“Remoted” – Day 500 (Thursday)

Holy crap – 500 days of the remote life. It’s a bit less exciting than say, the Indy 500, and it’s a bit less remote than it was, say 499 days ago. Compared to the beginning of remoted life, I leave the house frequently to do exciting things like buy dog food and dog biscuits, take the dogs to the vet and myself to the doctor and the dentist, and mail things at the Post Office. There have been ballet and belly dance classes, both indoors and out, and a handful of hair appointments, cookouts, and day trips, but mostly, over the past 500 days, I’ve stayed pretty close to home. This thing would have played out differently had there been a significant other, kids, or housemates in the picture. I swear.

Never, in my wildest dreams, fantasies, and nightmares did I ever think I’d spend so much quality alone time at home. Never did I ever thing I’d actually enjoy it. For decades I was solidly convinced I had to always have someplace to go and needed to be with people. It turns out that neither is true. Or maybe it used to be true, and like a chameleon, I’ve simply adapted to current conditions. After decades of feeling house poor with a significant chunk of monthly take-home income going towards housing, the past 500 days has provided plenty of time to enjoy the investment. 

In any event, it’s been a real learning experience. I learned that the house makes weird noises and the end of the asphalt driveway was torn up and getting worse because every truck bearing a UPS, FedEx, and Prime logo, along with many drivers who miss the “Dead End” sign and most of the neighbors at the end of the street use my driveway to turn around. All day long.

A couple of layabouts.

Other valuable life lessons have been learned. My dogs are layabouts that sleep most of the day. I like working from home a million times more than I ever thought I would, although the team communications and feeling connected to the colleagues part of it started hard and got harder. Having groceries delivered might be one of the greatest luxuries available to an average person with a $40 grocery budget. Many common household tasks can be completed before starting work or during a five minute break. 

Deciding to chronicle the remoted life was never expected to run this long. Not even close. Heck, working from home was never expected to run this long. Several of us in my department thought it would be maybe two weeks that we’d be working from home before we were reunited in our office suite. Now the tracking of accumulated days has a counterpoint companion tracker as the days are ticked off until we return to the office in September. The chronicling scenario felt like a lighthearted adventure at the beginning, but the longer it goes on, the more often it's felt like a chore. But staying home all the time, what else would I do? Oh right, I could sew, make jewelry or tie dye garments, do photography, make jigsaw puzzles, or set leaded stained glass. Dang, talk about tradeoffs. At least the nightly writing has been less expensive, though a bit more public, than therapy.