I set a new record in Pokemon go last week: I walked zero kilometers. I’m quite “embunkered” right now, which isn’t really a word, but it should be and probably will be before this is all over. I might as well document what’s going on here for posterity’s sake, right?
What’s going on is very little. Like most businesses, the one I work for is down to a skeletal staff. I am incredibly fortunate to be part of that skeleton, but it feels tenuous. I feel as though I am under the microscope to justify my continued employment on a daily basis. I suspect it feels like that because it is like that. Businesses with no revenue tend to pay a great deal of attention to expenses.
Actually doing work is difficult right now. It is, I imagine, somewhat analogous to recovering from a stroke. The majority of the familiar pathways are no longer connected and working. Who I work with, what I’m doing, what I’m responsible for…all of these things have to be relearned on the fly.
It’s not a situation that lends itself to good sleep. My sleeping patterns are shifting by about half an hour a day, but they’ve moved as far as they can in the morning. Thanks to my now extremely-short commute, I had some slack, but it’s gone now and I need to be able to function in the morning on limited coffee rations, so this is not a sustainable pattern.
Nicole is doing an amazing job of creating filling, tasty meals out of items that are both cheap and available for purchase, which is a short list that doesn’t guarantee any of it will go together. She’s making it work, though. I’ve been baking a lot of sourdough bread and we’ve only recently realized that the discard from the starter is an amazing additive to waffles, pancakes, rolls, and…well, most anything remotely bread-related. The waffles are to die for.
The sourdough thing is strange. I see so many people getting started with sourdough during this isolation period that there’s a weird, distributed sense of community in it. It’s heartening for reasons I struggle to explain. Seeing other people react to this in a similarly positive fashion is comforting, I guess. Like, we’re doing it right if we’re all doing the thing?
We’re reasonably well stocked on foodstuffs and other essentials. If my math is correct, I don’t see us running out until this thing…starts to peak. Well, that’s a worrying thought. Going out right now simply isn’t an option. In addition to the plague, allergy season is winning the war against the arsenal of medications I’m on and it looks like someone threw acid on the tops of my wrists. I have no clue what I’m reacting to. I’m going to stay indoors, keep the filters clean, and hope like heck that whatever is causing this isn’t inside the apartment.
Which is probably is.
Anyway, that’s about it. I’m just chugging along, trying to avoid social media during work hours and do everything I can to try to forestall what seems inevitable at this point. We’re getting by. We’ll continue to do so because there’s not really any other option, is there? I hope you all are keeping your heads above water. We’re all going to be really good swimmers when this is over.