Cabin Fever

I don’t mind being cooped up in the house. The problem is, I’m cooped up with three other people, all ladies, plus a dog!

What a surreal time. Last week, if you weren’t watching or listening to the news, everything looked perfectly normal and fine. Kids were outside shooting hoops, riding bikes, people were walking dogs. Lots of traffic. Yeah, it got pretty freaky this run on food and basic supplies, and part of it affected the Mrs, but with things now like Amazon we can have such items delivered to our door. We’re well-stocked with food and supplies for the next two weeks or so.

Now, looking out my window at work, it’s a ghost town. The building across from mine is completely empty. Another is at perhaps ten percent staff, based on the number of cars I see in the parking lot. At my own company, I’m one of a dozen here today as I write this, out of a regular staff of thirty. I have a laptop prepped and bring all my work home every night in case the building is shut down overnight.

Don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve never been healthier. I’ve eaten two oranges a day for the past ten days, along with taking all my supplements, especially the vitamin D. Also walked a mile and a half every day this week. Haven’t had a beer or glass of Pinot Noir all year. And with restaurants shut down, I’ve been denied my el guapo, pizza. I’d be at minus-five if it wasn’t for that order of Girl Scout cookies that came in just before this all hit.

Remote schooling has been a success. In fact, I think the girls are working harder than they do while in school. The dog is having a blast because everyone’s home all the time = more petting and affection. The wife works from home in our semi-refurnished basement where our desks are. But she’s getting stressed out due to her job and the economic slowdown and uncertainty and a bunch of other factors and variables which I do not entertain on this blog.

We keep our sanity in various ways. The girls, 15 and 11, now hang out in each other’s rooms, giggling, making dopey but funny videos, playing Minecraft and other retro games on their phones, practicing their instruments (clarinet and sax) and even reading. The wife and my oldest cook together, and as a family we’ve been watching the Jack Ryan Netflix series. We watched A Hard Day’s Night a few evenings back, as we’re all Beatles fans. On Tuesday we played a round of Scrabble at the dining room table.

I’m speeding up through The Count of Monte Cristo, a monster of a book I am reading with Patch, on her recommendation. I’m on page 878, she’s coming up to 300.  I am pleasantly surprised, and it’s turned out to be a great read. More on that later, probably in a month when it’s finished (I have 364 more pages to go – it’s longer than The Lord of the Rings trilogy). I also found a new guru (again, more on that later) and keep working diligently on my historical novel. So, we’re all keeping busy.

Not to belittle the tragic aspect of the Wu Flu, but I do think our nation is over-reacting. That’s my gut, not my mind, speaking. My mind really knows very little about infectious disease. But I like to think I have a high BS-detector, and I think it’s really been given a workout this month. So much contradictory information and opinion out there. I’ve basically skipped all the hysterical internet commentary as well as TV news. There is an agenda out there; I think one would be foolish to deny that. But, as with everything, the truth always lies somewhere in the middle. Where that middle is, I don’t know. But I tend to think it’s closer to the “this too shall pass” side than the “coronapocalypse” one.

Well, stay safe and healthy.