Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything here.  I’m not running but I am walking nearly every day.  I’m not lifting weights but I do still ride my bike and now I row since I got a rower for Valentine’s day!  I do need to use that more often than I have been.

So this is week 5 of the Covid-19 quarantine aka Corona Virus quarantine.  Everyone that is non-essential has been told to stay home.  I will say that the list of “essential business'” does seem strange in part.  My local bait shop is considered essential?  I mean really?  It’s not a wholesale distributor selling to commercial fishermen who supply grocery stores with fish.  they are a tiny little shop but I understand they probably just need to stay afloat.  I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same if it were my bread and butter on the line.  At the moment May 4th is the date set to return to normalcy.  I’m not so sure that is a good idea since we are in the height of the pandemic with many new cases still surfacing and many still dying from this virus.  Thus far here is where we stand locally and in the world with cases -recovered – deaths.

It’s a very scary virus but not so much so that we should all be panic-stricken.  There are panicked stricken people out there.  They are wearing masks in their own cars for goodness sake!  All we need to do is pay attention and do the right healthy things.

• don’t touch your face in public
• wash your hands when you get home from being out near other people or touching shopping carts etc
• stay 6 feet away from people.
• If you’re elderly or sick or you have an infant, you should be extra cautious about being in public or visiting with people because these groups are more susceptible to contracting the virus.

This is real life and something to be taken quite seriously which is why we are all home right now.  I’ve been home for 5 weeks now working on my kitchen table and occupying 95% of it so mostly my family has to eat dinner in the living room or their bedrooms.  This is not bad because we do that anyway honestly but normally they have the OPTION of sitting at the table IF they wanted to.  Not now!  I have my entire set up here including triple monitors, stand up desk, phone, headset, filing rack and catalog rack for the important stuff should I need it.

There are many upsides to working from home (WFH) like I don’t have to wear shoes all day and I wear jeans every day with a sweatshirt.  Something I would never wear to the office.  I am also 6 feet away from the fridge if I’m hungry, I have a heater next to me to keep me warm, I can see out my living room windows and I can easily take a 3-mile walk at lunch.  I’m rarely late for work now that I have a zero minute commute, I’m saving money because I’m not shopping at lunch or buying lunch.  The bathroom is never occupied when I need it and I can do laundry while I work.  I’m also getting so much more done because I’m not having sidebar conversations with everyone and it’s quiet here.  I also have everyone home every night for dinner barring when my son and daughter are working.  I am able to start dinner so we eat at a normal time too.  If I need to look something up for work at some late hour I also just need to walk 25 steps to the kitchen and BOOM! it’s at my fingertips.  I’ve also learned how to Zoom and use Slack to communicate with my teams so I’ve learned new skills as a result of staying home.  So many bonuses to being at home working.

The downsides to WFH are that I never leave work.  I’m always at work so my scenery never changes. I’m with my family all the time.  Now, this for me is really a plus but there are times when they forget that mom being in the kitchen is really Mom at work.  I have a red button to tell them when I’m on the phone which has worked wonderfully for all of us.  Rather ingenious I think and yes I’m patting my back on that one!  Other downsides are looking at the dishes pile up during the day.  We all have things to do and the kids do help me with stuff around the house but during the times when I can’t do dishes and they can’t do dishes, it bugs me to no end to watch them sit there.  I’m also not moving around like I was.  Well, actually I’m moving more because I walk 3 miles a day but I don’t move around from 8-5 like I was.  I guess it’s actually a positive because my steps per day went from 5-7K a day when I was working in the office somewhere between 17-21K per day.  No weight change however which is a bummer.  The biggest downer to being at home is missing my friends and having contact with people at work.  It’s easy to get isolated and to feel sad.

I don’t know what the future will bring and what my employer will do when the time comes to open the offices back up.  Maybe they’ll offer WFH as an option or maybe not.  I’m fortunate to have a job and work for a company that didn’t miss a beat when switching from a brick and mortar company to a mostly WFH workforce.  They were prepared for the change and led us into the unknown with great leadership and guidance.  Not everyone will be or was so fortunate.  Not everyone will go back to work and not every company will open their doors again.

The world is changing and some things are for the good.  Look at Los Angeles for example.  Here’s a before and after picture of the city.  Smogless because people are not driving around and companies are not polluting the air.  Bodies of water are cleaner because boats are not stirring up silt and debris and polluting the water.  The world over we find people and companies coming together to help one another.  That alone amazes me the most.  In a time of trouble people are being kinder to one another and companies are doing generous things to help us all get through this.  Major manufacturing plants have purchased the equipment to make masks for the healthcare workers that don’t have them.  Restaurants that cannot open for sit down dining are offering free delivery to your door.  Just some amazing things that give you just a glimmer of hope that we as a people of God can really do the right thing when we want to.