COVID-19 Coronavirus Diary – March 23, 2020

Monday, March 23, 2020 – Day 10 of Self-Quarantine

Today started Week 2 of our remote work. The good part about my work – whether it be in the office or at home – is that I’m never bored! There’s always more to do than time to do it. At the end of work, our marketing team ended the day with a fun Virtual Happy Hour. I think it was a hit – not as awkward as I expected it to be!

Last night, after working in the yard again, we decided to have a campfire with all of the wood we’d been cutting up. It was really chilly so it ended up being a nice evening to sit by the fire and roast marshmallows. After that, we ended up playing various Mario games on Wii for most of the evening.

Today, we were expecting Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to give a ‘shelter in place’ announcement during his press conference, but instead, he ordered all non-essential businesses to close up as of 5 p.m. today. Seeing how most of us have been self-quarantining anyway, a shelter-in-place order wouldn’t have really changed much for us. I work at an information technology company and our business is considered essential – so we continue to work from home.

My daughter started her remote classes at UMBC today, after spring break week. It seemed to go better than she expected. Sometime soon she will need to go back to campus to clear out her dorm room since campus will be closed for the rest of the semester.

COVID-19 Coronavirus Diary – March 22, 2020

Sunday, March 22, 2020 – Day 9 of Self-Quarantine

I saw a post on Facebook from the Virginia Historical Society the other day reminding people that many years from now new generations will look back and study the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic and wonder how we as society dealt with it. This will be my first live diary post and I plan to write up and backdate some previous posts.

It’s 3:25 p.m. right now and I just logged onto my laptop to place an order on Amazon for a new bathroom cabinet that I’ve been looking at for a few days. Typically, I try not to go on my laptop over the weekend since I’m working on it all day on it during the workweek.

We just tried out the free delivery from Popeye’s for lunch today. If it was just me, I would probably stick to a can of soup or a sandwich and not risk ordering anything. But the new ads on TV and social media focusing on “free delivery” from all of the fast-food joints are just too enticing for my bored and restless kids. Once the food comes, I get a little frantic trying to wipe off things and urge the kids to wash their hands right before and after eating… And “DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE!”

Yard work continues today and I spent longer than ever pruning the two pear trees in the backyard. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my special care will help produce a great harvest of pears!

As the day passes and I face “Week 2” of remote work, I wonder how much longer we will be in self-quarantine? The number of cases has almost doubled in the past day. Now we’re at 38,757 in the U.S.

I need to head back outside to finish yard work now! Then we will probably take the dog for a walk. Fortunately, we live in a secluded neighborhood where it’s easy to take a walk and not actually have to interact with anyone else. Later today, we’re looking forward to finishing up the Next in Fashion series on Netflix. We can’t wait to see who wins!

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Alissa Arford is writing from Ellicott City, Maryland.

 

COVID-19 Coronavirus Diary – March 21, 2020

Saturday, March 21, 2020 – Day 8 of Self-Quarantine

The weather is a lot colder today than yesterday’s 80+degrees. It’s only in the 50s. On the agenda today was lots more yard work. We needed to finish cutting up the tree that was cut down yesterday. When I say “we,” I really mean Kip since he’s the one working the chainsaw. My main job was to clean out the old dog kennel. It has been out of use for many years since the huge tree branch fell on it.

This is the first spring in more than a decade that we haven’t had weekends filled with soccer games and horseback riding lessons. So even before the self-quarantining, we were finally feeling like we had some extra time on our hands.

As we were outside, working our neighbor came over to talk for a few minutes. His kids and grandkids were coming over and they were going to eat some Popeye’s take out in his front porch, picnic-style, all keeping up their social distancing.

He told me that when he goes out to get the mail he sprays cleaner on his mailbox handle and does mine at the same time. #NeighborsHelpingNeighbors Typically, I had been just trying to pull down my jacket and not touch the mailbox handle with my bare hands.

In the evening we had Day 2 of family game night. Kip had to do some work, so it was just me and the kids. We played a bunch of games… for many, many hours!

COVID-19 Coronavirus Diary – March 20, 2020

 

Friday, March 20, 2020 – Day 7 of Self-Quarantine

Today was the end of our first week of remote work at Accounting Seed. Since our marketing team normally works from home every Wednesday, this was not entirely new for us. But being home every day did have its challenges. Trying to stay positive and upbeat during work conversations while there is so much unknown was tough. How long will we keep doing this? The original plan was only one more week, but I really doubt that’s going to be enough.

One thing that I’ve noticed many people talking about during their remote work time is the “pet factor.” Most of our pets are likely used to spending at least eight hours a day alone in the house resting. Now humans are there 24/7 and disrupting their naps! My dog keeps barking when I’m on calls and my cats are all over me, jumping on the laptop and causing havoc. For me personally, my allergies are not happy with me being in my house 24/7. I’ve been loading up on allergy medicine.

My work squad discussed having a virtual happy hour at 4:30 p.m. today. It was not widely heralded, so we held off. Friday night is not a night when you want to party with your remote work peeps, is it? So we scheduled it officially for EOD Monday. BUT I did see a bunch of my Facebook friends posting about having virtual happy hours. Then I had FOMO. Some friends were talking about joining “Watch” parties to watch programs/movies together.

Right after work, we decided to head outside to do some tree work – it was such a beautiful day! Temps in the 80s. Took down a big one that had fallen into the dog kennel last year.

We ended the day with a family game night! Fluxx, You Gotta Be Kitten Me, and Smart A$$.