Today is an important anniversary for me. It was five years ago today that my company’s Covid-19 pandemic response went into effect. March 13, 2020 was the last day we worked in the office. We were told to clear out anything we needed for our work day (I had a desktop machine at that point so I packed it up and took it home) and to clean off our work areas as much as possible. The operations staff was going to disinfect the hell out of all of our buildings during our two weeks of working at home.

Two weeks. That was the plan. Sure, it was a tentative plan as no one had any idea what they were doing. We thought we’d lock down for a few weeks in order to give medical staff a chance to get out in front of things and then we’d be okay. Two weeks turned into years (plural). Things are more or less back to normal now, though we’re still working from home more often than working in the office. I’m on a laptop now instead of my desktop, and the building I cleared out of on 3/13/20 has been sold. I’m sitting at my desk in a different building, but still with the same company. The higher ups have made it pretty clear that they’d like us to be in the office more often, but the rank and file are pretty adamant about working from home more often. It’s a confusing situation and we’re all doing our best to accommodate everyone else.

I still wear a mask sometimes. Not often. Mostly when I am feeling a little under the weather and need to leave the house. I’ll put on a mask to keep everyone else safe. That’s what the maga cult never understood. It was never about keeping yourself safe, it was about keeping others safe. The maga cult is too selfish to do that particular piece of math. They don’t care about other people at all, only themselves. Whatever. Fuck them.

Just for fun, I went back and read everything I posted on that day. It included a photo of an empty parking lot at work. That was cute. I also wrote this:

So Harry has high school classes at home, Bellana has college classes at home, Jen has work from home, and ol’ Robbie has work from home.  All for at least the next two weeks.

It’s going to be tough having all of us trying to work at the same time.  We’re going to get in each other’s way and we’re going to get on each other’s nerves, and if everything works out the way we want we will look back on this and see it as a successful waste of time.  A little sacrifice today will lead to an easier time for our health care professionals in the coming weeks.  That’s the goal at least.

We’re all in this shit show together, and we are up to the challenge.

Who would have thought that “a little sacrifice” was more than half of america was willing to give. Okay, instead of reminiscing here I find myself absolutely pissed off. I should have seen that coming, just like I should have seen everything coming.

Happy fifth covid-aversary everyone.