Rant #2,417: Que Sera Sera

Well, it was bound to happen.

Yesterday, my family and I were instructed to get tested for the coronavirus, because my wife might have been exposed to the virus through a co-worker at the bank that they both work at.

The woman who brought the virus into this work environment had been out of work and at home for 50 days with the virus, and she came to work under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, which suggest a 14-day quarantine period after contracting the disease/

Which all means that she went under the assumption that she did not have the disease, and came back to work based on that assumption--rather than go back to her doctor to be checked out.

She had been working for a few weeks at the bank, without incident, but she felt sick the other day. My wife, who works almost hand in hand with her, thought she might be having a panic attack, told her drink some water and take it easy, but evidently, after work, the woman went back to the doctor, who confirmed that she may have had a relapse, which means she might still have the virus in her, but she might not be contagious ... or she might be.

So yesterday morning, with my wife having one foot out the door to go to work, she received a call from her supervisor, and she was told not to come to work. She wasn't told much else, but she kind of knew exactly what had happened.

My wife texted me--I was waiting on a long line of cars at the bank (more on that below)--and she later heard from her supervisor and some other executives at her bank exactly what happened, without telling her the entire story (she knew who it was and she knew the scenario of her not being retested before coming to work).

I completed my banking, came home, and we decided to go for the coronavirus test, which was being given at a walk-in medical facility in my area. I wanted both the coronavirus nose swab test and the blood test--to see if I had any antibodies of the disease--but my wife and son only wanted the coronavirus nose swab test, which really is the most important and accurate of these tests, so off we went to this medical office, and we had these tests done.

We were told that we will hear in two to seven days whether we have the virus and the other results of the test, and we were also told that my wife must quarantine herself for 14 days just in case she tests positive. My son and I can move freely now, but if we test positive, we will also have to be quarantined for 14 days.

And right now, everyone in our family who we have come in contact with over the past two weeks--my brother in law and his wife, and my parents--are on alert that if we test positive, they must all get tested themselves.

I have to say that if you are worried about the test, it really is a big nothing. The blood test is a blood test, they take a vial from you and that is that.

The nose swab test is the one that some people are scared of, and there is really nothing to be scared of. Yes, they have to stick a long tong up your nose, and deep into it, but you only feel a slight sensation for a split second, and your eyes my tear for a minute or so once the apparatus is removed. Yes, it goes by that fast.

So right now, we are in a holding pattern, and we are wondering why my wife's place of work allowed this employee to come into work without a doctor's note, an official approval clearing her of the disease. My wife asked her superiors this very question, and they did not answer her, and it is pretty obvious that if this woman is her bank's version of "Typhoid Mary," they have, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, "a lot of 'splainin' to do."

And by the way, none of us feel sick, none of us feel under the weather, and none of us are anything but fit as a fiddle ... so if we have it, we feel we are asymptomatic.

But let's see what the results bring. It should be very interesting.

And as an aside, the woman who might have spread the virus throughout the bank is all of 24 year old, part of the group of millennials that appears to be completely oblivious to this virus and its possible effects.

Anyway, back to the bank ...

I usually go to two banks on Wednesdays: one to take money out of my account, and the other to put that money into. Ever since I was fleeced by several doctors earlier this year for payments that were out of this world--as you know, I won a judgment against one medical practice, and I am still waiting for my money from that victory--I have been trying to replenish my savings account with whatever money I can get together, and for the past several weeks, I have religiously gone to the bank where I have my savings account to put money into that account.

The bank is not open, has one, single drive-through, and is usually backed up to the gills with dozens of cars waiting to do their banking there.

Well, the same situation presented itself yesterday, and I dutifully waited on line to get up to the drive-through. When I got there at about 8:45 a.m., the line was about two dozen cars long, so I went behind the last car, and waited, listening to my radio, looking out the window, and just biding my time.

The line was so long that it stretched across the street into an adjoining parking lot, where a popular bagel store does business. And the line stretched behind a row of cars parked in this lot, presumably of people going to the bagel store.

Every once in a while, people would come out of the store, go to their cars, and want to pull out of their spaces.

It wasn't a problem when I was the last car on the line. I simply moved back, the guy ahead of me moved back, and we let the people out. We then moved back into the line, which simply was not moving, even when the bank was opened at 9:00 a.m.

The problem was that cars were getting onto the line, and I no longer was the last one on line. So if a car wanted to pull out of their space, it became a problem, because I might have wanted to push my car back, but I had to do it in concert with cars behind me, and let me tell you, people can be very oblivious to what is happening around them when they are waiting on a very long line for the bank.

So a car wanted to back out of a space, and I tried to tell the guy behind me to back up, which should have had a domino effect--he should have told the next guy, and the next guy should have told the next guy, etc., almost a domino effect of cars moving back a little to let a fellow driver through.

But of course, this is easier said than done, and nobody was moving behind me, and I mean no one Everyone is in their little cocoon in their cars, and they were oblivious to any hand movement or anything I was going to get them to move back, and they certainly didn't see--or didn't care, probably more of this than that--that a guy had his brake lights on and was trying to get out of his space.

Even more oblivious was the actions of the car ahead of me.

I was not able to move back, but evidently, this did not matter to the driver of the vencileahead of me, who moved back anyway, and without any space to move, slammed into the front of my car.

I got out of my car, looked to see if there was any damage--there wasn't any that I could see--and then I went out to the driver ahead of me, standing a social distance away from him, and i yelled at him, "Didn't you see that I could not move back, and don't you know that you hit my car?"

He opened the window, and his response was one for the ages:

"Yes, I hit your car."

And that is all he said as he rolled up the window.

I then yelled at him, "Don't you know how to use your mirror? Are you an idiot?" And no, I never used foul language at all.

He rolls down the window, again, and I saw he was getting out of the car. I told him there was no damage, to stay in his car, but I said, "Don't back up where there isn't any room to," and I got back in my car.

So, I got no apology from him, and his attitude was that, "So, I hit your car, big deal," and that was that from him.

Very condescending, but very expected from an idiot like this.

And all the while, there was a security guard there, and he sat in his car the entire time.

I guess it was above his pay grade to get involved.

So yes, yesterday was not one of the great days of my life.

But at least my family and I will know if we are infected or not.

Heck, "que sera sera, whatever will be will be, the future's not ours to see, que sera sera."

Yup, I had quite a (Doris) day yesterday, didn't I?

(Sorry, Doris.)