We could subtitle this one as the brain scrambled files. I woke up this morning 100% convinced it was Friday. I’ve spent the last four weeks thinking every day was Thursday, and now that it actually is Thursday I think it’s Friday.
As Jimmy from South Park would say, “I mean, come on.”
Yahtzee, bitch.
But enough about me, how are all of you doing? Are we all hanging in there? Are we all doing the right things and staying safe while somehow not losing our minds with all this crazy?
Okay, maybe a little more about me. I have done so much laundry over the last few days it’s out of control. All of it washed, dried, folded, and put away. The put away part is like a miracle on top of a miracle. I haven’t gotten dressed out of a laundry basket once this week. I am frankly amazed. Yesterday was bed sheets, the kids are in for a clean sheet treat when they come over tonight, and today is bath towels. With the exception of the clothes we are currently wearing, and a couple of items that are currently in the washing machine as I type this, neither my wife Jen nor I have a single article of dirty clothing between us. Dishes too. Our dishes are looking at us like, we’ve never been this clean before. More over, we’ve never been this clean so soon after being used to cook dinner!
All of that is down to Jen keeping me on my toes. If it were just up to me we’d be living in squalor and the house would have already collapsed around us. She’s keeping me honest. She’s keeping me sane. I don’t know if she realizes how important she’s been to my well being over the last month or so but she’s been a lifesaver.
I had a good day at work yesterday. I was asked a question that originally came from one of our customers. They were asking for a way to do something that would make their handling of COVID-19 patients about 0.0000001% easier. I immediately knew how to handle it but it turned out I was wrong. If they made one teeny tiny change to their workflow I would have been right, but it also would have defeated the entire purpose of said workflow. Yesterday morning one of my coworkers made a suggestion that changed the way I looked at the problem (THANK YOU!!!) and I had it up and running in-house a few minutes later. Today it was presented to the customer and it made them happy. That in turn made me happy. I was dumb for not thinking of the fix myself but I was close and I just needed a little nudge in the right direction. Fortunately for me I have great coworkers.
There is no seed in the bird feeders, but there was just a woodpecker sitting on one of them. I just thought you should know.
What is it about working from home that makes me need to clean my glasses two or three times a day? I think it’s the light in the room combined with the curtains being open and the size of my monitor, but while I’m working at the office I feel like I clean my glasses once a week or so. Now that I’m working from home every day? I am cleaning them all the time? What’s up with that?
Speaking of the office, can I just say that as someone who drives an average of about 70 miles each business day, I haven’t needed to put gas in either one of my cars for about four weeks? Do you have any idea how unbelievable that is to me? I’ve been commuting to one of this companies buildings for over 15 years now and I can probably count the number of work weeks that didn’t include at least one fill up on one hand. I might be able to count them on one finger. This feels… universe altering… or something.
I’m eating too much junk food. Almost all of it is down to stress eating. I have cut back this week, which is good, but I don’t think I can stop the stress eating entirely without removing the cause of the stress… and that ain’t happening any time soon. I’ll figure it out somehow. We’re all making sacrifices. We’re all adjusting to this new (please please please let it be temporary) normal. I’ll figure it out.
In closing, I hope you’re all doing okay. I hope you’re all hanging in there. We’ll get through this together. One day at a time, kids. One day at a time.
I keep notes on each day’s progress when I do the RPM Challenge. I don’t know why, it just seemed like a good idea once and I never stopped. That was probably five or six years ago. In February I usually label each day’s entries as Day 1/28 or whatever. This year it was Day 1/29, thanks leap year.
Now that we’re working on an April RPM Challenge I’m holding with tradition. I labeled the first seven entries this month as Day n/31.
Just let that sink in for a second. Remember, it’s April… Day n/31.
Yeah, I just fixed them all.
Dumbass.
I played the guitar (pretty much) first thing this morning, and (pretty much) last thing this evening.
Take that, quarantine.
When my step son’s diabetes first tore into him he was taken to the intensive care unit at Boston Medical Center. They were in the news yesterday. It looks like it was the first time COVID-19 maxed the capacity of an ICU in Boston, and it was that same Boston Medical Center ICU that did so much to save Harry’s life that night.
Read this article from WBUR’s website, written by Carey Goldberg, Martha Bebinger, and Elisabeth Harrison…
In what appears to be the first time a Boston ICU has reached capacity in the coronavirus pandemic, Boston Medical Center was treating so many patients who needed intensive care on Sunday that it had to stop accepting new patients into the ICU during the overnight hours, the hospital says.
The worrisome milestone comes at a time when state, federal and local officials are warning that the viral outbreak may be entering a surge period in Massachusetts and other states.
BMC says that overnight Sunday, ambulances brought patients to other hospitals instead. By Monday, the hospital says, it was able to begin accepting ICU patients again.
Boston health officials say this is the first known case of a Boston hospital reaching ICU capacity during the current COVID-19 crisis.
According to numbers reported Monday by the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, Boston Medical Center has 140 COVID-19 patients with 39 in the ICU. On Sunday, the group says the hospital had 147 COVID-19 patients with 42 in the ICU.
I recorded the rhythm parts for one song this morning before work. Here’s a little behind the scenes glimpse into my April RPM recording “studio” which will henceforth be referred to as “The RPM Nook.”
Can you see the new growth? The leaves are starting to bud!
These kids showed up in the yard literally minutes before I ate a turkey sandwich for lunch.
Awkward!
