How good is this?
(From @JessHarwoodArt)
Stu and I are definitely owls. Other than working from home and not catching up with friends on weekends, everything is much the same.
So our COVID-19 routine is not too different to general reality. I started working from home on March 17. Mainly because I had the hint of a sore throat and cough, and while it was extremelly unlikely to be Coronavirus (what with only about half a dozen cases in the ACT at the time), I didn't want to be *that person* that spread it around.
My home setup is *ok* for working from home. The biggest problem is my monitor setup. At work my primary monitor is on my left, and the secondary is to the right. At home my primary monitor is straight in front, and the secondary is smaller and off to the left. So everything is a bit backwards for me. Also I'm in what would be the formal dining room of the house, between the kitchen and the living room. So just need to be a bit mindful of having Stu or David seeing stuff they shouldn't (which really isn't much). We're lucky because our work is very well setup for people to work remotely, and our infrastructure supports it quite happily. The only tricky situation came with all staff broadcasts flooding our internet links, but they've started streaming those to an external website, so even that is not such an issue anymore. Skype, however, sux donkey balls. It's fine for text chat, but that's about it. Anything more is just asking too much of it.
Stu started working from home about a week and a half after me. It took him a while to get the hardware/software he needed from his work setup. But once he got that he's been doing ok. We had started to setup my Lego room as a study for him before any of this started (with David mostly taking over the other desk in the dining room study, Stu wanted his own desk and private space). It worked out really well for him to work in that room. This weekend we've done a whole heap more rearranging. Stu pulled out *lots* of books to be given away (sadly Lifeline are not currently taking donations due to covid-19 so they're just piling up at the moment). I took all my models (well, all the ones from the big shelves) downstairs, and Stu took all his work/study and some of lifestyle books upstairs. The bookshelves are super messy and unorganised right now due to all the rearranging, but I still need to get rid of the Lego minifig workstation on the table before I can pull out all the remaining books for sorting. And it's starting to get really cold down there, so running out of time. I suspect the bookshelves will stay messy for a while yet.
David has to keep going to work outside the house. He's a shift worker, and unfortunately for him, we're home all the time now, which means he can't watch DVDs/Netflix while we're at work. Well at least not on the TV. He could probably setup his laptop to watch things with headphones if he was so inclined. His work also means that if covid-19 does start spreading in Canberra, he's on the front lines for exposure, and it's probably inevitable that it hits our house at some point over winter.
Lunches during the week are almost always leftovers of some description. Pretty simple. What has been suffering though is any sort of exercise and vitamin D. Usually I would get a ten minute walk each way to go get food for lunch, but if I'm just heating up leftovers I don't get that. So I've started going for a little walk at lunch. Usually only about ten minutes, but enough to get me out of the house, get the blood circulating, and get a little vitamin D.
Probably the single nicest thing about working from home is the lack of commuting. I've been using the extra time in the mornings to scan more of Dad's slides. I've been smashing out two boxes a week. The evenings are a little less structured. I've got a little list of things to do in the extra time between 5pm and 6pm, but haven't really done too much constructive with the extra time. I am able to knock off work when I want to though, and not either have to wait for the sweetie or catch a bus. So that's really nice. My flex time is a bit too high at the moment, so will try and ease that down a bit, then will keep mostly fairly regular hours, which will also be nice.
Shopping is the biggest challenge of all of this. I want to minimise how often I go out, so need to do bigger shops when I do go (and go by myself which is super sad - the sweetie and I have always gone shopping together). There's three people eating here, two of us eating all meals at home, which means we need a lot more food in the house. If I'm shopping fortnightly I have to get stuff for the first week that has to be eaten quickly, and stuff for the second week that lasts longer. Fridge space is a huge issue at the beginning of the fortnight. The supermarkets are out of various things at various times, so there's no guarantee that when you do go shopping you'll be able to get what you need. I haven't seen toilet paper in Coles since we got one of the last packs when we got back from Pete's 40th at the beginning of March. Fortunately I've been able to get it at Chris's so we haven't run out. As I mentioned in another blog entry, we don't eat a lot of packaged food, mostly fresh food. But the stuff that we do use all the time (tinned tomatoes, tomato paste and rice) has been difficult to get. Again, I've been able to get things from Chris's when really needed.
The rest of my routine hasn't changed. I still get up at the same time (Stu plays on his phone a little longer before getting up). I still shower and wear the exact same thing - my uniform of jeans a tshirt, with a jumper when it's cold. I do the same things on the weekends - housework stuff and whatever projects/hobbies I'm working on. I don't have any more time on my hands than normal, so it's not like I have time to binge watch anything. Maybe if we do get sick we can binge watch stuff.
The clutter is getting to me though. We have things that need to go to the tip (like our old oven), or the Green Shed, or Lifeline. But while I think the tip and the Green Shed are still open, I would classify them as non-essential. So we have piles of stuff around the house. And Stu could really use a better desk in his study, but we can't just go shopping for a new one. Well, again, we probably *could* but we're trying to be good about this whole staying at home except for essential stuff thing...
The only other significant change is not catching up with friends. We would go out or have people over I guess on average every other weekend. So that's not happening (other than a couple of virtual catchups). It's a little sad, but remember, we're owls. We like keeping to ourselves :)
In all of this we have been extremelly lucky/blessed. We haven't had to stress about losing our jobs, or have to take care of kids as well as work, or wonder where the money for our next meal is going to come from. 2020 is sure going to be one hell of a year ..
Comments