March 13, 2020 was the last time I was in the office.
Until today.
A month or so ago my company announced that the building my desk lives in was being sold. Another company made an offer we couldn’t refuse. We needed to clear out all of our stuff. They put together a schedule for all of us to go in and do our thing. My turn came today.
I drove to Waltham, took my temperature, double masked, and went for it. It was exceedingly uncomfortable.
Want to hear something super scary that’s happening tomorrow?
I have to go into the office. It will only be a short visit but the fact that it’s happening at all is scaring the shite out of me.
I’ll probably live blog it in a vain attempt to keep the scary at bay. We will see.
You know, as crazy stressful, super hectic, long and torturous work days where you bang your head against the wall all day without actually accomplishing anything go…
Today was one.
Sure glad that’s over.
Today was a long day. Just busy from start to finish. I didn’t have a chance to stop for dinner until around 8:00. I was able to talk to my father at the rehab place for a couple of minutes but my mother’s phone kept going straight to the answering machine. It’s a landline and sometimes when you press the button to hang up it doesn’t actually close the line. That’s probably what happened.
Tomorrow is likely to be another long day. I hope it goes smoother though.
We found out this week that the building my group works in is likely to be sold. I guess someone approached us out of the blue with an offer too good to refuse. They asked us to go in and clean out our desks. They set up a schedule so there will never be more than five people in at a time. I signed up for the last day on the sheet, April 9, 2021. The last time I saw my desk was March 13, 2020. what a fucked up world, eh?
I’m so tired of it all.
It’s Monday. The first day of a new week. Yippee. The 52nd week of Covid shut down. Last week had a nasty work issue. This week is likely going to have another. Still, I have made a decision.
I have decided that this week is going to be better. Granted, every week since late January has been pretty crappy, but this week is going to be better.
The bed is made, the dishes are done (except for the caste iron skillet, I have to do that again), the cat is fed, I’m 3/4 of the way through last night’s Walking Dead (Dog, the early years), Harry just found a playlist with the theme songs from all of the episodes of WandaVision. Today is International Women’s Day and my wife and my step daughter are shining examples of intelligent, strong, powerful women who deserve to be celebrated every day of the year not just today, but given the situation I will celebrate them like crazy today.
This week is going to be better. New week, new attitude.
Granted, it’ll probably go to shit as soon as I punch into work, or try to scoop the kitty litter, or something. For now though… This will be a good week.
Two random, unrelated things that just happened inside my deficient little (tiny, actually) brain.
Until next time, folks! (queue the walk off music)
Today is the magical day.
Back story: I’ve been working from home for over 11 months now and there hasn’t been a single instant, not even a nanosecond, when I’ve missed commuting. Not one. I do not miss cramming my fat ass into a metal box for 80 minutes or so, working 8.5 hours, and then getting back into the metal box for another 80 minutes. I don’t miss it even one tiny little bit.
However… When I was commuting there was one day of each year that was sort of magical. It was sort of a light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel of which I speak is winter. It does not involve a groundhog or anything like that, it only involves the sun.
My shift ends at 5:30 PM. That’s 1730 for you military time folks. During the winter, when I left the building to go home it was dark. During the summer it’s light. You know how the sun works and seasons and all of that, right? You know what I’m talking about.
The one special, magic day each year was the first day when the sun set at the same time my shift ended. 5:30 PM. The sun would, of course, be down by the time I actually go out the door, but that’s not the point. The point is from that day forward, the days were not only getting longer but I could actually perceive them getting longer. Does that make sense? Sunset at 4:30 or 5:00 didn’t affect me at all because I was inside the whole time and I didn’t actually get to experience the extra minute or so of light each day. Once the sun started setting after 5:30, I did get to experience the extra light.
So every year I would check the times of the sunset and quietly celebrate the symbolic moment when the sunset started happening after my work day.
Today is that day. It’s Friday February 25, 2021 and the sunset in Methuen, MA today will happen at 5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Happy 5:30 day, everyone. Enjoy.
I knew today was going to be stressful. Lots of meetings, lots of important imminent deadline kind of things. Work was going to be busy. Then last night the hospital asked to have a call with all of us at some point today to review the next steps for my father. They will let us know when. So all of my stress-filled plans are in flux so that I can join a call that will likely cause my stress level to increase exponentially.
It’s going to be a rough one today. Next week, when things actually happen at the hospital, is going to be worse but I’ll hurl myself off that stress inducing bridge when I come to it.
Yippee.
I was in my annual review talking about how seamless our transition to remote work was when everything network related failed. What was I saying about seamless transition to working from home? I totally take it back!
Now it looks like Google is down for all of us. WOOHOO
I’m 94 minutes away from a long weekend. There is talk of watching Hot Fuzz tonight. I need this work day to end now. It’s been wacky from the word go. Uncle! That’s me crying uncle for the day. Enough. Here, I’ll do it again, Uncle!
I have a research project to do this weekend. There is talk of a Roomba. Do I want to open the door to the oncoming robot apocalypse in order to keep my floors clean? The answer is probably yes, but it’s expensive.
This is also our last weekend with Bellana before she goes back to school. We must make it a good one, Roomba not withstanding.
WandaVision is out. The list of Marvel Cinematic Universe things I have not seen is now up to one movie and two TV episodes. WandaVision will be covered this weekend. Thor II… someday.
The Boston Bruins are 1-0 on the season. A perfect 56-0 is literally in our grasp. No it isn’t, but statement like this after one game are pretty obligatory.
Trump is still impeached, again. Trump’s term ends in five day.
88 minutes until the weekend. I need a vacation. I need a Covid-19-free vacation.
Inside the Red Head's Head 