Notes from a Self Quarantine

He honestly doesn’t. So far today he’s gone to Home Depot, National Lumber, Shaw’s and Wines & More. Yes, he is working on a home improvement project and needed some more wood stain from National Lumber and had to pick up an order from Home Depot. And yes, I appreciate that he’s always on the look out for local craft beer. But he just doesn’t get the whole “Stay Home” mantra. And I am trying to not freak out if he doesn’t wash his hands immediately when returning home. At this point, he might as well be the “carrier” for our entire town. We now have 10 confirmed cases. My husband has been out and about so much that there’s a good chance he’s chatted with all 10 people.

I have not scrubbed the door knobs today. He’s probably canceling out all my hard work, so I skipped it today. Honestly I feel less freaked out today. Door knob scrubbing pushed me over the edge…

But a silver lining today — there are SO many folks out walking with their families. I went for a run today — that’s a normal Saturday activity for me — and there were so many people out enjoying the warmer temperature! Everyone is going to be so fit after this pandemnic ends, it’s really encouraging. I even saw the local pastor out for a walk — almost two miles from the rectory, good for him!!

But one annoying observation from today — as I come up to a family out for a stroll, I always watch for approaching cars, and move out into the road when it’s clear so the family can stay together on the sidewalk. And that way I am keeping the required social distance. Twice this afternoon, the family in front of me parted on the sidewalk, one half of them going into the road, leaving space for me to run right BETWEEN them. I even tried to go up onto the grass once, but it didn’t work. That’s not really how social distancing works folks…

But I got a run in, didn’t scrub the door knobs, started reading a new book and my husband is making a pot roast on our outside smoker. It was a good Saturday. Now if I can only get him to stay inside tomorrow…

So my husband left the house two different times today — he went to Home Depot, Shaw’s, the office twice to print plans, the Big Y supermarket (he said something about smoking a pot roast tomorrow..) and to the liquor store (he needed to pick up a new 1/6 keg of Harpoon). Then his boss stopped by to pick up the set of plans from the first office trip (they stayed in the driveway) and we had a house appraiser come this afternoon because we’d like to refinance to help pay for the bathroom renovation.

And I just scrubbed all the door knobs again and vacuumed the entire house.

It’s kind of sparkly clean in here, but I’m stressed because I’ve had a bit of congestion with a little sore throat today. My brain tells me it’s probably just springtime allergies, but my nerves are telling me to go find a face mask…

Maybe I will go sit outside in the sun — it won’t be good for my allergies, but it’s warmer today. I have about 20 pages left in the book I am reading, but it’s taking me forever to finish it because I usually read on my commute.

I’ll go do that and try not to think about germs living on the soles of my shoes…

So I just watched a story on the nightly news that talked about how you could bring coronavirus germs into your home on your shoes — on your SHOES! So now after I come home from the grocery store (was there for 10 minutes today, didn’t use a shopping basket, didn’t talk to anyone, walked in the opposite direction of everyone else in the store and only found 3 of 6 items I went for — did you know that now there’s no active yeast to be had??) not only do I have to scrub my hands until they are raw, but now I have to clean my shoes?? I already polished every single door knob in my house (twice!) today. And the second time I used Clorox wipes instead of my non-toxic cleaners (please don’t tell on me!).

Sigh. Sometimes there is just too much information out there for a person to think about.

So let’s talk about happy things. Every year these two little brownish/red birds try to build their nest on top of the light right next to our front door. Now I have no idea if it’s the same two birds every year, I didn’t tag them. But every year I watch two birds try to squeeze twigs and other crap into this small space between the light and the wall — most of it falls out onto the ground. They make a huge mess and are out there faithfully every day trying to build this nest — until my husband knocks the twigs off the light and I sweep up the front steps. It’s awful to watch them come back and sit on the light and wonder where all their hard work has gone. But it’s not a safe place for a nest, we don’t want to scare them or get pecked at — that’s how we rationalize moving the nest.

So this year, I think we are going to let them stay:

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I would like to watch some baby birds. My husband thinks that they will just fall out of the nest and die, but I am going to be optimistic on this one. If I have to clean off my shoes, I can certainly enjoy watching new life be born right outside my front door.

But please don’t tell him!

I was really worried for our first full day home together — not that he was home the whole time — he went into the office to print some files for a co-worker (ugh, I never asked him if he went to drop off said files to the co-worker because I didn’t want to know the answer.), then he stopped at Home Depot and the grocery store (because the man just cannot stay home, I’ve given up reminding him). He did pick up some pretty inexpensive, but large, pork loin ribs for the weekend so I guess that I can’t be too mad…

But the best part of the day (so it was really last night, but whatever) — he cleaned out the mound of shoes he’s been storing behind his reclining chair in the living room, the bedroom closet AND the pile in the corner of our bedroom!! That’s a ton of old dirty sneakers, flip flops and slippers — like 4 paper bags worth of shoes (that’s how many trips he took to the outside garbage bin).

And today he cleaned out a box of old blurry photos, painted that spot on the bedroom wall from when our alarm company switched us to a smaller panel and moved that awful office chair no one has used in 12 years to the basement (he needs a seat cause he’s going to stain a new wooden door for our bathroom). And he just cleaned out a bin of pajama bottoms and sweatshirts that I have been complaining about for a good 5 years!

This has been the best day of self quarantining so far! And we both got our office work done too. I wonder what he will do tomorrow! I might just get my house organized, but please don’t tell anyone…

I spent most of the morning cleaning up our dining room so my husband could set up his home office. Yes, I was supposed to be working, not searching for a silly surge protector that we misplaced months ago. (And yes, I am still dealing with all the junk that had to be moved out of the closet into the spare room for our bathroom remodel, my work is never done!)

But we got it all set up! And this will now be my dining room/kitchen for at least the next 2 weeks:

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And then I had to hide in my home “office” and make sure I was “quiet” because he had a conference call at 3:30 p.m. How many more days do we have to do this??

Our governor announced this morning that as of tomorrow at 12 p.m., all non-essential businesses must close and those workers are to remain at home for the next two weeks. My private self quarantine will be ending — my husband will be now stuck at home with me. I’m not quite sure how this is going to work — I alternate between my desk top computer in a spare room, and sitting at the kitchen counter with my iPad. Alexa is always playing music from my kitchen. I leave lights on when I am not in the room. I might have slightly turned the heat up today…

I have until 12 p.m. on Tuesday to do my own thing — yes, he’s going into the office one more time before he’s banned (social distancing buddy!!). Then after that I’ll probably be stuck in the spare room “office” and Alexa will be forced to be quiet. Sigh.

He’s mad at me anyway — when the Governor’s announcement came out about shutting down non-essential work places, my husband’s first reaction was — “Go fill up your gas tank now!”. I reassured him that I already had 3/4 of a tank and that I was supposed to be WORKING, now going to get gas in the middle of the afternoon. He wasn’t too happy that I wasn’t going to the gas station (it’s my car anyway and it’s not like I am driving to work, cranky pants!). Don’t tell him — after he went back to the office I drove up to the gas station and filled up. It cost me $5.

And then it started snowing! We got 1/2 inch. It’s supposed to be 55 degrees tomorrow. It’s a strange time.

Here it is Sunday night — my husband and I are doing our normal Sunday routine — we slept in a little, yoga class at 10 a.m. for me (did it virtual today!), he went for a run. I put together the weekely shopping list — he did the food shopping, I cleaned out the fridge and put the new stuff away. I changed the bed (nothing better than fresh sheets on a Sunday night!), he made pizza dough — we always make a grilled pizza on Sunday evenings. It was a nice normal day.

Which I needed because I’m not going into the office tomorrow, I am going to work at home just like so many other folks. It’s odd, that’s all I can say about it. The one real positive thing I have noticed — there are so many folks out walking with their families! I went for a run yesterday and the bike path was crowded! (social distancing people!) Maybe that’s the silver lining — folks will start to really value their health and wellness and get out there in the sunshine and keep moving!

And I cleaned out a little more of the junk in our spare room this evening — now that’s a silver lining! Maybe one day I will be able to walk in there without tripping over something. Happy Sunday folks, we got this!

I sure did, boy was that a surprise!

But some good news — our “spare” bathroom renovation was completed yesterday! It’s beautiful!!

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It’s a totally different room now! Clean, bright and looks so much bigger!! And no more robin’s egg blue toilet, tub and sink (it wasn’t too blue in the before picture, just take my word)!! I’m been looking at different colored gray towels all day — I bought a few different shades at Kohl’s last weekend, figuring I would return the ones I didn’t like. Now Kohl’s is closed…

I am so happy with the finished bathroom! And really sad the contractor won’t be back on Monday, I was enjoying having someone in the house with me…

So we did order take out from the pub up the street last night. It was weird ordering food at the bar and then taking it home…

But the burgers were yummy and messy — two of my favorite things!

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Please don’t tell my mom that I ate a burger on a Friday during Lent! I “paid” for it though — I was cleaning up the kitchen last night, ready to pour myself another glass of wine and sit in my favorite spot in the kitchen and read for a little bit. I managed to knock over my empty wine glass and it shattered into a dozen pieces all over my favorite spot! I cleaned it up and went to bed, obviously the universe was trying to tell me something.

Oh and my husband went to his sports massage appointment today — the man does not know how to social distance himself!! I am happy that the massage therapist got paid, but hello social distance!

I’m going to go try to pour myself a glass of wine — maybe I’ll use a plastic glass. Wish me luck!

Today was a weird day. I slept through my alarm for the first time all week. I still “arrived” at work on time, but I felt pretty off my game for most of the morning. Then work was actually a little busy today, which I so appreciate because I was so, so bored yesterday. I got a bunch done, and have some more stuff to do on Monday (cause I gotta save some stuff for Monday!!).

Now it’s Friday evening and my husband and I usually walk up the street to the local pub, sit at the bar, have some good beer, a messy burger and hang out with friends that we’ve made over the years. So now what…

So the pub is still open for take out — we ordered a couple of burgers (please don’t tell my mom or the church I attend most Sundays, it’s Lent for goodness sake!) My husband tried to convince me that because Mass is cancelled due to the coronavirus, so is Lent. I am not sure it works that way buddy…

So we’ll walk up there in a little bit, grab our burgers and…come home. Hmmmm…I guess we didn’t really think this one through. What is everyone else doing tonight??

Day 3 was a busy morning — we had a packed house for about an hour, which is the exact opposite of social distancing people…

Our bathroom contractor was here first thing. Today was also our house cleaner’s day to clean our house (yes, I have a house cleaner, don’t judge me! It’s the most amazing thing to come home from work and your entire house is clean at the SAME time. It’s absolutely worth it, best money I have ever spent!). So she’s here with her two assistants, plus my husband is still home (cause he’s still going into his office, which is local, but he’s really not grabbed the concept of social distancing yet) and our contractor is here. So I hid out in my new “office” which is currently surrounded by junk that’s usually in closets and the spare bathroom because…that bathroom is currently getting redone.

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I also need to clean some of the crap of this desk — I need more space if I am going to be working from home! Why are all these batteries next to my keyboard?

The cleaners and my husband leave an hour later, my house is sparkling (they scrubbed all the door knobs!) and I get a good amount of work done. I also clean out a drawer of my desk. Who knew I had so many old pens that don’t work — where did they come from?? And why are they still here??

After work, my husband and I take a walk around the center of town — it’s crazy how empty it is, just a couple of cars and a few folks out walking. My husband tells me he drove his boss’s lap top over to his house (his boss just had surgery) and hung out chatting for an hour with the boss, his wife and another co-worker (this man really does not get social distancing!).

We’re going to try to order take out tonight — Thursday night is pizza night at my house! Hopefully they are still delivering. My husband’s been pretty depressed about no sports on TV — no Thursday night pizza just might be his breaking point… Wish me luck! I think I’m going to go clean out another drawer in the desk first…