Thoughts About a Virus
Changing Course
I’m going to attempt to journal my way through the COVID-19 world health crisis that we’re currently living through. I want to keep these posts brief, so as to motivate me to update often – with hopes of updating the blog daily.
That said, let’s get to it..
My wife’s last day in the office was March 13th (Friday the 13th!), and mine was Tuesday, the 17th (St. Patrick’s Day). By the 17th a number of major closures and postponements had already been announced. Just about every major sports league is on hold indefinitely. It’s all very surreal. Unsurprisingly, my Company continues to remind us that we have an obligation to our Customers and we need to keep projects moving to satisfy that end. It’s pretty clear that the motivation is the bottom line, not any imaginary need of a Customer. They also incessantly rehash that there are “no confirmed cases” among the employees, which is pretty irresponsible, in my opinion. With how terribly, terribly limited testing is in my area, and in the USA at large, saying there are no confirmed cases is largely irrelevant. Without comprehensive testing; we’re completely in the dark about who really has the virus and who does not. The responsible thing to do is to self-isolate as much as possible, and WASH YOUR HANDS!
Working from home got a lot more interesting this week, as our daycare center finally had to shut down. They held out as long as possible, and did a great job remaining flexible by balancing class sizes to maintain head count under whatever the maximum allowed gathering that was allowed. Monday working AND watching the kids was pretty rough, but the first day always is. Take it one day at a time. So far, each day has been slightly better. I just have to remember that we’re not the only ones going through this right now. It’s a wild thought, but just about everyone in the whole world is going through this right now. We’re all in it together, for better or for worse.
This post is already longer than I wanted it to be, but it’s the first of its kind. I needed to set the stage a bit, while also trying to figure out the format.
Here are some topics that I think I want to touch on in the next few days.
- my reactions to what’s going on
- what the hell to do about my mom who will believe anything
- working from home… with two kids now
- we are not alone, and that’s ok
- the stock market and the economy
- what’s going on with oil