COVID-19: Day 23: A Day of Rest

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I have a bottle of Korbel Brut left over from Valentine’s Day in my refrigerator.  I’m going to pop it open when this quarantine is over.  Cheers to us all!

I haven’t exactly been busting my butt during this quarantine, but I gave myself permission to do diddly squat today.  Other than to make French toast and bacon, that’s exactly what I did.

I was a sloth, a slug and a slumberer.  I had 3 naps.  Long naps.  I slept most of the day.  I’m apt to be up all night.  I figured it was inevitable during this quarantine that I would get my days and nights mixed up, so I’m probably right on schedule.

I am still without WiFi.  I’m living through it, but it’s not pretty.  Much like this quarantine, it is completely disrupting the rhythm of my day.  Because the only machine that can reach the outside world is on the 2nd floor of my house and the coffee pot and wine are on the first floor of the house, I am up and down the stairs a gazillion times a day.

The phone has short, very short, periods where it can get a signal long enough to pull in a text message or two.  I am usually unable to answer before the connection is lost.  My friends probably think I'[m not speaking to them.  Alas.  There is nothing I’d rather do.  I love where I live, but not being able to get a cell signal most of the time is aggravating.  And the primary reason I still have a landline.

The landline works.  I tried to call my mom.  It seems her phone was out of order.  Technology is going to both be my savior and my downfall.

Here’s to Day 23.  Cheers!

COVID-19: Day 21: And technology fails me

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The other day, I was trying to have a conversation on my iPhone when the speaker phone kept cutting off.  Now I’ve gotten to be hard of hearing and I need that speaker phone.  No amount of tweaking, tech support, Apple chat, etc. etc. could get it to stop turning itself off after about a minute.

I’ve been lusting after the new iPhone.  That camera!  And, by golly, I was up for an upgrade.  So I did it.  I ordered the latest and greatest phone.  It arrived today and my internet promptly went down.  So I went to the grocery store thinking all would be well upon my return.

An aside:  I did the Kroger Clicklist.  Once again they were out of a lot of the stuff I ordered.  Pinto beans, yeast, potatoes, ham hocks, egg noodles and Spam.  I have a powerful hankering for both beans and cornbread AND scalloped potatoes with Spam.  Evidently, I’m to have neither.  I did stop at the Dollar General and find bow-tie pasta to substitute for the egg noodles.  Tuna casserole is in my near future.  Don’t laugh.  I make a mean tuna casserole!

All was not well upon my return.  I called Frontier.  Blessedly, I got competent folk each of the 4 times I called.  They would do this.  They would do that.  They would do something else and then VOILA my wireless would work for 15 minutes and then go down.  By the 5th time I called, I was getting desperate.  A very nice tech support guy apologized for all the problems and declared I needed a new modem.  I had suggested this on phone call number 1.  Never mind.

So, I am without wireless until Wednesday maybe Thursday.  This means I am tied to this behemoth of a desktop on the second floor of my house in the hottest room during an expected stretch of warm weather.  It also means I can’t set up the new phone as I need wireless to transfer from Phone A to Phone B.  I am not a happy camper.

COVID-19: Day 14: Oh Good Grief

So, it’s been one of those days.

I decided that part of the reason I was so discombobulated was that both my schedule and my routine were completely whacked.  So I set to finishing setting up the home office.  Before today, I was working here and there and had stuff scattered everywhere.  My sleep has been disturbed so I’ve been working at 4 a.m. and 2 a.m. and 7:17 a.m.  All of this had to stop.  So I decided, starting Monday, I will keep regular hours.

So.

I gathered everything together and took it to my home office.  The home office has been neglected for some time.  The first order of business was to clear the desk.  There wasn’t any room to work for all the flotsam and jetsam of my writing life.  Then I had to hook up the big monitor to the tower.  I’m too old to do spreadsheets on a small monitor.  There was a cable compatibility problem.  I had to cannibalize one monitor to get the type of cable I needed.  It’s a good thing I have a closet full of computer equipment.

It’s also a bad thing.  I think that’s where the chipmunk might have been, though I can’t be sure.  The dogs were whining and carrying on so I took down the baby gate that keeps them out of my office.  While I was busy with the cord problem, they were uncharacteristically quiet.

I should have known.

I turned around and almost stepped on a very dead, partly eviscerated chipmunk.

I don’t do dead things well.

After a necessary freak-out period, I went downstairs and got the dustpan to scoop up the poor little thing.  I did.  And then I put it in a garbage bag.  I then went to wash my hands, but, silly me, I left the plastic bag on the floor.  The dogs retrieved the chipmunk.

A chase ensued.

My nerves are shot.  AND THEN I tried to hook up the printer.  I won’t bore you, but it too was a comedy of errors but there was no loss of life involved.

I get the printer hooked up and discover it’s out of ink.  Won’t print.  I desperately need to print.   I fired up the ‘puter and went to my go-to places for ink.  Nobody can guarantee me delivery in a timely manner due to high demand.  Apparently, I am not the only person who has a home printer out of ink.

After searching, I do find ink that might be here Monday.  But might not.  No guarantees due to high demand.

I have a high demand for some relief from this day.  And I’m going to have it.  Right now.

Happy Sequestration!