are your papers in order?*

For the past seven months, I have been shuttling between Barra de Navidad and central Oregon on family business. And, on each trip in these covidlicious days, some new twist is added to the travel experience.

At the end of January, The States (in the guise of its federal government) now require anyone entering the country by air to provide a test proving the passenger is negative for the virus. (There are other procedures for people who set off the Let's-Make-A-Deal procedures with a positive test, but we will skip over those poor souls for the moment.) The negative test result must be presented at the airline counter when checking in. No test, no flying.

Because I am flying tomorrow afternoon, I had a choice to make this morning. I could either obtain a test at the airport tomorrow along with most of the other people on my flight (and on other flights) and test my oft-touted belief that I enjoy standing in lines, or I could drive over to San Patricio Melaque and have the test conducted by the lab where I usually drop off my urine, feces, and blood for analysis.

The choice was easy. Even though the test done at my favorite lab would cost a bit more than the airport test, I would have my test in hand when I arrived at the Alaska counter. There was another advantage: in the event my test was positive, I could start the process for getting a flight clearance. The first step being to cancel tomorrow's flight.

I needed to be in San Patricio for men's Bible study this morning, so I drove over early fully anticipating that I would encounter a line of people who needed a test for tomorrow's flights. Other than a Mexican family, who were there for other purposes, I was the sole person in line.

I told the receptionist what I wanted and paid my 1,000 pesos. She then asked for something I had taken out and had left on my bed -- my passport. The nurse stuck a swab up my nose and told me the results would be ready in an hour.

In the 20 or so minutes it took me to drive to the house and back to the lab with my passport, the results were in my hand. Fortunately, negative. I was concerned that the antibodies from my March bout with covid might still be lingering in my system. They were not. Or, at least, the test did not detect them.

Tomorrow afternoon, I will board the Alaska flight to Los Angeles with my vaccination record and my negative test result. Only to be in Oregon for six days before flying back home to Mexico.

At least, I will not need a test to come home. Well, not yet, at least. 


* -- If you have concluded that the title is a preemptive strike to preclude the inevitable evocation of Godwin's Law, you are on to something.