The Quarantine Diaries

Day 45

0530 My internal clock is telling me I should get up. You’re late for the climbing gym. You want to skip traffic. You have a ton of work to do and it’s easier to get it done before everyone else shows up at the office. I shut that shit down, steal the blanket back from my husband, and fall back asleep.

0655 The first alarm goes. I just fell all the way back asleep. Hard pass.

0710 The second alarm goes off. This time I roll out of bed and limp my way to the kitchen. This is why I prep coffee the night before. Hit the “go” button and then the bathroom. Cold face wash gets my eyes open, and working the ankles gets them actually mobilizing for the day.

0715 Coffee time. Also a yogurt. But mostly coffee. A decade of exposure to my cheerful morning ways keeps the husband from talking to me and it’s fantastic. 10/10 would recommend.

0745 Actually awake and approaching functional. I consider putting on real pants, and opt for yoga pants (again). Jeans are a relic of the past, but I try not to wear actual pajama pants during the day. Relocate from the kitchen island to the dining room table, aka my work station. If I think about it at all, I get annoyed that I’ve given up my dining room table to work from home. We’ve been eating in the kitchen, standing up, and on the floor or couch the last two months. 3/10 would not recommend.

0750 Log in, check emails and missed Teams messages. Grumble about how stupid this is. Start working on whatever nonsense I had going the day before.

0830 The daily department check-in meeting is such an adventure. We’re all keeping busy, and while this call always starts on-topic, we wind up discussing home buying, yard work, and how reports from people who have “recovered” from Covid are incredibly terrifying. I compare Covid to polio insofar as just because you survive doesn’t mean it doesn’t fuck up your life long-term. Surprisingly, nobody disagrees with me. We all agree that discussing it in terms of mortality and recovery rates alone doesn’t capture the actual magnitude of the pandemic. We’ve been in this meeting for 45 minutes and off topic for 20. We should probably go do the things we actually get paid for.

1000 The husband wanders out of his “office” (aka the gear room, home of the climbing gear, camping equipment, and general happiness. I think he got the better office space in our arrangement. I wonder if I can convince him to trade work stations?). We go on a walk to the coffee stand down the street. It’s a nice excuse to stand up and move around for 5 minutes. Also coffee. I should really build a shrine to it.

1010 Triple shot americano in hand, it’s back to work. Time to zone in and do… oh god, why is the model acting like this? These numbers don’t make sense… the math isn’t that complicated… maybe I’ll do a hand calc just to compare. Wait, I’ve already done hand calcs. Okay, I guess I’ll update it to the specific modeling method. I swear I’ve been stuck in this loop for a week.

The model I’m working on looks like a penis. Has anyone else noticed this? How has nobody commented on how bloody phallic this geometry is. *snicker*

I think I know why the program is outputting different values. But I want someone to confirm. Tech support is lost and just sent me to an actual programmer. He’s lovely and looking in the back-end at equations and dependencies for me. I’m pretty sure I found a fairly important limitation (from a user-perspective) when constructing models, but I really want it confirmed. Have I mentioned I want confirmation of my hunch?

1300 How is it already afternoon? I should grab some food. Looks like leftovers. I’m down with that. Oh! Cookies! I like cookies.

1305 Back to the models. Maybe I’ll stop trying to figure out what’s going on and just use a simplified method. Less exact, more conservative, but at least I understand why it’s calculating things the way it is.

1400 The phone rings. Who even uses phones anymore? Isn’t that why we have Teams and email? There’s a metaphorical dumpster fire and they need me to design a retaining wall. “Do you have a couple hours to get on this?” Not really, but I suppose there isn’t anyone else, sooooooo…. “They need it designed by Wednesday. Have to get it submitted for permitting.” Alrighty then. I am a retaining wall ninja. I shall design this retaining wall using my extra-special Mathcad sheet. I went through it and updated it to highlight the user inputs, manual table updates, and check values a couple weeks ago. This will be a good test to see if I missed anything.

Ooooooh! How do other states have such well laid out design guides and standard drawings? This is making my life so much easier! I should get a Washington license and only work on jobs down there.

1600 It’s quitting time. Working through lunch is great. I love not working. I should probably finish this retaining wall design though…. It’s almost done. 5 more minutes.

1630 Time is a construct and I’m bad at managing it. Quitting time for real. Switch from the dining room office back to the kitchen island, open up the laptop, and dink around on the internet for a bit. Mmmmm internet. For some reason, I’m cranky. No reason to be, but I feel my mood deteriorating. I blame work and being stuck in the house.

1700 The husband is done with work. We discuss going for a run, but he needs half an hour to “decompress.” Fine. I can wait. The couch is calling.

1730 Run time. In a fit of stir-crazy, I signed up for a virtual race with a couple friends. It comes with a training plan. Being slightly compulsive, I’ve been trying to stick to it. I hate training plans, but I guess it keeps me motivated. I am now fully on edge and rapidly approaching stabby. According to the plan, it’s a 3 to 5 mile day. Fuck that noise, I want to sit on the couch and not wear pants and wallow in my crankiness.

Mile 1: This is stupid. I hate my job. I want to stab everyone.

Mile 2: I guess things are actually okay. I like being outside.

Mile 3: I suppose I also like my husband. I’m actually in pretty good shape these days… all this running around the neighborhood is good for my mileage.

Mile 4: Goddammit stupid diabetes. Blood sugar is tanking. The day is beautiful and I’m happy again, but also fuck everything cuz I’m low. I seriously need to reconsider my diet.

1900 Finally got the blood sugar level trending up. No idea what we’re doing for dinner. I hope that if I ignore it, the husband or sister will cook. We play a sad game of cooking chicken in this house. I often win.

2000 Consider showering but decide it’s too late and I don’t want to sleep on wet hair. This is a garbage excuse, since nobody sees me in this time of Covid. We turn on White Collar and zone out to the TV instead. Amazon Prime has surprisingly limited commercials. Also, Rachael Ray’s dog food commercial is making me homicidal. Nobody should be that perky. It plays every time there’s a break. Kill me now.

2200 Despite heckling from the couch, I call it a night and relocate to the bed. Not like I’m going to sleep or anything… I start off reading a couple chapters of “Sapiens” and then switch to a free trashy romance novel. Variety is the spice of life. Also, thinking keeps me up at night. I refer to romance novels as a “pallet cleanser”.  

2330 Unfortunately, the pallet cleanser is easy reading and I go through half the book before I feel tired. Did I read this much trash before social distancing? I should really go to sleep…