Well, folks, yesterday was supposed to be the day that all County employees would return to the office, per our original orders from the County Manager. As you can see, it's March 31st. And I'm still working from home. Last Monday, our Work from Home order was extended to April 6th.
On March 12th, all of the parkruns in the United States were cancelled, until further notice. The Fallen heroes 5k, which would have been run on April 5, was cancelled on March 24. Luckily, I was able to use the registration I already paid for 2021. I just hope I remember that I'm already signed up for it, and don't schedule a different race on that day!
On March 24th, my county/city issued a "Shelter in Place" order, based on the order from Broward and Miami/Dade counties. The next day, Osceola County issued a Stay at Home mandate through April 9th, which meant, of course, that Disney was closed through April 9th.
On March 26, the US reached 1,000 deaths nationwide, and led the world with total Covid-19 cases (more than 82,000 at that time). It was around this time that I started noticing that many people (conveniently mostly Democrats or Liberals) began using this information to punish or discredit the Trump administration, blaming him for this high case count. Well, of course we're going to have ore cases than, say, Italy or Sweden... we have more PEOPLE! When looked at it, per capita, we are something like 15th or 16th in cases. Which, of course, is why they skew the statistics the other way.
On March 27th, Trump signs a massive Stimulus package, granting $1200 to every American, and $500 per child. Walt Disney World and Disneyland both announce they will be closed "Until further notice," which hurts my heart, because that meant that Cast Members would be unemployed until further notice.
At this point today, roughly 95% of all Americans are under some sort of quarantine or lock-down, as 42 states have issued Stay at Home orders.
How am I holding up? Well, so far so good. I've had enough to keep me busy. I'm an Admin Assistant, so 90% of my actual job is assisting people. And if I'm at home, there's not a lot of people to assist, so I've decided that I will ensure that I'm at or near my computer as much as possible so that when (if) emails come in, I am available. In other words, I'm not vegging out on the couch watching Netflix and chomping popcorn. BUT, because there are long periods of no assisting happening, I'm also taking time to binge on various YouTube videos (see my Plague List, below) and organizing digital files on my computer. It was also kind of nice to go get my bi-weekly massage appointment, but in the middle of the day. Sadly, I got a text message from her a few days ago, and the owner is closing (they are deemed Non-Essential) until the pandemic is over, so I don't know how long I'm going to have to go before I am able to get another massage...
In the past week or so, I've noticed that my years of frugal living and borderline-hoarding has served me well. There's plenty of snacks in the house for when I get the munchies. I have lots of recycled paper to print on (didn't think about grabbing paper when I left the office last week, duh), I use cheap ink from Amazon, I have pens out the ass because I'm always grabbing them at Expos, I have piles of spiral notebooks left from Back-to-School sales, and I have tons of Post-Its from a great $1/1 coupon deal from a bajillion years ago (the Post-Its were marked down to a buck each, so I got something like 20 pads of notes for free!).
I'm starting to enjoy not hate working from home, though it's still not my cup of tea. It's nice to be able to take both Hubby and the Kiddo to and from work, so that they don't have to rely on the buses. And I always stop to get a fountain drink from the gas station before I come home. I've been trying to support both my local and chain restaurants by picking up lunch every day, but lordy, I'm gonna get fatter if I keep doing that! I like that I can watch YouTube videos, or Facebook Live videos while I work. Or I can crank up music and not have to worry about other people around me. Those are good things.
But I hate trying to decipher my boss' cryptic emails. Or having to wait a day or so for responses to emails. Yeah, I could call people, but I don't do that in real life... why start now? I hate having to use the work laptop to access my remote desktop, or do sensitive work on it - the screen is only 15", whereas my desktop is 27" (yes, I'm blind, I know). However, I've discovered that there's not that much sensitive work I must do on the laptop, so I've taken to doing 95% of my work on my desktop.
Also, because of the County order, Planet Fitness shut down on the 20th. So at this point, I have no parkrun, no gym, no massage, and no daily interaction with coworkers... God grant me the strength to make it through this ordeal without gaining 50 pounds.
Also, because of the County order, Planet Fitness shut down on the 20th. So at this point, I have no parkrun, no gym, no massage, and no daily interaction with coworkers... God grant me the strength to make it through this ordeal without gaining 50 pounds.
So, for now, I'll hunker down for another week of fun at home and see what happens next week!
As promised, here is my YouTube Plague List
(a.k.a. the channels I'm subscribed to and addicted to!)
Alton Brown
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