Tag: quarantine

Week Six

It’s Monday again.  Patriots Day for those of us in Massachusetts.  It should be Marathon Monday in Boston but nope.  We have completed five weeks of our working from home lock down.  Today begins week six.

Sleeping is weird.  I’m doing more laundry than I’ve ever done before.  We’re doing the dishes more often than I’ve ever done before.  We’re still making the bed every day, though the sheets are in the wash today so it’s not made right now.  The trash is going out more often than ever.  The house hasn’t been this clean for this long since we moved in almost 10 years ago.  We haven’t gone anywhere since week one.  We do sometimes leave the house and go for a drive still, though much less often than before, but we just drive around and then go home.  We don’t stop anywhere.

We’re leaning on instacart for groceries and amazon for everything else.  We haven’t used amazon much because we’ve been insanely frugal.  Jen bought a new desk after week one, I bought window screens, she bought a new USB headset, and we’ve both bought bandannas to use for masks.  That’s it.  We haven’t bought books or movies or music or anything, I haven’t bought any guitar gear, she hasn’t bought any computer gear other than things needed directly for work.  We also haven’t been going out to eat at all, which under normal circumstances we do all the time.  We’re somehow managing to save a little money.  Unfortunately, the instacart bills are pretty high so that’s been eating into our available funds.

Last night I jokingly suggested to Jen that we do a Star Wars movie watch and run through them all.  To my shock she agreed.  Then to further my shock I asked her which movie she wanted to start with and she said to start at the beginning.  Episode One?  On purpose?  Amazing!

So how will week six go?  I’m guessing it will go fine, just like weeks one through five.  We just need to make sure the idiot in charge doesn’t ruin the progress we’ve made by letting his cult start going to Starbucks again.  Keep hanging in there.  Keep washing your hands.  Keep doing what socially awkward folks like me have always done and be socially distant.

Solidarity.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 21

Untitled

Has the human race ever produced a tool as useless as the scissors in a Swiss Army style pocket knife?

Seriously, I’ve seen wet noodles* do a better job scissoring things than these scissors scissor things.

 

*I actually haven’t.  I wrote that as more of an exaggerated expression to illustrate my point.  I wasn’t lying to you.  I was using a metaphorical type thingie.  Really.  I promise.

Long Days, Fast Weeks

It’s Friday again.  What is Friday again?

As the lock down gets more and more normal and becomes less and less of a colossal upheaval… well let me rephrase, the colossal upheaval becomes less and less of a 24 hours a day obsession I feel like I can start drawing some conclusions.  Purely personal conclusions, obviously.

The work days feel long.  The work weeks, however, go by really, really fast.  It’s almost as though the clock just stops between 9:00am and 5:30pm.  The rest of the time it’s on overdrive.  I am still getting up and going through my normal morning routine.  I have been ready to start the day by 7:30am every day, which is when I would need to leave the house to get to the office on time.  This morning at around 6:00 I joked to my wife that if this keeps going for long enough I’ll start getting out of bed at 8:59 and punching into work at 9:00.  For now, I’m still ready to go at the usual time.

The 90 minutes or so before work lets me have an actual breakfast, instead of the usual breakfast bar in the car, and I can read the news or watch a TV show or do some chores before I start my day.  Those 90 minutes FLY by though.  If I blink they are gone.  It’s the same with the time after work.  I punch out after 5:30, make dinner with my beautiful wife, and then go to bed.  Not really, but the time flies so fast if feels like that.

As for weekends?  Blink… missed it.

This weekend is a dad weekend for the kids.  They left the house early today because Harry has an online appointment with his diabetes doctor.  It always sucks when they leave for a weekend, but given the current circumstances it sucks extra bad now.  We won’t see them again until Wednesday.  Who knows what the state of the world will be by then?  It sucks mightily.

Want to know what’s worse then all of the terrible stuff that’s already going on?  Yesterday when we woke up it was snowing out.  We didn’t get much, less than an inch, and it had all melted by mid-morning.  If that’s not evil enough, we’re supposed to get more tonight.  The forecast is calling for a couple of inches of heavy wet snow.  You know what, mother nature?  You can just go kiss my enormously fat ass, m’kay?  You can just go eat a big bag of dicks.

I need something to cheer me up.  Where the hell is my cat?

Frustrated

I could call this one a stir crazy but it’s not really funny or silly.  It’s just pissy.  I am feeling really frustrated today.  Everything I try to do fails.  I’m tired and annoyed and just in a bad state of mind today.  Not even the Tewksbury Tweets (!!!!!!!) from last night can cheer me up.  Maybe I’ll just watch a zombie movie and listen to Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut.  Just feed the pissy mood.

At least tomorrow is Friday…. not that that means anything.

Sleep

I had a shitty night’s sleep last night.  I went to bed early but I kept waking up.  My back was sore and I couldn’t get comfortable.  The numbers I got from my watch this morning showed that my sleep was okay but nothing special.  I was really tired when I first got up but I’ve felt a little better as the day rolled on.  I just ate my lunch so I’m feeling sleepy again.

I’ve read that trouble sleeping can be a side effect of all the stress from the social distance.  I’ll buy that, but I don’t think that’s my current problem.  I think I just sometimes have a little back pain.  My stress issue is stress eating but I’m not going to stress over that right now.

Its been warm enough the last couple of days to open a window in the office.  That has felt great.  It’s too cold today though and that’s bumming me out.  We’ve got cold and rain in the forecast for the next few days.  Again, major bumming out.  I needs me some Springtime right now.  I ordered some screens for our bedroom windows.  I can’t wait for a warm, breezy night when we can sleep with the windows open.  It’s going to be bliss.

Nice weather would go a long way toward making the whole COVID-19 thing a little more tolerable, don’t you think?

Maybe it’s Still Not Normal

Just before 9:00AM today I checked to see if my staff had all signed in to work.  One of them hadn’t.  He lives way down South of Boston.  My first thought was, traffic must be bad today.  That was followed immediately by, you idiot.

There was also a second or two this morning as I was getting ready for the day when I thought it was Thursday again.  It’s not.  It’s Wednesday.  I double checked.

So the whole social distance thing is getting more and more normal every day, but we’re still not 100% there yet.  I seem to still have some adjusting to do.

Unrelated: That last post… I proof read it twice before publishing it.  I just read it again a few minutes ago.  There are at least a couple of dumb grammar/usage errors and one I-could-blame-it-on-auto-correct-but-I-typed-it-on-an-actual-Windows-box error.

Moron.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 20

Tuesday morning:

Changed the litter box
Emptied the trash
Took the barrels out to the street
Brought the Poland Springs delivery inside and wiped it all off
Took the barrels in from the street
Took the instacart delivery into the house and wiped it all off and put it all away
Changed the batteries in the electric door lock because Alexa told us to
Just realized there is still an amazon delivery on the back step

Oh yeah, and I’m working too.  All but the door and amazon were before I punched in.

Jen and I share an office.  We’re both working from home and sitting in the same room together.  We both have regular meetings each day.  I have at least one and sometimes as many as four.  She has them pretty much all day long.  It’s tough for both of us to join a conference at the same time, so I created what I now call Conference Room A.

227/365

Also known as the conference call nook.  The little couch thingie is actually Bellana’s.  We bought it so she could take it to school with her but when moving day came she asked if she could leave it here.  I’ve always wanted to have a bedroom couch so I set it up.  When she moves back to school, whenever that might be, she is going to take it with her.  I’ll need to come up with a conference call nook alternative at that point.  For now, the brutally uncomfortable folding couch thingie wins.

The fact that this conference call nook exists is not evidence of stir crazy.  The fact that I wrote a post about it is.  Oh yeah.

One Month

My personal social distance/quarantinish experience began when I left the office at 5:30PM on Friday March 13th.  Today is April 13th.  I’ve been at this for a full month.  I, like most of us, was initially expecting about two weeks.  I think by the time I punched in to work for my first full time working at home day on the 16th we all knew it was going to be longer than we thought.

We still don’t know how long it’s going to go on.  The nazi in the white house wants it all over by May, but he’s a nazi and doesn’t care if you live or die so his opinion is invalid.  The idea here is still to make life easier on those who are trying to save lives.  The president is more concerned with the bank accounts of the 1% than he is with saving lives.  That’s the only thing he’s made clear to the American people through all of this.  Money good, lives irreverent.  Of course the 1/2 of the country who worships him as their false god are falling right into line with his bullshit and that means more people are definitely going to die.

Political Rant Over.

Anyway, it’s one month for me.  It was one month a couple of days ago for my wife.  The exact date is fuzzier for the kids.  One was on spring break when it all started.  The other was in the middle of a somewhat confused response that is still being straightened out.  That’s not a criticism.  The school systems in the United States had to redefine their entire existence overnight.  It’s no wonder it was tough to figure out.  I applaud them all for the progress they’ve made.

So what I’m trying to say is, happy one month quarantinaversary, everyone.  Stay home!

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 19

I ran out of bird seed for the back yard bird feeders three days ago. Every time I look out the window there is a bird sitting on one of the feeders, looking back at me… accusingly. You can almost smell the disappointment.

It Feels Like Quarantine

Today is the first day since this all started where it feels like we’re quarantined, and the introvert in me is kinda pleased.

We’ve spent most of the day just hanging around and doing our own thing.  Harry’s playing Minecraft, Bellana’s doing logic puzzles, Jen’s been tweaking her computer setup, and I’m on my laptop alternating between mixing RPM music (three songs in the can, babie!) and trying to find a new TV show to binge.  There’s Lock and Key, Altered Carbon, You, Brews Brothers, and a rewatch of The Walking Dead.  I also thought about starting Smallville from the beginning, but I just couldn’t do it.  Sadly for originality, TWD is kinda in the lead at the moment.  Oh well.

We had a Zoom with Jen’s folks earlier.  We’re having another one with my siblings and their families.  I thought about making some Tewksbury Tweets today (if you don’t know what they are then you are unworthy and should suffer an eternity of wondering about it) but Jen was working on lunch and I would have been stepping on her toes.  Maybe after dinner I might look into it again.  Probably not.  Not tomorrow either, as Jen is going to cook an Easter dinner for us.  She’s… what’s the word I’m looking for here… starts with an A, I think… Amazing!  Yeah, that’s the word!  She’s amazing!

I still need to take my photo-a-day picture today.  Don’t forget about that, dumb ass.