Week 13 - Safe at Home

It was the first week of working at home so everything was new and different. It's a brave new world we're living in and it was time to get working. From home.

In an effort to keep things light, I started a #socksofsocialdistancing project on Facebook. Each day I post a picture of the socks I'm wearing, hand knitted of course, and will see what lasts longer - my sock supply or working from home. People seem to like it and anything to do with knitting socks makes me happy. On that note, I cast on so many pairs of new socks that I was out of needles. Whatever it takes to keep me sane - I'm all in.

We had the first of our regularly scheduled team meeting via Zoom at 10:00 Monday morning. Cindy and I spend a few hours of the day getting Zoom figured out for my training classes and when we went onto Zoom for our 2:00 meeting, Ben was a no show. Well if the boss isn't on, what's the point? We ended up cancelling the afternoon Zoom going forward. I finished up day 1 and it wasn't so bad. Having no knitting on Monday was the icing on the weirdness cake.

Mary kept me plenty busy with data requests on Tuesday and after a quick lunch, I did my first zoom training. It went well. I had just one student, which was nice for my first one. When I was done, I signed off and headed to Lake Wanahoo to walk the damn. I had checked the temp in my yard and went without a jacket but had neglected to account for the wind off the lake. It was pretty chilly so I didn't make it all the way across but still did ~1.5 miles.

Anne, who is my Covid-19 buddy since we both live alone and aren't seeing anyone beside each other, was coming over for supper and Survivor on Wednesday night. I got busy at lunch and made soup and the sauce for lasagna. I put the lasagna together at the end of the day and threw it in the oven when Anne got there. First stop was back at the lake, with jackets so we made it all the across the lake and back. 2 miles. We got home just in time for the lasagna to come out and we ate it while watching Survivor. It felt good to some company that didn't require a computer screen. I loaded Anne down with food when she left. It's good to share.

I had more data requests from Mary on Thursday and my 2nd class went well. Both of the people in the class had kids at home so we had a few interruptions but went with the flow. I called the day done shortly after training and headed outside. It was pretty chilly out but I wanted to do something so broke up all the brush clogging my wheel barrow, which left it open for future compost sifting. I was chilled when I went in but felt good with my small start and there was just one more work day! The week was flying by.

I didn't have a super productive day on Friday but we had out team meeting and a DocuSign demo via Zoom so at least got those done. At the end of the day, I chatted with my neighbors across our yards and that felt special. Despite being home all week, I was still ready for the weekend. All the working was interfering with being home!

I was heading to Lincoln on Saturday for knitting and a fire at Anne's but spent the morning chatting with Sharyn and then Andrea stopped by for a driveway chat, 6 feet apart, of course. It felt good to get in the car and drive! When I got to Lincoln, I was shocked to see how many parking lots were full of cars. Heck, even Goodwill was full! I wasn't sure why it was even open but then our governor hadn't issued a stay at home order yet so... Anne and I had a nice afternoon and then went to Piezano's for take out pizza. We got 1 pizza and a piece of cake and it was $28! And completely underwhelming. I declined to take any leftovers home.

I spent Sunday mostly on the phone talking to Carolyn, my sister and then Deanne. I didn't pack the day with chores, which bit me in the butt later, but oh well.

What I did do on Sunday was get started with yard work. First on the list was to empty one of the compost bins, which only had 6" of compost left from last year. With my newly emptied wheel barrow , I started sifting compost. There was more in the bin than I thought so I had a full wheel barrow and more yet to sift. That lead to clearing out one of my veg beds and spreading the compost there. It was too wet to till so I just spread it on top. And when I filled it again, I prepped a 2nd bed. I then planted the first bed with early veg but the 2nd one would just sit. Then I finally put together the wood rack I'd bought on Amazon 2 years ago. I couldn't find all the nuts/bolts so I tied it together in 2 places with clothesline. Whatever works! I immediately loaded it up with wood I'd picked up at the city's burn pile. I was already for my first fire - yay! So one thing lead to another but I ended the day with wood to burn, an empty compost bin ready for leaves once I start raking and my early veg getting an early start. All good.

So, I'd survived the first week of working at home and didn't hate it. I think a big part of that was that I moved my computer to my desk for working hours so work was there and so felt separate from home. I moved it back to my chair at the end of each day and then work was done. Since it looks like we'll be home for a LONG time, it's good to make peace with it. Stay healthy everyone!