Another Month, Another Post

Figured maybe I should check in again as it’s been over a month. You’d think with all this “down time” I’d have more time to write blog posts, but if anything I’m as busy as ever, maybe more so. Working from home means not having clear boundaries of when you’re “on” and “off”, so I find myself doing job-related tasks at all hours, and answering e-mails well into the night, when before I’d have put them off until I got to the office.

The good news is that, so far, I still have a job. VCU is dancing around the idea of furloughs, but at this point nothing’s decided yet. This is good as a lot of other universities are having a much harder time of it. Still plenty of time for things to get worse, though, so I won’t jinx it, but as I told Grace the other day, we have it better than a lot of folks. We’re in a house, not an apartment, so we’re able to maintain a safe distance from other folks. We have the five of us, so no one’s miserably lonely. We all get along with each other, so there’s none of the violence or other ugliness we’re hearing about in some households. And for now at least we’re set on food. with plenty of experience at making our own meals, unlike a lot of friends who before this were eating out several times a week and “cooking” frozen dinners if anything.

I did get around to one half-forgotten “to-do” item, exhuming some of my old articles from the “Mr Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang” James Bond fan site and giving them a new home here on the blog. Of course in the process I nearly broke the whole blog because I was so rusty at such things. Long story, but happy ending, so I’ll spare you.

I’m also coming along with the guitar, which is astonishing given how many failed attempts I’ve had at learning it in the last 25 years. Laura pointed me to a deal at Fender Play, where I got 3 months of free lessons, and it’s worked for me where several books and DVD courses couldn’t. I think what turned the tide was the freedom to pick up the instrument at all hours of the day, where before I was always either at work or committed to some weekend thing or other, and at night I didn’t want to make noise. Having time and access has been a big help. I’m still somewhere on the upper side of “absolute beginner” but at least I’ve learned some chords and the ability to change from one to the next (if awkwardly), plus a bit about musical notation and theory. So if nothing else I’ll come out of this isolation thing with a new skill. Yay.

The university’s hoping to start phasing the campus back into operation as we near August. It’s dependent on a lot of things, and not helped by Virginia’s dismal failure to get this situation under control. Less than 30% of Virginians stayed home as instructed, and most of them aren’t wearing masks when they do go out (and they tend to travel out of their home county, so it’s not like it’s a run to the grocery store). Not enough people are being tested, not even if they have symptoms and ask for it, so even though we know the infection rate’s going up, we really have no idea by how much. Now Virginia Beach has opened back up, so folks are flocking here from New York and other COVID hot spots. What could go wrong?

Anyway, we’re looking forward to a quiet Memorial Day weekend, with some yard projects on the schedule and whatever else appeals. And we’ll probably spend a few more hours at that great new American Pastime, making masks.