Tag: quarantine

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 27

The mailman came today.  He brought a letter that was obviously junk.  It had the most ridiculously official sounding yet utterly meaningless name on the return address.  I was going to write something that made fun of it.  I figured I’d cover my ass and Google it first and… it is an actual Federal agency.  It is something that is some how related to the Coast Guard, if the two links I read were accurate.  The letter was totally bullshit and fake as fake can be, but knowing there is a real agency took all the fun out of it for me.

I just logged into my 12:00 Zoom meeting only to realize it is a 2:00 meeting, not 12:00.  Did you know that 12:00 and 2:00 are different things?  Crazy!

Now that the April Bonus Edition RPM Challenge is over, the powers that be are putting on an online listening party.  Everyone who finished the project submitted a song.  You can listen to it all right now at this link.  It’s all live and stuff.  Well, the broadcast is live, but the music is recorded.

I sure hope they don’t play my song because my song is Lame with a capital Lame.

 

Conference Call Upgrade

I’ve shaken up my work day routine quite a bit over the last week.  I had been working off of two computers, my company desktop and my personal laptop.  The laptop was only used for conference calls because it has a webcam and my desktop doesn’t.

Until now.

242/365

The laptop can now patiently wait for the desktop to return to the office in Waltham so it can start being useful again.  Until then, I’m 100% desktop.

Exciting news, eh?  This little camera has a really wide field of view.  Thankfully Zoom crops the sides off the image.  Later today we’ll find out if Google Meet does the same.

I can see how fascinated you are.  Control yourself, would you?  Sheesh!

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 26

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 26

or

How out of shape can one fat asshole be?

I have been challenged.  A friend today challenged me to try to do push ups every hour on the hour during the work day.  Actually, the discussion started with him asking if I can do A push up.  My answer was a derisive laugh and an emphatic no.  So the challenge, to start with at least, is more like try to do one push up every hour on the hour during the work day.

This discussion started a little before noon.  Fuck it, I thought, I am going to do it.  At noon I got down on the floor, got into the “up” push up position, started to lower myself toward the floor and… splat.  Right on my dumb face.

A few minutes ago I tried again for 1:00 and managed sort of like half a push up.  I lowered myself a little, but not all the way to the floor.  I’ll take that as a win.

I had mentioned that we’ve tried to go for walks around the block.  We haven’t been able to do that consistently, so exercise opportunities for me have been few and far between.  After two failed attempts at push ups over a little more than 60 minutes has me feeling like I ran a marathon.  Ouch.

45 minutes to go until the next try.

Challenge accepted, even though it’s likely going to destroy me.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 25

My hair.  Just… my hair.

I probably wrote about this already, but it is a seemingly never ending source of crazy.  When all of this crap started I was already needing a haircut.  Now we’re into week seven and oh my crap this is insufferable.

As it was starting to cover my eyes I joked with my wife saying that I would cut it myself once it was long enough for me to accidentally inhale it up my nose.  It’s still not there, but it’s long enough that it is starting to reach the tip of my nose.  Given how lightning fast my hair grows, I expect it to be up my nose by week’s end.

I have two Facebook friends who own hair salons.  One of them warned that they can’t fix your hair if it’s not there.  Don’t cut it off, she said.  That was three (I think) weeks ago though.  How much longer am I supposed to hold out?

I am willing to bet a fair sum of money that youtube contains a plethora of videos that will instruct viewers on how to cut their own hair.  Failing that, I am guessing amazon has a fair share of affordable clippers that would at the very least get the hair out of my eyes.

Hair, man.  Hair.

Desk Craziness

Forgive me, but I am going to reuse a picture I posted yesterday.

Working from home has caused some desk setup questions that I didn’t want to deal with, but I think I finally have.

Prior to social distance I had two laptops on my desk in our home office.  I used my MacBook Pro along with a second monitor for all but the eight hours I was telecommuting on Thursdays.  While telecommuting, I switched to a second laptop, running Windows 10.  I used the same second monitor.  I have a 3-1 adapter that has a USB 2.0, HDMI, and USB C input into a single USB C plug.  I had my USB dock, my monitor, and my power all running into it.  When I switched from Mac to Windows I’d just pull the adapter out of one machine and plug it into the other.  Done.

Once the lockdown started I brought my work PC home from Waltham and used that instead of the Windows laptop.  I couldn’t use the same monitor cable for both machines, and the desktop doesn’t have a USB C port, so I was pulling plugs in and out twice a day.

On top of that, Jen and I are both working from home, both in the same room, and both having to join meetings at the same time.  To deal with this I moved my Windows laptop to our bedroom and jokingly called it the conference room.  At first I was using a dinner tray table as a desk, then I setup one of Jen’s old desks instead, and then Jen brought a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse out and turned the spot into an actual work station.

Yesterday Jen and I both had meetings scheduled for the better part of the day so I bit the bullet and moved my Waltham desktop into the bedroom and spent the whole day in there.  I was planning to move it back to the office this weekend, but instead I talked it over with Jen and we decided to keep a Windows desk in the bedroom and an Apple desk in the office.

Now I am a two desk crazy person.  Certifiably.

237/365

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The minute the lock down ends, my Waltham machine goes back to Waltham and I move all my stuff back to the office. This is temporary.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 23

Ever since I started using the CPAP machine and wearing my Apple Watch to sleep, the first thing I do in the morning is check the SleepWatch app on my iPhone to check out my numbers.

This morning when I woke up I took my phone off the swanky charger thingie… inductive?  enducive?  What ever the hell they call it.  I opened up the SleepWatch app and…

Their servers are down.

I can’t see my numbers.

That was 3.5 hours ago and it’s still down.

But… but… but… what am I going to do without my numbers?  How am I going to get through the day?  Are the SleepWatch staff even still working through the lock down?

I NEED MY NUMBERS!  The CPAP app gave me a 98.  It ran for seven hours so I got full marks there, but I took the mask off too many times and lost two points.  98 is pretty sweet.  It doesn’t tell me how my heart rate dipped though.  It doesn’t give me sleep time vs restful sleep time.

I NEED MY NUMBERS!

Leave the House?

I had to leave the house today.  Not only that, I had to actually go somewhere.  Specifically, I had to go to a store.  It’s been five weeks since I interacted in the same physical space with someone other than my wife and two step kids.

My parents needed something from Home Depot.  I ordered it online and picked it up for them and dropped it off on their front steps.  I used Home Depot’s curbside pickup.  They brought the item out to the car and dropped it off in the parking spot next to mine.  When they walked away I picked it up and put it in the car.

Terrifying.

I exaggerate, but only a little.  I had a mask and gloves on.  My wife made the mask out of a bandanna and some elastics.  It worked great.  When I got home I put my clothes, including the mask, in the wash and took a shower.  Paranoid?  Yup.  Do I care?  Nope.

My father wanted to install the item I dropped off.  I didn’t think his back would let him.  I thought I would do it, but I talked to my brother about it and out of respect to the diabetic in my house who is at high risk from COVID-19 I asked him if there was any chance that he could handle the install.  He did.  I thank him so very much.  My brother John is awesome.  You should all send him some happy thoughts from me.

So I had gone about five weeks without interacting with anyone outside the house.  Now, officially, my clock is reset to zero and I’m going to be looking for COVID-19 symptoms even more than I already was for at least the next two weeks.

Yippee.

Thank you, John.

Screw you, COVID-19.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 22

We expanded our instacart experiment today by placing an order at BJ’s. Double entendre aside, the order consisted mainly of dry goods.  Garbage bags, kitty litter, stuff like that.  I selfishly and frivolously included a request for some wild bird seed.  Jen found one option on the website and we ran with it.

Had I noticed that it was actually a FORTY (40!!) POUND BAG I probably would have thought better of it.  As it is, now I have both bird feeders full, and enough left over to refill them probably three more times each.

Come on birds, the dinner bell is ringing!

In closing, here’s a picture of my cat…

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