“Remoted” – Day 525 (Monday)

Winnie!

Today was the first workday back from vacation. Ugh. There were 283 emails in the inbox, and another 100 in the segregated folder of stuff that don’t need to be dealt with right away. There have been Mondays with  95 emails after just one or two days off, so I had expected worse from being out for six work days. First couple hours of the day get four stars out of five. 

Around midday, my phone shrieked with a tornado alert, in effect for an hour. When the alert was over, another shrieked in for another hour. The generally crazy New England weather has been extra crazy over the past few days thanks to Henri. The tally now is, Thursday, tornado warning (thrice), Saturday and Sunday, hurricane/tropical storm/flood warnings, Monday, tornado warnings with three tornadoes spotted in the state. What, what? No tornadoes in Lowell, but there was more rain.

The day at the desk, fortunately, was less dramatic than a tornado. After the full day of sitting at the desk, it was time for the chiropractor. Despite recent stress, Dr. G said it was the best adjustment so far, but he has said that before, so either it's a standard line, or my back really is improving. 

Being out of the house for anything often means stopping at Family Dollar. There is something about the allure of low prices and convenience, and true to form, today was no different. The mission was disinfecting wipes and steel wool soap pads, which were out the last time I remembered to check. Sour cream and cheddar potato chips were also procured. Lunch was a healthy and filling pita pocket stuffed with plant-based patties and pepperjack cheese. Sometimes, reheating leftovers feels like just one thing too much to do, so the chips became dinner.

Winston was cute and perky and energetic today. He requested my attention this afternoon by coming over to the desk chair where I sat and pawing my ankle. Twice, he let me gather him up into my lap, although it didn’t last long either time. In the two weeks since Moose left us, Winnie has been sleeping a lot. Maybe he always did and I just never noticed because I was preoccupied with Moose. Maybe he’s sad too, or he’s mirroring my energy and emotions. Moose did that when I broke my leg and he dialed his energy level down from perky and peppy to chill. He even started limping on his left side and I couldn’t tell if he was empathizing or mocking me.