I’m going into the office tomorrow. My second time since they reopened the building. I need to make a lunch, I need to wear a collared shirt. I need to not forget my freakin wireless headphones again.
I’m nervous about Covid, of course, but I guess I need to just put some faith in the two vaccine shots and the booster shot and just suck it up and deal with it.
Patches agrees.
My company has soda machines all over the place. The cans of soda are nearly free for staff. We have to pay the $0.05 state deposit and that’s it. Picture it; me, a lifelong dedicated fanatical soda drinker working in a building where cans of soda cost a nickel. Basically heaven.
Except that I can’t drink soda anymore. Shit.
I am in a new building now. Did I mention that? Probably. We were in Waltham, which was closer to home for me than any other company building, but they sold the Waltham building during the pandemic. We were moved to Westwood, which is further away than Waltham but was the next closest building to home. When we had our brief return to office experiment over the summer we had to setup our new desks and get used to the new place. Now it’s just where we go. No big whoop, right?
There was a point in time during our Waltham stay where I was trying to eliminate caffeine in the afternoon. I started bringing a water bottle and filling it up from the water cooler in the kitchenette. It tasted really bad. If I added a ton of ice it would get cold enough that the bad taste was sort of masked, but even if I put my go-to grape flavoring stuff in it, the taste was still crappy.
Now I am under doctor’s orders to no longer drink soda (Robert wipes away a single tear) so I’m back to the water bottle. There’s a little cooler in the kitchenette here too. I just filled up… nervous that this water would be bad too…
It isn’t. It sure ain’t the Poland Springs wonder that is our cooler at home, but it’s okay. I can live with it.
That sound you heard all over the surface of the Earth was my emphatic sigh of relief.
My lunch break is coming to an end. I am halfway through the work day. Halfway through my first day back in the office.
I had planned to bring my AirPods Max with me. I forgot to pack them. I’ve been using air buds like some kind of caveman. I also forgot that they centralized the trash barrels. Instead of having a barrel at every desk they have one in the middle of the room. My lunch trash is just sitting on my desk. I’ll chuck it out the next time I get up, but when will that be?
It’s sunny and 50 degrees out. Practically Spring, right? I made sure to open the blinds in the bedroom so the plant clipping can get good light today. I’m hoping there will be a new leaf opening up when I get home. Fingers crossed.
There are more people here now than there were the last time I posted. Still no one close enough to make me nervous, but still. I’m Covid safe, but not as Covid safe as I’d be if I were working from home. Sigh in frustration.
I got a phone call from the weight loss clinic. They confirmed my appointment for Monday. Yet another teeny tiny hurdle crossed. Monday should be a huge hurdle crossed. I’m nervous, but I am okay with it for now. That’ll probably change once I see a doctor holding a knife above my guts. Crap.
Okay. Back to work.
I’m in the office today. I’m not terribly happy about it but I’ll live. The commute was better than most days pre-Covid, but given that I’ve only made this drive a few times over the last two years it was infuriating. I drove about 200 yards before I hit traffic. It was just a school bus, but it was still traffic. The highways were slow and annoying. Again, not quite pre-pandemic, but definitely bad enough to imply that the pandemic is over… even though it’s not.
There is no one sitting at any desk near me. I think the closest person is probably 30 yards away. Much more than six feet. I am plenty Covid/Omicron safe at my desk, but I will still need to go to the bathroom and the kitchen and such. I feel good about my elevator skills. I expertly avoided having anyone in the car with me as I went up to the third floor. My people avoidance skills are still very sharp in that respect.
My desk is still here. It’s nice and clean and all. My keyboard is shit compared to the one I use at home. My monitor is double shit compared to the one I use at home too. Oh well. It’s just going to average out to one day each week. I can survive that. Sure, I would prefer not to be here, after nearly two years of only working at home.
Funny, remember back in March of 2020 when all of my posts were how working at home was abnormal and how I had to get used to everything being different? Deja-Vu, right?
There isn’t much I like about winter weather, but last night we got a little taste of one thing I do actually really enjoy.
I checked the forecast at one point yesterday because the weather was looking a little iffy and the kids had a long drive back to school. It said we were going to get 1-2 inches of snow, but it wouldn’t start until long after the kids were off the road. That was good, even though all snow is bad.
I woke up this morning expecting to see some fresh snow on the ground. When I looked out the window I saw that there wasn’t any fresh snow. The forecast was wrong. It didn’t snow, or if it did it didn’t stick.
Ah, now that’s a happy way to start a Monday!
Just six months to go until Spring, kids. Bring it on!
I’m in the office today. I need to come in four times this month and today makes three. I have Thursday penciled in as the fourth visit.
Last time I came in everything on my desk had been moved around. I assume it was the cleaning staff. This time everything was where I left it. That’s nice to see. I told myself that I had to get a mouse pad before I came back and then completely forgot. The desk is arranged in such a way that there is a seam right where my mouse wants to be. It’s annoying. A mouse pad will fix it… if I can just not forget to grab a mouse pad. I ordered one on Amazon today. Read the first paragraph and then try to guess what day it’s scheduled for delivery… go on… guess. (Thursday)
I had no traffic this morning. Well, almost no traffic. There was a slow down at the junction between routes 93 and 128. Other than that, and one lady who was tailgating me at 70 miles per hour (asshole), the commute was easy as can be. Here’s hoping the same thing happens on the way home. Fingers crossed.
I didn’t forget my lunch today! Will wonders never cease? I did buy a bag of Peanut M&M’s from the vending machine though. Not my finest hour.
Last week my sister was unable to cover shifts at my parents house, so my brother and I just alternated days. There was a whole week where I slept at my house one day and at theirs the next. Today is the first day since that started that I won’t appear at the house in Tewksbury at all. I love my parents. I really do. I’m also very happy to have a day where I am not there. It’s such a stress relief. I’ll be there tomorrow night and all day Wednesday though, so let’s not get all kumbaya and shit.
This morning, before work, I looked at posts on this page made on July 26ths in past years. Last year there was a post talking about my progress in the 50/90 challenge. I had six songs finished and 17 songs in the pipeline. I am crushing that pace right now. Today I have 13 songs finished and 23 in the pipeline. Winning. I wonder how far along I was in 2014 (the other year I completed the full 50 songs)? Who cares.
This weekend is a Harry weekend. This is a good thing. That is a happy thing.
Okay, back to work.
I left the house at 7:40 or so. A smidge later than I wanted to (I find that I am using the word “smidge” in posts way too often these days. I’ll work on that) but with plenty of time to get to the office by 9:00. As soon as I was on the road, Waze started freaking out about an accident on route 93. It detoured me through the heart of Andover (the richest town in the area and yes I did drive past a golf course) onto roads I had never seen before in my life. Finally I got back onto 93 and hit another traffic jam at the junction with route 128 which then turned into a traffic jam on 128 just after the junction.
By this point I was on the verge of fury. That’s when I realized I forgot my security badge and I was not going to be able to operate the elevators or get into the stairwells. That’s when I stopped being on the verge of fury and embraced it full, like an old friend I haven’t seen in years. I turned around immediately and went home.
I am so mad at myself.
I am so mad at myself.
I am so mad at myself.
I just updated the Waze app with my new work address. Do I really have a morning commute today? This is so weird. 15 months ago not having a commute was the weirdest thing ever. Now it’s the opposite.
Wish me luck, everyone. Traffic nightmare ahead.
It just dawned on me that Covid-19 has taken something away from me that I used to look forward to. It’s a teeny tiny detail, but I didn’t get to experience it this year. Note: this is not a complaint at all, just a comment.
I’ve mentioned on this blog (one or two thousand times) that I have a long, painful commute to work. Thanks to the Covid lock down I haven’t had to make that commute in over nine months. This is a good thing. The silver lining to our personal Covid nightmare, if you will.
Traditionally speaking, there is only one day each year in which my horrid commute is actually pleasant. One day out of the roughly 260 business days over the course of a year where I don’t really mind the drive to and from work.
That one day is the last business day before Christmas. On that day, there is never any traffic. I get in the car, hit the highway, and I’m in the parking lot in record time. It’s brilliant.
Today is the last business day before Christmas. Again, I’m not complaining. It’s just another little thing that I always looked forward to (on the rare moments that I actually thought about it) that I don’t get this year. Obviously my commute today was better than any other year. I just sat down and started working. I’m just saying, okay?
From the morning commute:
From the evening commute:
Are we seeing the trend here? Let’s hope for better luck tomorrow, even though it’s my work from home day.
Inside the Red Head's Head 