Love in the Time of COVID

Today marks Day 16 since my company directed me and my peers to work from home until at least April 6. The same directive was made of DW, so we've been working under the same roof ever since.

Of course, a lot has changed since March 12, with the governments stepping up and ordering non-essential workers to stay at home and it looks as though we could be stuck indoors until May.

It's a good thing that I love my family.

The kids have handled this pandemic rather well, all things considered. DD16, who was beginning March Break as of the 14th was grumpy at first, but as long as she could be on FaceTime with her friends, she was fine. One of her friends even visited, briefly, as she and her mother were running errands and drove up to our house. DD16 and she chatted, face-to-face, from a safe distance.

DD19 is a homebody by nature, and is perfectly content to spend hours in her room, playing video games or streaming movies on her computer. She was recently accepted to her dream program, next fall, and has been registering for campus residency and making plans. If this pandemic is done by the end of summer, she'll be flying from the nest.

(I will not cry. I will not cry.)

DW has set up her office space in our dining room: I'm in the basement. So far, we haven't been much of a distraction for one another. We usually have coffee and breakfast together, and then we head to our respective desks, not seeing each other again until I come up for more coffee or until lunch—though I usually take my lunch down to the basement, where I eat while I continue to work.

Old habits die hard.

At the end of the day, she and I go for a walk around the neighbourhood or somewhere that we hope is away from other people.

When we need groceries, only one of us goes. There's no point in subjecting two people to possible infection, and the last thing that stores need is more people crowding the aisles. Full grocery orders are collected once a week. If we've forgotten something, it has to be really important to warrant a second trip.

We haven't filled our car with gas since March 14 and don't expect to do so for a few more days. That's not just because our hybrid is that much more fuel-economical: that's because we don't go anywhere.

I was talking with my mother, and she was saying that we're very fortunate: no one in our family is sick, all of my siblings are able to work from home, and we will probably ride out this difficult time and come out on the other side, unscathed. She's absolutely right.

In the meantime, we'll do our part, avoiding unnecessary trips outside, keeping a safe distance from others, and helping to flatten that curve.

It helps that I love being around my wife and kids. It makes this pandemic livable.

How are you doing? Hang in there. We'll all get through this.