Schreiber (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
choco_frosh) wrote2020-03-15 04:50 pm
choco_frosh) wrote2020-03-15 04:50 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
It has been a weird week.
I mean, it's been a weird week for everyone. COVID-19, social distancing, trying to figure out how much social distancing is enough/overreaction, disruption. The weirdest thing about my week, in some ways, was the ways where this wasn't unexpected.
'See, our office, as I have hinted in the past, is in the process of consolidating from two floors of an office building to just one:* thus this was ALREADY going to be week of chaos, weirdness, and preparing to work from home, as most of us packed up our offices/cubes so that the movers could move the contents to whatever new location they've put us in. That, in turn (plus more construction), is going to take all of next week, so we were going to be working from home next week ANYWAY. The only difference is that we got "strongly encouraged" to take our computers home on Wednesday and not come back if at all possible; I ended up doing whatever the reverse of playing hooky is, and spent Thursday afternoon and Friday at the office, because I find trying to work from home incredibly difficult.
Oh, and the big difference: we won't be coming back the week after next (except maybe in small numbers to unpack stuff); and indeed, we don't know when we'll be going back at all. The movers will still come in and rearrange standing desks and office furniture, but those will then stand unused for weeks.
Needless to say, though, the pandemic has also affected most other aspects of my life, and there was going to be plenty of weirdness there anyway. I hauled @$$ out of practice early last Saturday to meet P., coming back from a couple of days in New Haven; then put him on a plane on Sunday. This trip was his first time flying as a 12yo, and hence without airline staff shepherding him everywhere, so he was freaking out about whether he'd have enough time to collect his luggage and get between planes in Toronto.** Ironically, he wound up having plenty of time...because his flight got canceled so he was stuck in Toronto for three hours, poor kid.
Last week had also featured our landlords being (briefly) back in town, to do some renovations because they are selling what used to be their apartment downstairs (I guess as a condo?) As part of this, they have been doing some remodeling, and by 'remodeling' I mean "closing off the staircase to their crazy third-floor room and handing it over to us." So we now have an extra room, albeit one that can only be accessed through M's closet.
This is actually going to be important.***
Then Monday (was it Monday?) we got the news that MIT was closing, and all student activities, on or off campus, were b&. Since (some of our) bellringing is, on a technicality, an MIT student activity, we had a Very Serious Meeting at Wednesday practice about whether ringing at Old North could continue, and if so, how; which was rendered moot when Old North alsoclosed. The Church of the Advent, as one might almost expect, is carrying on;**** and so ringing there is as well.
Which is almost weirder than closure would have been.
+Barbara Harris died on Friday. I still remember watching her consecration on NBC news. So the quarter peal we just rang†† is dedicated to her memory, though we may also go with our original plan of dedicating it to everyone affected by teh virus.
It...well, I was not at my best, a couple of other people were not at THEIR best, and in recognition of the solemnity of the occasion, and that this may be our last ringing for an unknown amount of time, we were ringing a weird collection of bells that added up to a minor key, so...it was hard. It was stressful. QPs are USUALLY stressful.
Which is why I went home and drank half a litre of Coniston Blue Bird.
And now we're all preparing for a week at home. "We" means me and my roommates: their schools are closed, so we'll ALL be trying to work from home, and so probably trading off on using the new spare room as a videoconference/distraction-free-getting-shit-done space. It also, of course means Sor, who's in the same boat as them, only with less time to prepare. It means most everybody I know around here, in the same boat. It means my Grandmother, who Dad reminded me to call yesterday. "We were just realizing what it meant," she commented. "It's just going to be Jerry and me and the dog. We usually go out most days. I had talked to someone casually about bridge club on Tuesday, and now of course we can't do that."†††
And it means me, once again. Since I was going to be working from home anyway, I had figured that I could as easily work from somebody else's home, and spend the first part of the week doing a retreat at the Community of Jesus, and the latter part visiting Squigamunk and partner. But the former has been vetoed, and I think it's probably safer if I don't risk being the person who introduces COVID-19 into Maine.
Bugger.
* I don't know if I've made this explicit on here in the past, because I try to avoid anything that might even SLIGHTLY break workplace confidentiality stuff; but at this point, it's ceasing to be confidential, so...
** For various reasons, his mom had had to book him on two two-leg flights between Montreal and Logan. Hopefully, none of us ever have to deal with that again.
*** That we have a spare room, that is. Not the bit about getting to it through M's closet. Somehow, we're not even making "coming out of the closet" jokes.
**** For the moment. There were only about two dozen people at the 9:00 service this morning, High Mass probably had proportionally reduced numbers; Evensong got cancelled altogether; and there is a "strong possibility" that we'll get an order from the Diocese this week suspending all services until this blows over / until Easter.
Ringing MAY still continue, though: New!Rector† reckons it's important that people be reminded that we exist, the Church exists, and God exists, even if our doors are closed.
† who, well, deserves his own post, since he is, umm, a character...
†† Originally, of course, this was going to be a whole quarter peal afternoon, but 3/5 of those planning on taking part are opting for social isolation, though then the remainder agreed that we should ring SOMETHING.
††† My last surviving grandparent, she remains sharp as a tack at 93, and has ALWAYS played a killer game of bridge.
ETA: Oh, and I had two dates this week. Both of which were kinda weird. Because Coronavirus.
I mean, it's been a weird week for everyone. COVID-19, social distancing, trying to figure out how much social distancing is enough/overreaction, disruption. The weirdest thing about my week, in some ways, was the ways where this wasn't unexpected.
'See, our office, as I have hinted in the past, is in the process of consolidating from two floors of an office building to just one:* thus this was ALREADY going to be week of chaos, weirdness, and preparing to work from home, as most of us packed up our offices/cubes so that the movers could move the contents to whatever new location they've put us in. That, in turn (plus more construction), is going to take all of next week, so we were going to be working from home next week ANYWAY. The only difference is that we got "strongly encouraged" to take our computers home on Wednesday and not come back if at all possible; I ended up doing whatever the reverse of playing hooky is, and spent Thursday afternoon and Friday at the office, because I find trying to work from home incredibly difficult.
Oh, and the big difference: we won't be coming back the week after next (except maybe in small numbers to unpack stuff); and indeed, we don't know when we'll be going back at all. The movers will still come in and rearrange standing desks and office furniture, but those will then stand unused for weeks.
Needless to say, though, the pandemic has also affected most other aspects of my life, and there was going to be plenty of weirdness there anyway. I hauled @$$ out of practice early last Saturday to meet P., coming back from a couple of days in New Haven; then put him on a plane on Sunday. This trip was his first time flying as a 12yo, and hence without airline staff shepherding him everywhere, so he was freaking out about whether he'd have enough time to collect his luggage and get between planes in Toronto.** Ironically, he wound up having plenty of time...because his flight got canceled so he was stuck in Toronto for three hours, poor kid.
Last week had also featured our landlords being (briefly) back in town, to do some renovations because they are selling what used to be their apartment downstairs (I guess as a condo?) As part of this, they have been doing some remodeling, and by 'remodeling' I mean "closing off the staircase to their crazy third-floor room and handing it over to us." So we now have an extra room, albeit one that can only be accessed through M's closet.
This is actually going to be important.***
Then Monday (was it Monday?) we got the news that MIT was closing, and all student activities, on or off campus, were b&. Since (some of our) bellringing is, on a technicality, an MIT student activity, we had a Very Serious Meeting at Wednesday practice about whether ringing at Old North could continue, and if so, how; which was rendered moot when Old North alsoclosed. The Church of the Advent, as one might almost expect, is carrying on;**** and so ringing there is as well.
Which is almost weirder than closure would have been.
+Barbara Harris died on Friday. I still remember watching her consecration on NBC news. So the quarter peal we just rang†† is dedicated to her memory, though we may also go with our original plan of dedicating it to everyone affected by teh virus.
It...well, I was not at my best, a couple of other people were not at THEIR best, and in recognition of the solemnity of the occasion, and that this may be our last ringing for an unknown amount of time, we were ringing a weird collection of bells that added up to a minor key, so...it was hard. It was stressful. QPs are USUALLY stressful.
Which is why I went home and drank half a litre of Coniston Blue Bird.
And now we're all preparing for a week at home. "We" means me and my roommates: their schools are closed, so we'll ALL be trying to work from home, and so probably trading off on using the new spare room as a videoconference/distraction-free-getting-shit-done space. It also, of course means Sor, who's in the same boat as them, only with less time to prepare. It means most everybody I know around here, in the same boat. It means my Grandmother, who Dad reminded me to call yesterday. "We were just realizing what it meant," she commented. "It's just going to be Jerry and me and the dog. We usually go out most days. I had talked to someone casually about bridge club on Tuesday, and now of course we can't do that."†††
And it means me, once again. Since I was going to be working from home anyway, I had figured that I could as easily work from somebody else's home, and spend the first part of the week doing a retreat at the Community of Jesus, and the latter part visiting Squigamunk and partner. But the former has been vetoed, and I think it's probably safer if I don't risk being the person who introduces COVID-19 into Maine.
Bugger.
* I don't know if I've made this explicit on here in the past, because I try to avoid anything that might even SLIGHTLY break workplace confidentiality stuff; but at this point, it's ceasing to be confidential, so...
** For various reasons, his mom had had to book him on two two-leg flights between Montreal and Logan. Hopefully, none of us ever have to deal with that again.
*** That we have a spare room, that is. Not the bit about getting to it through M's closet. Somehow, we're not even making "coming out of the closet" jokes.
**** For the moment. There were only about two dozen people at the 9:00 service this morning, High Mass probably had proportionally reduced numbers; Evensong got cancelled altogether; and there is a "strong possibility" that we'll get an order from the Diocese this week suspending all services until this blows over / until Easter.
Ringing MAY still continue, though: New!Rector† reckons it's important that people be reminded that we exist, the Church exists, and God exists, even if our doors are closed.
† who, well, deserves his own post, since he is, umm, a character...
†† Originally, of course, this was going to be a whole quarter peal afternoon, but 3/5 of those planning on taking part are opting for social isolation, though then the remainder agreed that we should ring SOMETHING.
††† My last surviving grandparent, she remains sharp as a tack at 93, and has ALWAYS played a killer game of bridge.
ETA: Oh, and I had two dates this week. Both of which were kinda weird. Because Coronavirus.
no subject
(I'm sorry chaos is happening all at once, but you at least seem to be dealing mostly OK.)
no subject
In my experience so far you're absolutely not wrong, but I *definitely* want to hear more. *chinhands!*
I'm glad that y'all got a useful new space just in time to make really good use of it!
~Sor