not age! (Might be age.)

Might be something else.

ME: I’m thinking we should do one of those COVID home tests. Just in case these aren't colds.

DEB: Okay. Still got your taste and smell?

ME: Lunch was good (says the guy who made it) and (picks up a scented candle) that smells very nice! But it’s safer, bases are covered, and I just ordered more free tests so it’s not like we’re wasting anything.

We break out the tests, we read through the little, tiny, complex printed instructions—

DEB: They have big print with pictures. On the back.

—we follow the simple, nicely illustrated instructions, and in fifteen minutes:

The instructions had examples of faint lines that were still considered “positive”; this was NOT a faint line (photo by author)

Actually, the line came through in fifteen seconds, for me. Deb’s was negative.

DEB: So, no church for us on Sunday, is what I’m thinking.

We finish the day. Deb starts making appointment changes for next week, because what if she comes up positive later?

And then we do it again Saturday morning. Different test brand. Second opinion. Smart, right?

When these antigen tests detect a LOT of antigens, they go solid really, really quickly. See, this was a learning experience! (photo by author)

DEB: Yeah, I coulda told ya. Think I did.

Deb slept badly. Woke up feeling awful—stuffy head, headache, nausea. Didn’t finish breakfast.This time, her test was the one that went dark first.

I, on the other hand, felt pretty good. Two mRNA vaccine shots, two boosters—thanks, CDC folks! But we won’t be going anywhere for the next five days or so…

I have a pretty good idea how we got exposed (spoiler: NOT the fault of the cruise line!) and what we should have done better… but that will wait for later postings of our Great Alaskan Adventure! Starting from the beginning, next episode.

Teaser: The trip was STILL TOTALLY WORTH IT! (“So, Mr. Herlocker, would you like that on your gravestone? Maybe with a relief of the Alaska mountain range?” “And a moose? Can we do a moose? We saw a bunch of moose. Mooses. Meese?”)

Chat with Deb—Heading to Alaska (Really!)