Weekend Plans Post: The Other Side Of Quarantine
One of the consolations of marriage is that if you are, for example, in the middle of a pandemic, you can split efforts and make light work out of rough chores. One person does this, the other person does that. Dishes (washing, putting away), Laundry (sorting, washing, putting away), Groceries (getting, putting away), and so on.
However, if one of the participants is told to distance, then that’s not on the table. I mean, sure. The sick person might be able to put the laundry in the machine or the dishes in the machine, but after they’re washed/dried, you can’t take them upstairs. You can’t put the dishes away.
If one of the joys in your life is making meals, you can’t make meals for two anymore. You’re stuck cooking for yourself. If the other person isn’t crazy about cooking, then they’re stuck making meals that they’re not crazy about making.
Running upstairs in the middle of the day and wordlessly grabbing the other person’s hand and giving it a quick squeeze while they’re in a meeting? That’s something that you can’t do anymore.
And so all of the little things that help get you from this side of the sunrise to that side of the sunset are gone. You’re left with a roommate that you aren’t on speaking terms with (but maybe texting terms with). And you can’t even really fight, if you’re inclined to fight, because that involves breathing at the other person.
Anyway, after 10 days, we decided that we hadn’t had any symptoms and this was seriously driving us nuts and maybe we could go back to sharing our bubble with each other.
And so, now, when I go into work, I do the double mask thing. The cloth mask underneath protects you, the paper mask up over it protects me. We got rubber gloves. Like, really, really GOOD rubber gloves. They’re black, they have good texture on the outside making it easy to grab stuff like pencils, they’re not clunky and so they’re easy to type with, they go on easily… they’re, seriously, high quality gloves. I mentioned this to Maribou when she got them when, I thought, gloves were as tough to get as paper towels or toilet paper. “These are really good gloves! Where did you get them?” “Remember how in the early days of the pandemic, the grocery stores didn’t have toilet paper but the hardware stores did?”, she asked. Well, apparently they’re, erm, specialized gloves for people to use when there is, erm, high risk of contact with… ah… bodily fluids. So she thought to go to the stores that specialized in providing custom to folks interested in such gloves still had them in stock who, presumably, needed them less during a period of social isolation.
So, at work (or running errands), I wear high-quality gloves that I know are specially designed to protect the wearer from biological agents. (And, much like with TP, they’re back in stock. So if you are frustrated by your disposable glove choices, check these out. Just watch out if any particularly mild-mannered acquaintances immediately brighten when they see them.)
And all of this is such a pain in the tuchus, but… it’s less of a pain in the tuchus than doing those 10 days again.
As such, this weekend, we’re going to recover from social distancing.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is Tiger, mid-scritch. Taken by Maribou.)
Just a note that neither of us were *sick*. Jaybird was exposed so we had to be careful. But neither of us has had a single symptom. Don’t want y’all to worry.
(Also, they were BDSM gloves. Is what he’s saying.)Report
Maribou: The Jaybird Whisperer
Glad y’all are healthy, and it was good to actually get to talk to Jaybird face-to-face (but six feet apart and outside) again.Report
Today is Final Inspection day for the great remodel of 2020. New master suite is done. Once the inspector signs off on everything, I can finish insulating the garage and hang the drywall. After that, the shelving goes back up and I can finally move out of the storage unit (which will be the great purge of 2020).
I also got the HVAC guy coming out, because my heat pump fan is sticky (bearing is going out). Everytime I start the AC, I have to give the fan a kick start with a stick. My fault for letting the thing go two years without service.
Oh, and for those who might care, I am starting school again. Master’s of Computer Science this fall. Professionally, I’ve been hitting some blocks that I think a bit of formal education and credentialing will help clear.Report
Have you considered… the “m” word?Report
Which ‘m’ word? Moving? Multiplayer? Myocardial Infarction?Report
Menopause! Marijuana! Management!Report
Yeah.
That one.Report
OK, I think I have it down to ‘Moving’ or ‘Management’ (or both).Report
Yeah, “myocardial infarction” fits the context but it’s two words.Report
I am going to do chores on Saturday and archery in Golden Gate Park on Sunday.Report
I have an online meetup with some other knitters on Saturday (IF I can get “Microsoft Teams” to stop demanding I ask one of my uni admins to admit me – I am doing this on my private, personal computer so wtf?).
other than that, I don’t know. But I need a break because today so far was
– trying to use the “smart board” and simultaneously record with a webcam and having all manner of trouble, including finding one of my colleagues put the batteries in the projector remote IN BACKWARDS, draining them but fortunately not damaging the remote). Couldn’t get the audio to record so had to get the IT guys over here. That was an hour
– another hour on the phone with a textbook-company person because the “pairing” of their resources to my course LMS was NOT WORKING and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. The conclusion was: “Well, that’s a problem, I will have to pass it on to our coders” so that one didn’t get resolved
– being told that a particular microbiological term I was using I was saying WRONG by someone with roughly as much micro background (maybe less) than I have, later finding out from a friend elsewhere who is a microbiologist that my pronunciation is also correct and probably more common anyway. Sometimes knowledge of dead languages doesn’t actually help, I guess.
– Finding out that apparently a bunch of faculty (I don’t seem to be one) got slapped with parking tickets because of a glitch in the new computer system and they can’t tell which ones are real and which aren’t so they’re just forgiving them all
I am very ready to move out of Murphy’s Alternate Universe, thanks.
One more week of summer left, and then the deluge. I am praying hard we don’t see a spike in cases, or that if we do, it will be found out before I get infected. Selfish, maybe, but at this point I feel I am entitled to a few selfish feelings.Report
Pizza Stone Update.
I got the dough, I got the pizza ready… then I realized “I forgot to turn the oven on.”
So I turned on the oven then did some chores, went for my jog, and then, when I got back, I put in the pizza while I showered after it had spent an hour rising with all of the toppings on it.
It wasn’t a mistake! The crust wasn’t as buttery (absorbed deeper into the dough, I guess) but the main part of the pie has thicker bread than when it goes straight from being tossed to being topped to being on the stone.
Which is good too!Report