paulradcliffe.me

COVID-19 May 2020 Update

When this lockdown started, I thought it would only be about two weeks. That was naive and shortsighted. In the many Asian countries that were hit first, it was 3-5 months before things turned a little more normal.

It’s interesting to go out for groceries and see a contrast between how some people are handling this: Some seem to be listening, going out with masks and gloves and keeping distance. Others, seem to think nothing is wrong, no masks or gloves, loitering about, standing too close, and acting as if nothing is wrong.

Obviously, a lot of people want this pandemic to end sooner than later. I worry about what that will look like. I worry people will rush out and congregate freely too soon, and that we may have another shutdown. And I worry about the rush to activity, and the relentless marketing that will follow to get some industries back up again. There will probably be a big FOMO (fear of missing out) narrative to entice people to throw caution aside and go to restaurants, concerts, sporting events and/or travel as much as possible. I foresee celebrities (and pseudo-celebrities) bragging about some amazing place or experience trying to entice people back out. The siren-like calls will be loud, brash, and aggressive. It’ll be quite a contrast to the 6+ weeks of isolation and family time.

My family has gotten into a routine. After breakfast we go for a walk every day. I’ve been tracking the walking distance with my Garmin and uploading the results to Garmin Connect and Strava. To my dismay, Strava doesn’t count “walks” towards mileage. My Garmin Connect says we’re up around 55km for the month!

We binge watched through the latest episodes of Terrace House. Netflix is great! Subtitles, not so much.

Being home non-stop provides some interesting challenges. I am about a month overdue for a haircut, so I have probably the biggest mess of hair I’ve ever had. And I stopped shaving several weeks ago. There’s nowhere to go, so why shave? I have a pretty narly neckbeard going, but my wife says she doesn’t mind.

It has been really nice having this extended time with the family. My wife, toddler, daughter and I are quite the quaran-team! We do sleep in a bit, and sometimes take midday naps with the toddler. We quite enjoy each others’ company and find we work well together.

The studio where we were studying Tai Chi has gone to online teaching only for the time being. Fortunately, it’s all free, and I invite you to try a Qi Gong class or something! It’s not the same as in person, especially with the toddler running around, but it’s better than nothing.

We are continuing to battle with grocery store pickups. Some locations are getting better with organization and completeness, and we plan to go back to those. I am VERY honest when we get follow-up emails asking “how did we do?”

I’m cooking a lot, and my wife is baking too. I even posted a couple of recipes We have the time to cook (and do the ensuing dishes) so making complete meals mostly from scratch is a privilege we can enjoy for now.

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We have continued playing Overcooked 2 on the Nintendo Switch and have finished all the levels in the main game and 3 of the DLC expansions. We are currently trying to get bonuses and higher scores in all the levels.

I have found that I can only really do things I need or want to do after we put the baby to bed. If I’m lucky, that means I can start paying bills, cooking for the next day, and maybe even a leisure activity or two starting around 9pm. Often it’s closer to 10:30 or 11 by the time I can slip out of the bedroom to do my own thing. And that means I’m often hitting the hay closer to 2 or 3am.

I have been playing the newest Pokemon game, Pokemon Shield. It takes me back to each of the 8 generations of Pokemon games I’ve been playing since I was 10-years-old. I finished the game, and am a little sad that the adventure is over. It’s probably for the best because I really shouldn’t be staying up until 2am playing a video game.

And I’ve been painting a lot of Warhammer models during this lockdown. I find it quite fulfilling. And I think I’m getting better. It is rather time-consuming, and I always wish I had more time.

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In the last post, I said I had started a little garden in a greenhouse. It was doing well for a few weeks, but has since died. I think there was some mould on the tomato seeds, and it spread amongst all the seedlings and killed them all. I supposed if I had transplanted them outside they would have survived, but it has been unusually cold for February.

It doesn’t look like I’ll be going back to work any time soon. I started the back-to-work process in January, but considering the state of the world right now, I’m pretty luck still be on Long-Term Disability. I get the feeling that the HR department at my workplace has bigger things to worry about that processing my return to work documents. And, it looks like my employer is temporarily layoff 1200 workers. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be back to work soon.

I expect next month to be quite different. My wife’s maternity leave is ending and she is already doing some of her teaching work from home. I have started a self-study course, and it is even more intense than I expected. I estimate I will need to study about two hours a day for the twelve-week period. The course is a very good use of my time, but there are things I’d rather do that pour over these thousands of pages of boring codes and regulations for hours each day.