It’s been 35 days since I started counting. Let’s check-in.
School
Remote learning has been extended until the end of the year and will end on June 5. I’m not surprised by it so it is what it is. At least the boys are getting out 3 weeks early and it won’t conflict with our camping trip if that is still able to happen. Our next question is what will happen with camps. Will they be canceled? If so, we’re going to have lots of work-from-home to look forward to…
Shopping
I’m still shopping every week but I’ve started wearing a mask when I go out. I made my own out of one of my older button-up shirts and some hair ties but have been able to replace them with fancy sewn ones that I got from Sally’s mom.
Market Basket seems to be the most serious place that I go in terms of distancing, implementing a 75 person limit, 6-foot markers, gloves and masks for employees, plexiglass at registers and now one-way aisles. That’s right, one aisle goes down and the other goes up – no turning around. It actually does make the flow a little bit better, you just have to think a bit more critically as you go through your list, otherwise you have to go up and around again.
Hannaford is limiting its store to 100 people but doesn’t have a one-way system. I went to Target in Greenland and it was like a free-for-all with only tiny signs about distancing, no consistent masks and gloves for employees, and a ton of people whizzing about. Home Depot still has a limit and Tendercrop Farm won’t even let you shop without a mask (they will provide one if you need it).
Hardware Casualties
I’ve managed to break two different devices in the past five weeks. First was my iMac, which I’ve had since 2010 and have been using as an external monitor for my work laptop. It’s been working great until it suddenly wouldn’t boot. It runs really, really hot when used as a monitor and I think three weeks of all-day use literally fried my SSD. Luckily I borrowed my monitor from work so I have that until I care enough to look at the iMac.
I also managed to break my own MacBook Pro by trying to repair the sticky spacebar on my butterfly keyboard. I watched YouTube videos, I was careful, and I still managed to completely destroy it. I’ve tried putting a wireless Magic Keyboard on top for typing but that still hits the keys underneath and does weird things. I’ve remapped my right-hand command key to the spacebar but that just isn’t good in practice. I’m typing this on an 11″ MacBook Air from 2012 and it’s actually rather passable for most of what I do outside of photo editing. I’ll bring my MacBook Pro to Apple once all of this is over. Until then I’ve got creative options at my disposal.
Getting Out of the House
The weather wasn’t great last week with a few days that were rainy, cold, or both. When it isn’t bad, we go out for a family walk through the neighborhood to stretch. Sometimes I go during the workday as well. We’ve started taking drives, which the boys generally don’t like until we stop and let them play somewhere. We went to Hilton Park and let the boys pop seaweed, we went to Pickering Ponds in Rochester and fought clouds of gnats, and went to Prescott Park last night to see the water and visit the graveyard. It’s nice to get out and weird to go to places like Prescott Park when they are deserted. I’ll probably head out for night photos when the weather warms up a bit.
Around the House
It’s been a busy weekend. I went on a shopping spree and my items started arriving last week. I needed to make room in the closet so I took stuff out to donate and decided to go through my dresser as well. Sally joined in on the fun and now we have 3 bags of donations. It rained on Saturday so most of our time was spent doing things inside. We capped off the evening playing Jackbox games over Zoom with some friends. It was a lot of fun!
Today was a different story. I headed to Home Depot to pick up wood for two afternoon projects. Sally framed out a window in our garage that was never finished. She kicked all of the spiders out and it looks really good. At their request, I started enclosing the boys’ playhouse in their swing set. They now have walls on 3 sides, complete with a window and sill. It doesn’t look amazing, but that’s what makes it a clubhouse. There is a bit more to do but it’s almost as complete as they wanted it to be. Despite the fit and finish, we’re pretty proud of ourselves.
I capped off the evening with my first #coronacut and let Sally give me a haircut. It looks good and my head feels lighter.
Until next time!
Relatively Ambitious 