So we have been under stay at home orders for one week now. I personally have not been to the office since March 13th. For those of you just starting this process let me give you a heads up on what to expect....
Alarm no longer goes off at 4:30 AM to wake up, make coffee, shower, dress, and be ready to go before waking kids at 6. No longer wake kids at 6, no longer make 3 breakfasts and lunches, check back packs and out the door by 6:45. No longer spend 45mins to 1 hour in traffic driving to the office. I no longer spend 10-15 dollars a day on lunch. I no longer race through the day in an attempt to leave the office by 4:30 to only spend 1.5 hours sitting in rush hour traffic to drive 30 miles, just in time to get home and help finish up dinner preps, followed by homework, showers, bed time routines and and rush to swallow a few beers while watching the evening news and crash by 11 only to rest and repeat.
The new revised schedule...Wake at 6:30 to the pleasant sounds of birds chirping. Slowing stroll down to make coffee. Go run 1.5 miles around the neighborhood. Sit on couch and watch morning news while enjoying at least two cups of coffee. Fry an egg, maybe toast. Wake up wife and then go shower. Log onto computer around 7:30, check email. Wake kids and get them going with breakfast and go over their daily school lessons on google classrooms. Return to home office and?ÿ work solid until 10. Check in on kids. Work til 12. Eat lunch at home with the entire family. Discuss homework problems. Put youngest one down for a nap at 1, then back to work. Work until 4:30, then computer off. Zero Commute. Back yard activities with the kiddos til about 6 or so. Then dinner with the family followed by an evening bike ride or walk. Showers for the kids, followed with a little TV, Xbox time. Bedtime for kids at 9'ish. Then quiet time with SWMBO to catch up on her day, maybe RPLS site visit, etc. Bed by 10:30'ish.
It's really not that bad, and honestly I think we could all benefit from the slower pace and limited distractions. What am I missing out on??ÿ
That??s the best way dealing with it.
stay positive!
It sounds like it's been a blessing for you to be home with the wife and kids. Less stress, more family time. Something we could all benefit from. ?????ÿ
Wendell has been home for over a week now. His kitten is over the moon that his daddy is home! Lays in his lap for hours. I keep calling it pathetic. But...I am so glad this kitten has brought us so much joy and love. ????
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It's official: I'm bored out of my mind.?ÿ?ÿ
That's why hobbies were invented. Get several chunks of wood and a sharp knife. Make yourself a fancy chess set.
Practice dressing your cat like a young beauty queen.
Clean out all of your closets. It will be Winter before you know it.
Invent memes to put online for the rest of us simple people to attempt to guess the message.
Yesterday I tore apart a 104 year old gas lantern (like a Coleman) and serviced, cleaned, and polished it. I need to have a critical part made for it to run and am working with a fellow collector/machinist on that. I have dozens more that I can work on and get running without ever leaving my property.
Still, I do have a bit of cabin fever. I haven't been more than 5 miles from home in almost 2 weeks. Wednesday afternoon I have to drive about 25 miles to get the remaining portion of a skin cancer growth removed from my leg and I am looking forward to it. Yep, that's cabin fever, for sure!!!
It's like Sunday morning, every day, and I get to go to work, upstairs. My actual Sunday mornings will not be the same for some time to come.?ÿ
Instead of getting up at 5am, it's now 6:15-6:30am. No traffic in the morning. Shower and get dressed (shorts and t-shirt). Eat some breakfast and logon to the computer which is right across the table from my wife and her computer.
Check email as well as the news and socials.?ÿ
It's a steady day of support tickets, responding to emails and letting the dog out the back door.?ÿ
Breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. Maybe some Xbox in the evening. I have a workbench that I enjoy adding onto or changing to help organize our garage even further.
Always thought I wouldn't enjoy working from home, let alone being productive but it's going to be difficult going back to the former way of doing things.
Yesterday I started the car and let it run a few minutes in the driveway, because it had been 6 days since the previous time.?ÿ
I walk to the post office, about 2 miles round trip, every time I have a payment to mail, or sometimes just around several blocks for the exercise.?ÿ Just got back from a trip in glorious sunshine and 60F (15.5 C). It helps the mood.?ÿ
I've found it difficult to settle into a project, but have greatly thinned my backlog of magazines, etc. as well as filing a lot of stuff. Several heavy wastebasket loads have gone into the recycle bin.
@squirl I hear you...I have a feeling that after 8-12 weeks of working from home it will be hard to go back, hard for millions of folks. I also assume that if successful, many companies will drop the "office space" model and look at more flexible and distant approaches. And I honestly think that there really is no need to have big offices - why pay all that rent?
The only payments I have mailed anyone in the past several years are for my car tags. They can be paid online but with $5 service charges for each one. Mailing them in one envelope only costs one stamp.
Last week I got up at the usual time (0405), more time for coffee and breakfast. In the "office" before 6am. Catered lunch, tea in the afternoon, I have a window. Quitting time (1600) rolls around and I'm already home, the best part. We have to do a weekly telework agreement so I figure they're going to pull the rug out eventually.
I watched "The Giant Spider Invasion" (1975) on Youtube today, I think that I'm already beyond hope!
😕
Here's a dandy that might interest you. Frogs, snakes, lizards, scorpions, birds, spiders and even a turtle eliminate humans before this film ends. The film had a scene where butterflies were the cause of death but it was cut prior to the film release.
Here's a dandy that might interest you.?ÿ Frogs, snakes, lizards, scorpions, birds, spiders and even a turtle eliminate humans before this film ends.?ÿ The film had a scene where butterflies were the cause of death but it was cut prior to the film release.
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I watched that about 15 years ago, and it was half over BEFORE I figured out that Sam Elliot was the guy with the voice I recognized!
Fact number one-----Until your post I had never heard of The Giant Spider Invasion.
Fact number two------ I enjoy watching the old Perry Mason show almost every weekday night at 10:30 p.m. While watching it tonight the thought struck me that although I enjoy watching William Hopper as private investigator Paul Drake and Barbara Hale as Perry's confidential secretary Della Street I don't know what other roles they played over their careers. So I went to IMDB to learn more about each of them. It turns out Barbara Hale was in The Giant Spider Invasion.
What a coinkydink????
BTW, I also learned that William Hopper was a Navy frogman in WWII who worked in the very dangerous field of underwater demolition. The stress is credited with turning his dark blonde hair to be white. It also turned him into an alcoholic.
Well...?ÿ Last week I stayed home and got a lot of spring cleaning done.?ÿ This week, I'm considered to be working on "Essential Infrastructure" and I'm out and about.?ÿ We do work for gas and electric companies in a major city.?ÿ Today I'm topo'ing a residential street for a gas main replacement.?ÿ Besides my regular Survey activities, I have to practice Social Distancing, maintaining a two cat distance, (I prefer a four cat distance) wash my hands for 20 seconds frequently, (I set up a wash station in the back of the work truck with water, soap etc.) cover any coughs, use hand protection, avoid using portable toilets, no hand shaking and using any other required or recommended PPE.?ÿ I also carry a Authorization letter printed with the company logo explaining my activities and contact numbers in case the police question me but that hasn't seem to be a problem yet.?ÿ Not many people out so thats a good thing.
Fun times.?ÿ I think I'd rather be home in my basement finishing up my homemade 16' 13 element FM antenna..
