I had Merih come over this morning (and he was wearing a face mask because I had told him he needs to be cautious) and I called the COVID-19 hotline to try to make an appointment for him to be tested.

I could hear Merih’s side of the conversation and I know the woman on the other end asked him if he was sick and he said no. She and I both pressed a little further, but he explained that it had been a misunderstanding. When he got off the phone, he was finally able to tell me what happened last night. Mark and I had asked if he wanted some ice cream and he gestured to his throat and said something about getting a sore throat. I gave him some hot coffee and Mark offered him some lozenges, which he tried to refuse, but Mark told him to take them anyway. What he’d been trying to tell us was that ice cream makes his throat swell and gives him a sore throat, so he didn’t want any ice cream. This morning he reminded us that last summer, he always wanted water without ice because cold things give him a sore throat. Whew! I’m glad we got that straightened out!

In other news, this morning I found a mouse dropping on the fresh white shelf paper I had put on our lazy Susan. I grabbed a flashlight and went looking to see if there were any more or if there were signs of the mice eating the store-bought poison I had put out. That prompted me to check the traps the exterminator had set out in the house, and I found a dead mouse in one of them. Our fight with the mice isn’t over yet. 🙁