Less Hustle More Coffee

Well the Day 1 of working at home, and being quarantined went well. It was a true work day, George and I in our separate office “suites”. I fixed us boiled eggs in the egg steamer for breakfast. Steamed up an extra one to put in the tuna fish in a day or two for lunch. Will have to go slow though having eggs for breakfast as they are hard to find and we want to make bread. He fixed cinnamon toast to use up some old bread, mid morning. We had left over beef stew from the night before, for a mid day meal. And I fixed spaghetti for dinner. We might have had a Little Debbie’s oatmeal cookie for an after dinner delight. We watched Downsized, about becoming little bitty people. It was ok.

So what did we do with our commute time? We walked in the neighborhood at 4:30 when I closed up shop. Almost everyone walked off and on all day yesterday. I could see people walking, keeping their six feet (except for some younger ones that gathered together to talk). We were able to have time to pick up after ourselves. George enjoyed a phone conversation with a friend. I was able to get an extra load of laundry in and of course the dogs are happy as they don’t have to cross their legs with several pee times and got to go “sniff” around the neighborhood. Maisy has been trained to walk and keep up with you. She stays at my heels most of the time. Roger on the other hand has George trained to sniff every mail box. Well, to clear that thought, Roger sniffs, George has to wait til Roger is through. One mail box he sniffed for about 5 minutes. lol. I had to go on. And after Roger and Maisy and George went in the house, I walked around again so I could actually get a pace going. I was worried that Roger and his little legs would not make it around the block, but he did. He was tired out the rest of the evening though. And I bet he’s sore today. And cocktail hour was after our walk and while I cooked dinner – can’t forget that glass of wine as a treat for a first day home. It was a pleasant day but a productive one. We are starting out with 8 a.m. conf calls to work through issues every day and probably so execs can make sure everyone is out of bed and focused. lol.

Even though we are on shut down, sort of, and the mayor says DO NOT go into work if you are in a non-essential business classification as defined by the order, I may still have to go in and do payroll and/or go in and sign checks. I would really like to be truly quarantined for the period of time we are supposed to be, but it doesn’t look like that will happen fully. It is easier to do payroll from the office and would be done in half the time. Technically since I do *some* things for our Transport company during the week, it would not be a lie to say that I could be there for a certain percent of the time. I do their withholding taxes and pull reports from their payroll and do the unemployment taxes. So I could get away with doing payroll there I think. I am happy though to be self isolated as much as possible. I think pretty much all of us though that are salaried will be in and out of the office at times during the week to get critical things taken care of, mainly from financial aspects to keep things rolling from a money flow while we are down. Was kinda surprised but I guess that is the way it will be. While the mayor thinks it is non essential, it is to many. What is essential however, is that none of us get this thing, have complications and die and many of us are either near or over 60 so……… Every time we get out we play roulette. I’m done with the grocery and done with Public places unless we just have an emergency and it’s critical to go. Same way with work – I don’t want to be around anyone unless I just have to.

I didn’t cough as much yesterday and as far as I know did not have any fever. I didn’t take my temp, but I had energy and wasn’t tired. Getting a couple nights of good sleep did wonders for that. Since we have been given the order to stay home, my nerves have calmed and sleep has been tremendous. Although now I’m realizing we may still have to go in some, as mentioned above – it’s still reducing the chances. I just have to remember to sanitize every time I use a surface or hit a button or grab a door handle. I am not willing though to go into UPS or post office or any of those places or even the grocery now where much of the community has been. The risk is getting higher every day. I am now 8 days away from having been in two major airports. Kinda looking forward to next Sunday as that marks day 14. And hopefully that makes my risk factor go down. But we have been to Walmart, Publix, and Aldi in prep for this supposed two week or longer shut in, knowing it was probably coming.

I realize that two weeks is not going to get it. We are not going to be around the curve, so in my “uneducated about viruses” opinion is that this will get better by May as the temps rise, for the Southern states. New York City has 13,000 cases – it’s really going to be bad there as this thing doubles every few days. George says our city is now under a state of emergency which is probably so they can get funding. We have some cases here now. I just feel like we’ll be off longer than 2 weeks, or back and forth to control the curve. I’m fine to keep it flat. Less loss of lives, although business will be hurt. Take your pick.

It made me sad that when George’s friend called, he said after the call, “sorry to interrupt our movie to answer the phone but I felt like I needed to talk to _____ (said friend) because we are all getting older and you never know when it will be the last time you will get to talk to them again, if we die – from this virus – or whatever reason.

It is true. After this is over, sadly, there will be a lot fewer of us, according to the numbers. And when you are in 60 and up it’s not as pleasant of a situation. And I’m only 3 years from that number. And none of us know we are carrying it or not, the virus. I wish more would take it seriously. But I have a feeling in a few weeks, they will. And I really don’t think that 2 weeks shut down is going to be all there will be.

But, anyway, this is all so crazy.

So we are supposed to have some severe storms rolling through today. Two rounds. One comes through this morning and the other in the afternoon. Low possibility of tornadoes but yet it does exist to be a threat. At least we have a basement. And I don’t have to get out today!

Alright, it’s 6:30 and I think I may get a head start on work and then quit earlier in the day. The sun is about to come up! Let’s get this Quarantine Day 2 work party under control. My company payroll mascot says hello. She slept with her head under the bed (tail out) most of the day but toward afternoon she climbed on the bed and watched me and watched the birds and squirrels out the window.