Author: wvfurandroot

COVID-19 Day 6: In such a rush that….

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I’m discovering that I’m not cut out to work from home.  Since most of my officemates are working from home, I feel like I can safely go to my office (I have a private one) and spray Lysol everywhere and be OK.  Those of us working — 6 or so, — are keeping our distance and practicing safe socialization.

We’ll see how this goes.  For how long.

But this morning, I was excited at the idea of being around folks.  I was in such a hurry that I left without my work materials and had to return home to get them.  When I did finally get to the office, I promptly locked my work materials, purse, keys, and phone in the car.  A $100 later, Glenn, the friendly neighborhood locksmith, freed me.   That was a $100 I really didn’t have.  Hoo boy.  On top of all the groceries I bought, it’s going to be a lean two weeks.

Anyway.

It’s been a day.  But it was good to have one that was at least a little normal.

Not that it was all that normal.  My book club did, after all, meet via Zoom.  We are taking this social distancing thing seriously.  We have loved ones we are protecting.

My hands are chapped from washing, I’m taking my lunch as are my lunch partners, and the office has tumbleweeds blowing around, but it’s more normal than trying to work from here.  As long as I think it’s safe, I think this is my plan.

Happy sequestration folks!

COVID-19: Day 4

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Today, I scored toilet paper and West Virginia finally confirmed its first case of COVID-19.

Yes, I ventured out to the Kroger again.  I needed some things and rumor had it that the store had been restocked.  Besides TP, there was an urgent need for critter food, bleach, and cherry pie.  Plus a $100 worth of other stuff.  My larder is stocked.  All I’m missing now is hamburger which I may or may not pursue.

I worked from home today.  It was a weird workday.  I started at roughly 7 a.m. instead of my usual 9:30 a.m.  I roared through email (there isn’t much at 7 a.m., but more than you would think) and then did the dishes so as to clear the kitchen table.  I moved the laptop to the table and spread out my work materials.  It was time to descend into the bowels of my organization’s webpage.  I always get a bit nervous when tweaking the webpage.  It’s a wonderful webpage, professionally designed, and it’s beyond my skill level to maintain.  Every change provokes prayer.

At 11 or so, I started ruffling around for something to eat.   The first snack of many.  I called my boss to see if she missed me.  (She didn’t.)  I spoke with a co-worker.  Called my mother.  Worked on some photo editing.  Rinse and repeat.  That was my day prior to the Kroger.

I ventured out at 4 pm.  I was surprised, but not really, by the number of people out and about.  The Kroger looked like a war zone.  I noticed the absence of background music.  There is no soundtrack to the apocalypse.

Post-Kroger, I have a kitchen full of work materials and groceries.  I have too much food for my available storage.  I generally do my shopping for at most a week ahead of time and usually not even that.  Then there’s the fact that I have enough for three meals a day instead of the usual one and a half.  There’s food everywhere.  Three (3!) pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream almost didn’t fit into the freezer.

I need to find a rhythm to this new life.  Right now, I still feel as if I’m waiting for the shoe to drop.  I thought that feeling would occur when they finally diagnosed a case here.  But, well, nope.  There’s still free-floating anxiety.  Oh, and cherry pie.

COVID-19 Day 3 of Exile

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So, I went to work this morning where I learned that I will be working from home as tasks allow.  As of right now, I’ve got 2 to 3 days of stuff I can easily do from here.

I like working for an enlightened, family-friendly organization.  While I’m not particularly worried about me getting COVID-19, I am very worried about my mother contracting it.  I would never have forgiven myself if I was the person to infect her.

So here I am fixing to fix up the home office so I can wander deep into the organization’s web page which is about 6″ above my skill level.  I’m a little intimidated. But it’s good to have something to preoccupy me so perhaps I can lay off the food.  Really.  The eating is out of control.

During my misspent youth, I could not eat if I was the least bit stressed.  As I’ve aged, I’ve become a stress eater.  From the looks of me, one would figure I’m pretty stressed.  Anyway,

Day 3.  We can do this.