“Remoted” – Workday Twenty – Saturday Four

Yup, it was Saturday, and it was also workday twenty. In my personal challenge of seeing how long I can go without leaving the house, this is day 26. And it was good.

The special work project is in high gear, we had the option to work, and I jumped on it. It’s not like I had someplace else to be or something better to do. If not working in the super awesome new home-office space, I’d probably be in the living room half-watching a bunch of something on Netflix while also playing Scrabble online and filling and editing various online shopping carts.

The work flow was busy enough to be interesting with only a few slow spots to watch “Chuck,” the ground hog /wood chuck /whatever it is that spends time under my shed and dining at the back lawn. Six hours flew by.

When work was done, it was time to roast some Brussels sprouts and cauliflower steaks (aka thick cut cauliflower), which started out as “stuff for food for the week” and quickly turned into “supper.”

Ready for the cocktail party.

Then it was time to spruce up a bit for a cyber cocktail party some friends and I were having via Zoom. Yes, I dressed up a bit – traded the gray gap ¼ zip fleece pullover for a vintage top and vintage crystal necklace with light makeup. Yes, it was the first application of makeup since my last department meeting a week ago. It felt special and important to look like I cared (because I did). And yes, I was a bit (ha! a lot) jealous when one of my friends logged in looking like an international supermodel and said she didn’t have makeup on and hadn’t even showered. Social isolation is really working for some of us.

In preparation for the cyber party I brought my laptop, the remainder of my bottle of Merlot opened  23 hours ago, and a bag of Sun Chips from my 35 bag Frito Lay assortment into the living room. There were seven of us plugged in from four locations in Massachusetts for two hours and it was an amazing, awesome, much needed, welcome relief. 

During the course of our “cocktail party” we had cameo appearances from an adorable toddler, a reluctant husband, our cats, and our dogs. These were the last friends I saw before the confinement and it was the best collective social moment of the past 26 days. 

Technology is awesome, but my friends and I look forward to meeting again “in real life.”

“Remoted” – Workday Nineteen (Friday)

That's a lot of biscuits.

The deliveries are rolling in. Oy!

Today welcomed the arrival of two trucks delivering five packages. Three packages were from one Amazon order – 20 pounds of dog food, and two separate packages with 1.5 pound of dog biscuits each.

The Frito Lay snack box of 35 packages of a mix of potato chips, Doritos, popcorn, Sun Chips, and corn chips arrived from my recent Amazon Pantry order, presenting the challenge of where to put 35 bags of snacks. And just in case the two smaller boxes of dog biscuits aren’t enough, the seven pound box also arrived today. The canine overlords should be set for a while.

In case you are keeping count, that’s one desk, one chair, one keyboard with mouse, 192 half-and-half creamers, 35 bags of snacks, 10 pounds of dog biscuits, and 20 pounds of dog food that have arrived in the past couple weeks (most of it this week). Stuff is being jammed everywhere. In a couple weeks when I can’t remember where the dog biscuits are, someone please remind me to check the laundry closet. There will be no escaping the snack bags – those things are now tucked everywhere.

There is more on the way!

As if the remaining grocery items from Amazon Pantry still to come aren’t enough, tonight I joined a wine club. Six bottles of assorted wines scheduled to arrive next week provided the comfort needed tonight to uncork that one last bottle of Merlot here.

What I need now is for eggs to  magically arrive at my door. Everything I want to make – Kugel, quiche, baked goods – requires eggs. Easter is Sunday, maybe the Easter Bunny will bring some fresh eggs – not hard boiled fancy eggs, something fresh out of a chicken’s butt or grocery store eggs will do – although the last time I was in a grocery store (March 15) there were none. Chocolate eggs would also be nice, but not as useful for the cooking. Some ice cream would also be great. But I won't be greedy.

“Remoted” – Workday Eighteen (Thursday)

Today felt like the perfect workday. It was non-stop busy and FLEW by, even with working an extra hour. Overall, it was quite satisfying.

Blooming again for Easter.

In random news, the Christmas Cactus hanging in the office is blossoming again, just in time for Easter. It’s done this before. Meanwhile, back at the "real" office, my plant that was a gift from my manager on my first day in 2016 is probably quite thoroughly dead now. The cute little succulent from a colleague this past Christmas may be in dire straits soon. Had I only understood what was happening the day I was informed I was being "remoted" (and not relocated elsewhere in the building), I might not be worrying about my abandoned plants across town now. Sigh.

The new office space, located in a back corner of the house, seems much quieter than the former work space at the front of the house. There’s no annoying noise in the wall like in the dining room, but I could hear a woodpecker outside, which was preferable. It rained all day, which might have had something to do with the peace and quiet – maybe there was just less activity on the street.

Ummmm.... you are in our space.

The dogs seemed confused by the new location, possibly because the desk sits near where one of the dog beds has been kept when I gate them in the kitchen when leaving the house. They probably couldn’t figure out why I was suddenly in “their space.” Moose was by my side, as usual, mostly napping and  racking up major points in the canine loyalty program. Winston spent a lot of time on the couch, and would randomly appear in the kitchen to bark. I’d get up from the chair to let him out, Moose would get up to follow me, then Winston would steal Moose's spot. Winston has really perfected this trick and has been using it a lot the past few weeks. It's impressive every time.

The carrots look abused.

In addition to the super productive day, the bi-weekly produce box arrived. I love produce day, but this box delivered a couple surprises. There is a bunch of carrots where every single one was brutally broken. Pre-diced? Easter Bunny vengeance? There was also a bunch of celery with some broken stalks, and a spaghetti squash with a big crack. The cracked squash is impressive – those are always crazy hard to cut. On the bright side, it looks like I have a head start cutting that one open. The email announcing the delivery of the box had also arrived with the link to report issues. It's rare I need to respond and report anything, but they heard from me today.

“Remoted” – Workday Seventeen (Wednesday)

Seeing this every day
got on my nerves.

Today was a day of regaining control of the home front. It had to happen.

Walking down the stairs each morning and landing in the dining room/office (i.e. work) before getting dressed and before coffee every single day was just too much. Then, at the end of the day, watching TV from the couch, I could still see the work space. 

There was no escaping it. Even on weekends, there it was, and it was really getting on my nerves. One of the things I love about working outside the home is being able to physically leave the workplace at the end of the day.

A few evenings spent shopping online on Wayfair and Overstock for home office furniture delivered a solution from scores of options. There are a lot of attractive home office pieces available, but it was Overstock for the win.

There was never coffee
in the "coffee nook."

The spring cleaning over the weekend was triggered largely in preparation for the new office space. It wasn't quite as full-bore as a true spring cleaning in that I didn't wash the windows. 

There was, however, vacuuming of the floor and rug, the window sills, ceiling line, and the paneling in the nook. The floor was washed. Plants were rearranged. The bistro set was relocated to the enclosed front porch and the "coffee nook" which only saw coffee once in two years was prepared to become "the office."

There was (and still is) some debate about hanging a few decorative panels to give some separation between the desk space and the counter, but it can wait until after a test run. For one thing, the panels bought a year or more ago and forgotten until this project are not the best colors for the space.

New office for the win!

Late on Monday, the new office chair, in a surprisingly small and lightweight box, arrived and was assembled. Late today, the desk, in an awkward and heavy box, arrived and was assembled. The timing and pacing of the deliveries worked out beautifully.

It was fortunate I paid attention to the product descriptions. There were a couple desks I really like the look of, but the lighthearted, entertaining, and informative descriptions mentioned the need for two adults for assembly. On that note alone, I passed on those pieces. There was a bit of time invested in reading of specs of drawer sizes which also became a deciding factor. A couple nice looking desks had really small drawers. The chosen desk has drawers large enough to hold folders, and deep enough to hold a couple of them. 

The assembly process would have benefitted from help, but was manageable alone. The only injury was to one ankle when trying to flip the desk over after attaching the legs. It’s the ankle that still has numbness and nerve damage from the 2011 roller derby broken leg, and it didn’t hurt like it would have if it was the “good” leg, so that's good. I think.

Peace is restored to
my queendom.

Tonight, sitting in the living room I can see the tranquil dining room I came to miss. In the morning, I’ll descend the staircase and pass through the dining room, restored to its tranquil state. Soon after, I will report to the new home office. It’s small, but still larger than the cubicle from one former job where I could extend my arms and touch the walls. 

The best part is, the new space is out of the “heart” of the house. It will no longer be the first thing seen when entering via the front door. When I leave the office for the day and commute to the living room, I can feel like I “left” work instead of having it taunt me all night from seven steps away.

“Remoted” – Workday Sixteen (Tuesday)

Prior to the period of pandemic isolation, I visited Family Dollar regularly, as much out of need as need for entertainment. It became my “go-to” for affordable (i.e. cheap) dog biscuits, chips, cookies, movie box candy, frozen pizza, emergency baking supplies, tissues, and toilet paper. The store is a mere half-mile away, and it’s small size means there isn’t the overwhelming array of product choices that usually result in the anxiety felt at Market Basket when facing a mile long aisle filled with about a thousand types of cereal, or a wall of pasta from 15 different companies, or 87 options for toilet paper.

Since the remote work /social distance /stay home  stuff, instead of Family Dollar, shopping has been through Amazon. Talk about overwhelming. 

Shopping on Amazon used to be for very specific clothing items for themed parties (metallic tuxedo, Steampunk stuff) or dance performances (25 yard skirt, sparkly top) or the bag for my doumbek drum.

Now, the shopping is for specific grocery items and household needs that would have been filled with a quick trip to Family Dollar. Because half the country is doing the same thing, needed key items are out of stock on Amazon. Sometimes, things have disappeared from my cart (toilet paper, rice, flour, errr) because I kept shopping and the product sold out in the meantime. There is a lesson in there to close out the cart as soon as the items are found, but for some reason, I don’t seem to be learning it.

Things keep adding to the cart, and then when I see the total, half of it comes back out as “save for later.” There are now 36 items in my “saved for later” list, and most of it is stuff I would never buy under normal circumstances, like Korean Sweet Pancake mix, and Kosher meat substitute in a can.

There is probably some deep and fascinating behavioral psychology behind it, and it’s working well for Amazon, because when I found the laundry detergent I needed ($4.97), I didn’t check out and get out. Oh no, I did not, and now there are seven pounds of dog biscuits ($11.64) and a 35-pack of Frito-Lay snacks ($13.98) scheduled to deliver next Saturday. Even better, I forgot there are already two pounds of dog biscuits delivering this Saturday that were ordered last week, so it’s going to be very interesting around here very soon. Maybe I can start trading dog biscuits for flour, sugar, rice, and beer.

Sometimes search results
 are amusing.

My favorite is when the search term yields really weird results. Two or three weeks ago, I searched for leather conditioner, because my leather dining chairs that I’ve suddenly been sitting on daily are suddenly cracking, probably because they are 13 years old and that is around the time everything gets prickly and annoying. There was some in stock and for whatever reason, I didn’t buy it. 

This week, feeling regret over not buying the leather conditioner and seeing the chairs getting worse, I searched for it again and there was one result – for body wash. Which, I suppose, is correct in some cases.

“Remoted” – Workday Fifteen (Monday)

When the dogs got into a fight with each other first thing this morning, I knew a full moon was near without even checking the calendar. They used to fight nearly every full moon, so the sound was familiar. Luckily, it’s been long enough since their last tussle that I can’t remember when it was, so I guess that’s pretty good. This morning’s event happened while I was getting dressed, and like nearly every spat before it, I didn’t see it start, but suddenly I was the referee in a fury of yelping and growling and two fur cherubs entangled on the floor.

We moved past the excitement quickly, as there was a workday to prepare for. Today might have been remote workday fifteen, but it was also day one of my temporary reassignment to help out another department. It started with the nervous excitement of the first day at a new school. Is my outfit okay? Are my new colleagues cool? Will they figure out I’m a dork right away, or will there be a grace period? Then I remembered. Sure, it’s a new team for now, assembled from different departments, but it’s also still me home alone working and we’ll be emailing and calling each other. At least I can look up the photos of the people I don’t already know on the internal team member phone list.

There was a training session in the morning that was helpful and left me feeling prepared to tackle the project at hand. The training was efficient, but the wait for a password from an outside agency was more like a train wreck with multiple casualties.

The new keyboard and mouse are a great addition to the home office. The keyboard has a nice touch and is quiet, not clackety. The mouse is a million times better with scrolling than the touchpad on the laptop.

The last few hours of my workday coincided with the first few hours of happy outdoor play time for the neighbors across the street. Three guys were revving and racing dirt bikes up and down the street. Sunny days are beautiful, but damn, gray rainy days are definitely better for peace and quiet in the hood.

When napping, they are quite saintly.

After the working it was time for the suppering. As a sensible grownup, a healthy bowl of vegetable rich soup was had. Then a second. An hour later I was still hungry and foraging in the freezer like a bear in a dumpster. Thankfully, forgotten hash brown potato patties were located in the far corner, perfect with a puddle of also forgotten ketchup. The dogs must have exhausted themselves with their morning fury, as they napped much of the day and all of the evening, just like little saints.

“Remoted” – Sunday Three

Ah, Sunday. My second favorite day of the week. Saturday, you’re still number one in my book with no work, and still another free day to follow, but isolation day 20 / Sunday Three was pretty good.

Today's garbage soup.

The Sunday routine has shifted with no dance class. Instead of driving and dancing and driving and grocery shopping and cooking, it’s now coffee and laundry and Netflix and cooking. The cooking started with an easy sautee of onions, zucchini, and garlic, plus egg noodles and other leftover stuff added to chicken and butternut squash soup pulled from the freezer for this week’s fresh version of garbage soup. 

There was a moment of tech wizardry when I finally unboxed the keyboard and mouse that arrived Saturday and set them up for work on Monday (which is fancy talk for putting in the batteries and making sure they work).

Today also got a bit earthy with some yard work in the pleasant weather. There was the raking of the leaves generously donated last year by the neighbor’s tree and ignored last fall. There was spreading of mulch, bought in bags last year and never opened, which has worked out well for me this year. The wire fencing of a couple years ago that was taken down for winter and then never put up last year was retrieved and put up to keep the dogs out of the flower beds in the front yard and near the shed in the back yard. Now I have the flimsy (and likely false) perception of protection for the irises, bleeding hearts, and peony. At least when I look out to the back yard while standing at the kitchen sink it looks much neater.

It really didn’t take much time or much effort to make the yard look a tiny bit like I care. The next task will take more effort – the stepping stones in the back yard need to be reset. They are sunken and overgrown with grass. It’s been a losing battle for three summers running.