Week three of our self-isolation began with an unexpected and unwelcomed event on Monday night: the fire alarm in our building went off at around 7:30, and we had to evacuate. Because living through a pandemic hasn’t produced enough anxiety.
Luckily, the cause was kitchen smoke, and we were let back in after about 15 minutes. Guess there are a lot of people cooking now who aren’t used to it.
The rest of the week was much calmer, thankfully.
Work continued to be busy but just normal busy. Been thinking a lot about how people will continue to be engaged from home as the semester winds down. Don’t have much in the way of answers yet.
I did have an informal and online Monday morning coffee break with my staff which turned out to be rather pleasant. Since we aren’t around each other anymore, it was nice to be able to just chat about whatever and keep connected. It was also great seeing everyone’s kids, pets, and home.
We got word that we can carryover half of our vacation time until next fiscal year which is good since no one is able to travel or do much for the foreseeable future. We may want to take days off here and there just to get a break, but we’ll probably have a few days to carryover.
I did a couple of things to enhance my working from home.
First, I bought a lap desk.
And then I figured out how to use my iPad as a second monitor for my Windows machine.
The PA governor announced that the stay at home order has been extended until April 30th. Although we haven’t heard anything from work yet, it’s safe to assume we’ll be working from home until then since we’re not supposed to leave our houses.
The CDC recommended the other day that people should wear masks while out and about. Holly had ordered some bandannas and watched a video (from Japanese Creations) about how to fold them and use hair ties to fashion them into masks.
We’ve only worn them once to do a little grocery shopping. Not exactly comfortable, but it’s a small price to pay if it helps keep people safe.
We went for a long stretch last week without going outside. We went for a walk and to pick up something for dinner on Sunday night and then didn’t leave the building again until Wednesday night but that was just to go across the street to get take out. We did take a walk around the neighborhood on Thursday night.
We continue to enjoy a nice balance of cooking in with the occasional take out.
Dining (and Drinking) In:
Take Out:
Other than food pictures, I took some macro photos that I still need to look at and edit. And, of course, pictures out our window with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and one partially out our window with my Olympus TG-5.
Things in our immediate world are still going well. Just trying to make the best of our isolation without feeling too restless and trying to mentally prepare ourselves for things getting worse before they get better.
As of Friday, April 3, there were 239,279 cases in the country compared to 85,356 last week. And 5,443 deaths compared to 1,246 last week.
Locally, Pennsylvania had 62,115 cases and 102 deaths this week compared to 1,687 and 16 last week.
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