Tag: social distance

Stranger Danger

Wanna talk about COVID-19 stress? Well… COVID-19 stress that doesn’t actually involve any COVID-19?

Two. Not one, two. Two plumbers in the house. Not even at the same time.

We knew our plumbing needed looking to. It rained in the cellar on Saturday and that’s… what’s the word… bad. So an appointment was made for today to have the kitchen sink and the dishwasher looked at, as well as to see if there was any damage to the floor that we would need to take care of.

Our appointment window was between 8:00 am and noon. The first guy showed up reasonably early but he wasn’t The Plumber, he was the manager. His deal was sewer issues so he was just checking in. Personally, given the global pandemic and the 98,000 deaths in the US alone, I would have done this over the phone. Whatever. He offered to take a look at the floor from the cellar perspective and said he thought it was okay. No structural issues, no health issues. He gave his card in case we want to fix the tiled floor down stairs, and said he’d check on the actual plumber to get an estimate of his arrival.

The actual plumber arrived a little before noon. He thought he knew what our problem was as soon as I started describing it to him. He also looked around down cellar and the more we talked the more he was sure we just had a clog in the pipe somewhere. Okay. Our sink didn’t give easy access to allow him to run a snake so he had to make some adjustments. Once that was all set he was able to snake out the drain and by 1:30 or so it was all over. At least I hope it was. We have a six month guarantee, but I hope we never have to use it.

And all was right with the kitchen again. Except…

Except that I spent some time with two strangers today. We were all wearing masks, and they were wearing gloves. Jen never came near either of them but she was wearing a mask too. They put the paperwork down on the counter, walked away, then I signed with my own pen, walked away, and they picked it up. All sorts of safe stuff like that. My gut instinct was to shake people’s hands, but I absolutely did not. I was able to suppress my lifelong learned behavior. Good boy.

So nothing bad happened, everyone followed the rules, and still I am super nervous. We made sure to do this on a day when Harry and his autoimmune diseases wasn’t in the house. I will continue the paranoia by quarantining myself for two weeks. No hugs for the kids for this guy. Ugh.

Two weeks from today means my self imposed sort of exile ends on June 9th… just in time to start again when the new dishwasher is delivered on June 16th.

Yippee. Can this be over now? Vaccine, please?

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 41

There’s a work crew next door running two leaf blowers, a weed whacker, and a huge riding mower, all at the same time. They are louder than a Lizardfish concert. It’s insane.

It’s also making me want to play a Lizardfish concert.

Stupid quarantine.

May Music Vocals are Done

I thought for a minute about going to a different parking lot this morning. I knew the Tenney Castle park would be closed but I figured I’d take a look. Yup, it was closed.

I finished the vocals for the last two May songs, and as a bonus I finally got around to the one unfinished April song too. Done, done, and done.

There were some people walking laps around The Loop sidewalk. This one dude showed up after me and with the entire movie theater parking lot to chose from he parked in the next row.

Sure, he was nowhere close to me at all but come on bro… There were 30 rows to choose from and all but one was empty, and you chose that one?

More Car Music

I recorded the vocals for three of the remaining five songs today. All in the car, sitting in the movie theater parking lot. Social distancing like a mofo.

That other car… he pulled in after I started and got out. He was just going for a walk but… too close.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 40

The kids just went for a drive. They are going to be gone all afternoon.

They are responsible, they are mature, they are ridiculously smart. I have no doubt that they will be safe and not do anything that will expose them to the ‘rona.

Still.

Color me scared shitless. Can things go back to normal now? Pretty please?

Patio Lunch

We all knew it would happen eventually. Welcome to the first working-from-home-lunch-break-on-the-patio of the quarantine.

I have a conference call in 25 minutes, and I have everything I need in order to join it out here with me. Do I take the call out here or do I go back to my desk?

Probably go back to my desk.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 39: Monkey

I grew up in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.  Tewksbury, MA to us locals.

I just saw a post on BookFayce that is a screen shot of what looks like a reverse 911 text message stating that there is a monkey on the loose in Tewksbury.

A monkey.

Running amok (I assume) in my former town.

I am so fucking jealous I can’t even tell you.  I want a monkey to come to my house now.  Why should Tewksbury get all the monkeys?  Why can’t Methuen get a monkey too?  We get turkeys and deer and groundhogs and foxes and (once, I think) bobcats and (maybe) coyotes and hawks and eagles.  I want monkeys too!

I WANT AN EFFING MONKEY!!!!

The Most Useful Quarantine Tool

A couple of years ago Jen and I took a drive North for no reason other than we like to go on day trip drives and there is a lot of cool stuff to the North.

On this particular drive we ended up near Lake Winnipesaukee. I forget what town we were in but there was this ice cream shoppe and we had to stop in.

They had a little gift shop inside and we bought some silly little trinkets for the kids. I bought a couple of these things:

I got one for me and one for Harry. Why? Because they have names engraved on them, that’s why:

I would have bought one for Bellana too, but that particular first name doesn’t end up on gift shop trinkets that aren’t custom made. Rob and Harry, easy to find. Bellana? Not so much.

Harry lost his. He had it in his backpack when we flew to Florida last summer and TSA tends to frown on bringing knives onto airplanes.

Mine stayed on my bureau. Every once in a while I’d need a knife to cut open a cardboard box or something and I’d take it out and use it, goofily… because it’s a gift shop trinket with my first name on it.

Fast forward a year or so and find us up to our eyeballs in COVID-19 Lock Down. During the last two months the only time I don’t have this little pocket knife on my person is when I’m asleep. We have been surviving off of Amazon and Instacart and every day there are boxes and bags that need to be cut open. This little puppy has been my right hand man. I’ve used it so much that I’ve actually had to sharpen it a couple of times.

So I’d just like to take a minute and sing the praises of this little souvenir shop trinket that has become the most useful tool of the quarantine. Thanks, little Lake Winnipesaukee fake Swiss Army knife! Keep up the good work, my friend.

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 38

I had a Google Hangouts chat on my computer going with Jen.  We were talking about returning a purchase to Best Buy.

I had a text chat on my phone going with Larry.  We were talking about Bellana’s birthday.

I answered Larry’s text chat in Jen’s Hangouts chat even though the two mediums have zero in common.  I typed a text on my keyboard instead of my iPhone…

and I didn’t notice until half an hour after I clicked send.