Tag: working from home

The Stir Crazy Files – Episode 2 (Preempted)

I had a second episode of The Stir Crazy Files all lined up and ready to go and then something came along to negate the need for it.

Yesterday my love came up with a plan to take a tiny little bite out of the cabin fever and also fight against the lack of exercise we are bound to suffer from during our social distancing.

She asked me if I wanted to take a walk around the block.  I said sure and off we went.  It only took about 15 minutes or so and it just felt great.  I mean, the exercise was just exercise, you know?  But actually spending a few minutes outside of the confines of our house just really hit the spot.

Normally I would be 100% in favor of not going outside for any reason, but now that The Man is telling us to stay in it just felt so good breathe fresh air.  We both felt invigorated and we agreed we’d do the same thing every lunch time until The Man sets us free.  Weather permitting, of course.

Can you see where this is going now?

When we woke up this morning it was pouring rain.  When we started working it was pouring rain.  When I looked outside after my morning meeting it was pouring rain.

Damn it.

When 1:00 came I didn’t even bother looking outside, I just went to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich.

Then… a minor miracle.

Jen had a meeting end around 1:00.  As I was sitting down to eat my sandwich she asked if I wanted to go for a walk.  But… but.. I thought.  Then I looked outside and wonder of wonders the rain had stopped!  It was still cold as ass, but at least it wasn’t raining!  We went outside and went for a walk.  Oh happiness!

So instead of writing a post about feeling stir crazy again, I get to write a post about not feeling stir crazy again.

Sweet.

Now go and wash your damn hands.

Still Not Real

I listen to a lot of podcasts.  I use the podcast app on my iPhone to queue up a whole slew of episodes and I just let it play.  I play it in the car, I play it while I work, I play it while I’m cooking dinner, and so on and so on.

When I work from home I don’t use my iPhone.  If a podcast is playing and my phone rings, the podcast keeps playing in my ear while I’m trying to listen to the person on the other end of the call.  Tres annoying.  When I work from home I either use my MacBook, or my iPad, or my iPod Touch… yes, I am King Apple Fanboy the First.  After the work day ends I go in and edit my running podcast playlist on my phone so that it doesn’t try to play a podcast I’ve already listened to.

On Monday, the first day of social distance telecommuting, I didn’t listen to anything.  On Tuesday I did.  Just a couple of episodes (The Walking Deadcast and Grumpy Old Geeks) before shutting it down.  I used my iPad.

Here’s the sad part of the story….

After I punched out for the day I picked up my iPhone so I could update the queue for the next day’s commute.

Meaning, I was setting it up for this morning’s drive to work.

You see the problem?  There is no drive to work.

At my core I have still not accepted the changes our society requires from us.  In my heart of hearts, yesterday was just another day.  Yesterday was not a lock down to try and slow the spread of a virus that is going to fuck up our health care system and overrun our hospitals.  The company I work for sells software to hospitals.  The division I work in within the company supports new customers as they implement our software.  Even before most of the tech companies around here started talking about keeping their full staff at home I was hearing that some of our customers, hospitals, were telling our training staff to stay away from them.  They were implying that their lives were about to get really difficult and they didn’t expect to have time or energy to deal with anything other than their own patients.

This is real.  Don’t you doubt it.  Still… my tiny little wisp of a brain isn’t evolved enough to take that information into itself and impose a new, albeit temporary, reality onto the old reality.

Crud.  This sucks.

Wash your damn hands and stay home.

A Study in Nerdom

Today is going to be a text book study in nerdom.  Thursday is my (somewhat) regular telecommuting day now.  Also, my step son has a recorder concert at school at some ungodly hour like 9:30 or something.  My wife is taking a little time off to go see it.  I’m not so lucky in that regard.  After the concert, she is going to telecommute too.

Both of us will be working from home at the same time.  How nerdy cute is that?  She’ll be at her desk in the living room.  I’ll be on my laptop on the dining room table.  Two nerds in love, working away next to each other.  Isn’t that precious?

I hope she doesn’t get mad when I start yelling at my screen.