Anderson South America Misadventure Day 22 - Crossing the Equator "Fresh Air Day!" March 25, 2020

I have a cough that will not stop. This is common for me to get these after a respiratory infection. I was told that it is kind of like asthma and I have been given inhalers. Did I bring one with me? Nooo, of course not, that would have come in handy. Rob made me call the Medical Center today. They will come to your room and there is no charge for the visit. Silly us, we went last week when they charged us. Anyway the Medical Center did not answer so someone at the front desk took my call and they said that they would pass the message on. Yeah, well, no one called or showed up. I think that I will go with this is my usual cough and leave it at that. My temp is 97.7, yes, I did bring a thermometer with us, not an inhaler but a thermometer. I would say that we spent a quiet morning in the room but that is pretty much what we do everyday. Our meals get delivered and they knock on the door to let us know that our tray is there. Sometimes I think that they run off before we can open the door, sometimes they hang around. The first couple of times we tried to lift the tray with all of the dishes on it. I see the waiters carry these trays in the dining room Most of them are on the small side. How they carry a tray with eight dishes on it I have no idea, but I do give them a break and get out of their way. Well, we now have a new method of getting our meals in. We turn the try 90 degrees then slide it into the room. Then we take the dishes off a couple at a time. When we are done we stack the dishes back on the tray and slide it back out. We have a small oval table in our room that she share. It is 24" by 15". Net real easy to eat off of, but we make it work. We get new towels everyday. They leave a bag of fresh towels on the door handle. We leave the bag of our used towels and our waste basket out in the hall. They empty the trash and take away the used towels. I feel as if we are doing the clandestine swap, Leave the envelope under the bench in the park and find the package under the oak tree. Today I took the clean towels out and dumped them on the counter. I then put the used towels in the bag and put the bag out. Later I went to hang the towels and realized that they only gave us one bath towel. Oops, I quickly grabbed our bag from the hall and grabbed one bath towel back. For some reason we have five hand towels so we would have been OK. I have been without ice since Sunday morning. If I have ever stayed with you and exhausted your ice supply you will know that this has not been easy for me. Today I saw that some people had put their ice buckets out. Yup, ours went right out. They still have not delivered ice but I have to keep the hope alive. They have been delivering two very large bottles of water each day like 1500 ml bottles. Rob asked me why I had not dumped the empty bottles yet. I told him that I was saving them in case I had to lash them together to make a raft. Sometimes he decides that it is much easier to humor me than to try to be logical. My stomach has been a little on the "ishy" side. I was afraid that I had some stomach bug but no other symptoms. Then I realized that it was my old friend Oscar the Ulcer. I can keep saying that I am not stressed and that we are doing fine, but I guess that I am stressing more than I had thought. Did I bring the ulcer meds. Nooooo, I brought other stuff, but no ulcer meds. Luckily when Rob filled out our drink order yesterday he asked for 4 Diet Cokes. He thought that if he did that he stood a chance of getting some. I have been starting the day sipping a Diet Coke to settle my stomach. I know that it is my ulcer and not a bug. We have these very nice chocolate squares that they give to us every night. I looked at them and went "ugh." Yeah, if I do not want to eat chocolate it is my ulcer. This morning we were promised some time on the outside deck. We would be excused by deck and side of the ship. I realized that I had not had anything on my feet since Sunday afternoon. Wow, fresh air, what a treat. We were told to use the front stairs to not touch the rails outside or to sit on the chairs. Do not touch anything along the way. We kept hearing announcements as they let a different group out "please remember do NOT touch the rails or sit down outside." We were the last group to go outside. We got out just in time to see the sun set. It was nice to walk around, but we were warned about keep "social distance." I had stopped to catch the last of the sunset when an unpleasant woman started to talk to me. Really did she not see that I was there just trying to appreciate the sunset. She is upset that they did not get us off of the ship, they got people off of other ships. I explained to her that the ports in South America were all closed. She said that they could have bribed someone. I told her that the Celebrity Eclipse was supposed to disembark on March 15 in Santiago and are not disembarking in San Diego on the 30th. She would not listen, said that she hoped the cruise line went bankrupt. Watch out lady, karmas a bitch. I almost offered her my water bottle raft. We are very near the equator so it was a tad muggy out there. We stayed out as long as we could and walked over one mile. There were some people who were out walking with masks on or scarves tied over their mouths. I just kept away from people. 2 meter social distance. When it was time to come back in I stopped at the Purell station to get a squirt on each hand. I rub my hands together then coat the inside of my elbows. Think about it, we are being told to cough into our elbows, they need to be sanitized. There were two women from the crew supervising us coming and going. One of them laughed when I did this. I joked that they should set up Purell showers. If you had been identified as having symptoms or are sharing a cabin with someone showing symptoms you were not allowed outside. That poor woman across the hall, no window, a sick husband, she has to wear a mask at all times and does not get fresh air day. Dinner arrived after 8:00, we are getting used to this. I pulled the tray in and we started to open the dishes. Yup, they got a big delivery of eggplant in Valparaiso. The other dish was Shrimp Diablo. Neither one made my stomach happy. I ate the green beans a few shrimp. Right after we sat down to eat there is a knock on the door. I think that this is my ice. No, it is another dinner. Unless it is a plate of mashed potatoes and a big glass of milk I am not interested in it. There was no one in the hall to tell this to. Later when they were picking up the dinner dishes someone knocked on the door. He asked if we did not want our dinner. I told him that we had plenty of food with one tray. I told him that he could have the dinner, the lemon cheese cake was very good. Tomorrow we meet up with the MS Rotterdam. We will get more medical supplies and medical personnel. They will also bring on COVID-19 tests. They will only be administering the test on those who are showing symptoms. While we have not been told this in my mind if no one has COVID-19 we will all be released from house arrest. I can dream, it gets me through the days. I dug through my bag and found two doses of Nyquil tablets and two more Chloroseptic drops. Yes, I might sleep tonight. It is the little things that make me happy.