Tag: social distance

Four Years

Today is March 13, 2024. It’s the fourth anniversary of the world turning upside down.

Four years ago today was a Friday. At 5:30pm, when the work day ended, my staff and I packed up our desks and brought everything home. We were told that for the next couple of weeks we, meaning everyone in the entire company, would be working from home. The goal being to ride out this Covid-19 thing. Social distance, shelter in place, keep everyone healthy so that we don’t overrun the hospitals.

Today is the fourth anniversary of the start of the Covid-19 lockdown. Well, it’s the start of things for me. My wife had already been working from home for two days by that point.

Four years later and Covid-19 is still a thing. So much so that I am going to take a rapid test today to see if my sore throat is a Covid symptom or not. We’re still working from home more than not. Three days home, two days in the office. Nothing is quite back to normal, though it’s reasonably close now. At least we can go out and do stuff now, even if there’s still a chance of getting sick.

We are adjusting, I guess. It’s never going to not be a thing, but at least we’re managing.

Happy fourth Covid-aversary, folks. Celebrate by wearing a mask or something. HoHoCoughCoughCoughHo.

Three Years Today

Three years. Bullshit.

Today is March 13, 2023. On March 13, 2020 we left the office in Waltham at 5:30pm and the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown started. I mean we all had our own individual experience as we did not have a functioning Federal government at the time, we just had a nazi cunt in the White House pretending to run a Federal government. We were all sort of left on our own while more civilized societies worked together. Yeah, I ‘member.

So Jen’s company sent everyone home after work on Wednesday and my company sent us home after work on Friday. The kids both came home around the same time. Bellana was on Spring Break and they just had everyone stay home. Harry was still in high school so his experience was more closely similar to mine. Just one day he was told to stay home and telecommute.

So that’s how it all started. Today? Today the pandemic is still a thing, but our society is more or less ignoring it. Very few of us are still wearing masks. Most of us in the Tech industry are still working from home for the most part, but we’re being pulled back into the office more and more often. My company has us coming in once a week. My fingers are crossed that at some point soon we’ll eliminate that requirement, but that hope is not based on any actual evidence. Jen’s company closed their buildings, but they are still pulling people in to temporary work sites now and then. I don’t know anyone who is still 100% working from home.

In my family, we’re all vaccinated up the wazoo, and every time a booster is made available we jump on it. It hasn’t stopped anyone from contracting Covid-19 but it has drastically reduced the severity for most of us. Jen and I haven’t caught it at all. Three years of precautions have been successful for us. Sure, we’ve over done it and we continue to over do it to some extent, but we’re still Covid-Free.

And that, folks is the long and the short of it. They told us to expect to be working from home for a couple of weeks and it’s turned into three years. It’s not even unusual anymore. It’s not even “the new normal” anymore. It’s just normal now. As Bruce Hornsby and the Range once said, that’s just the way it is.

Happy third quaren-versary, folks. Do something fun at home by yourself to celebrate.

Packed

I’m in the office today. Not my office but another of my company’s buildings that is 35 miles further from home. The first 10-15 miles of the commute was brutal. After that it was just a matter of trying to go fast enough to make up for some of the lost time. I got to the parking lot with a couple of minutes to spare.

Speaking of the parking lot, I have never seen it this full. Even pre-pandemic, I never saw this place packed the way it is. There is a conference here today. We are not going to it, but we are involved in a couple of things that are sort of related to it. I’m the guy hiding in a conference room, sitting as far away from everyone else, and only removing my mask to consume sustenance.

I really want to go home now.

At the Office

I’m at the office, sitting at my desk. Tomorrow I’ll be at the office, but not my building. I’ll spend the day in a conference room.

I have seen two other people on my floor (the third floor, if you’re curious). One is sitting at a desk about 100 yards away. The other is a custodian cleaning a conference room. That’s it. I kept hearing noises and eventually determined that it was a tree branch tapping a window. Kinda creepy, actually. I’m listening to a Walking Dead podcast on headphones to drown it out.

Okay, back to work for me.

2.5 Years

I haven’t written one of these in a while. Today is September 13, 2022. Exactly 2.5 years ago we worked in the office. It was a Friday. The following Monday was the first day the whole company worked from home. That makes today the 2.5 year anniversary of the symbolic end of the pre-pandemic era.

2.5 years. Two and a half trips around the sun. Given that we were expecting it to last a couple of weeks, I would say that our expectations were off by a smidgen. We still have not had a case of Covid-19 in the house. We are still also mostly locked down. Coincidence? I have to go in to the office tomorrow afternoon, and all day on Thursday. Thursday is going to include an event with a pretty huge number of people. I am going to mask up and try to stay away from people. Hopefully that will be enough.

Working from home was something that I was pretty unsure of pre-pandemic. I heard of companies that had their staff 100% remote and I thought that was something that wouldn’t work for me. I had a day or two at home at various times in the past, but full time at home? That wasn’t for me.

Now? Now it’s indispensable. Now it’s a requirement. I have to spend a day and a half in the office this week? Outrageous (not really, I’m just being dramatic)! Working without wearing a t-shirt and sneakers? Blasphemy!

Full time(ish) remote hasn’t been without it’s difficulties though. One of the arms on Jen’s super swanky office chair broke today and now we may have to get another one. I gave her my super swanky office chair (which used to be hers anyway) and I am in a less than super swanky chair that is still perfectly fine. The point is, a new chair is an expense that we wouldn’t have to worry about if we were working in our respective company’s offices. That and, you know, electricity and ISP bills and stuff.

Still… working from home is pretty freakin’ sweet and I want to do it for the rest of my career. One upside of the lockdown, I guess.

Now if we could just get rid of the damn virus. We’ll be getting the Omicron specific vaccine as soon as we can.

Movies

We’re doing it. We’re going to the movies. Thor Love and Thunder. We’re going to mask up and go into a movie theater for the first time since the pandemic started. Sweet Christmas does this feel weird.

Am I nervous? Yes. Both Covid-Nervous and nervous that the movie won’t live up to the hype, but the real focus of this mini-discussion is the Covid-Nervous. I know it will be okay but it’s still stressful.

I did a simulated 5k walk this morning. I actually just finished. I figured if I did that then my legs would be so beat I wouldn’t be able to get up and run away if the theater fills up too much. I am kidding, of course.

Okay. Breakfast then flick. That’s the plan. Yikes!

Covid Test

I’m at a walk in clinic for my pre-surgery Covid test.

At least I thought it was going to be a walk in clinic. This place is huge, and there are 17 people in the waiting room. There are only 22 seats, so social distance is a fucking joke here.

Oh good, person number 18 just walked in.

Public

We dipped our toes into a non-locked down world. We went to a store. Not just any store but the biggest, roomiest, most social distance friendly store there is. We also went when we knew it would be as close to dead as it gets.

Still…

We went to IKEA.

Dig our crazy daring-do.

Two Years

Two years ago today I finished up my work day and put my work-issued desktop computer (it was a little tiny guy) into my backpack and drove home to begin the new experience known as the Covid-19 Lock Down.

Friday March 13, 2020. A day that (for me at least) will live in infamy.

Things are getting back to normal. Much too quickly for my taste, but they are. I’m taking Harry back to school today. Two years ago it would have been the other way around. We had people in the house this week. Two years ago that would have been unheard of. We went into two stores over the last week. Two years ago we were trying to find ways to stop needing to go into stores.

The Covid-19 numbers are still way too high for my taste but they seem to be coming down, or at least leveling off. The word on the street is there is a new strain of Omicron coming. Hopefully not.

I don’t want to have to keep doing this for another year, but when am I going to feel comfortable going back to pre-lock down lifestyle? I don’t know… maybe never. How bad does that suck?

Happy suck-aversary.