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State of the Mouse, 70 Days Later
5 years ago
General
UNSPOILED BY PROGRESS
On Friday, March 13th koray and drove our friend chrislynx to the airport so he could fly out to visit his Mom in the U.S. It was early in the morning, before dawn. On the way back we stopped at a diner. It was quiet, but there were a few others there even that early.
By the end of the day, everything had shut down. Our two kids live part time with their Mom and her partners (one of whom is @chrislynx), but since two of the three members of that household work in jobs that deal with the public, it was decided the kids should remain at the Mousehold for the foreseeable future. I've been working from home for the last five years, first as a tech writer and then as a infosec consultant, so my job did not change much.
It's been an interesting 70 days. I turned 46. My kids turned 17 and 14. I jumped back furiously into some hobbies. I dug up neglected cameras and film, ordered new developing chemicals, and finally got off my arse to get all the bits to get my TI-99/4A home computer working (it's 39 years old!). I cleaned the basement! I ran some RPG sessions for my kids - 1st edition Gamma World. I put a few dozen hours into Skyrim on the Switch. We only eat out once a week now, because we are cooking more.
It has - and this is an incredibly privileged and fortunate thing for me to admit - been a relatively stable and calm period. There have been some anxiety dreams, and many days where I struggle to get any work done. In other ways, the anxiety feels almost comforting. The world seems a more dangerous place. In other words, it feels like my childhood. There is a sort of wan pleasure in being able to nod and say, "Yes, NOW you kids get something proper to fret about." But all in all I'd rather have a world where the biggest things we have to worry about are the plots of TV shows and where we are going to go on vacation.
I have gotten into a few frustrating arguments on Facebook, with COVIDiots, the sort of people who think Michigan outlawed the sale of seeds and American flags. I am avoiding these now.
I've been reading a lot. I've polished off six or seven Agatha Christie novels since this all began, all first time reads for me. I have also listened to dozens of hours of Hearts of Space and dozens of episodes of the 1940s radio sit-com, The Great Gildersleeve. Yeah, I know. I have deliberately anachronistic interests like this in lieu of having an actual personality. ;)
I miss road trips. I miss conventions. I miss physical contact with my girlfriend and my squishes, as well as local friends. I miss Thursday night at the diner with my kids, and hugging my folks. I miss the monthly Lord of the Rings RPG I was in, and I miss sort of schlepping around the local freak and geek community like a middle-aged personification of a shaggy dog story.
But, all this will return. And in the meantime we are fed and safe and carrying on, if not precisely thriving.
By the end of the day, everything had shut down. Our two kids live part time with their Mom and her partners (one of whom is @chrislynx), but since two of the three members of that household work in jobs that deal with the public, it was decided the kids should remain at the Mousehold for the foreseeable future. I've been working from home for the last five years, first as a tech writer and then as a infosec consultant, so my job did not change much.
It's been an interesting 70 days. I turned 46. My kids turned 17 and 14. I jumped back furiously into some hobbies. I dug up neglected cameras and film, ordered new developing chemicals, and finally got off my arse to get all the bits to get my TI-99/4A home computer working (it's 39 years old!). I cleaned the basement! I ran some RPG sessions for my kids - 1st edition Gamma World. I put a few dozen hours into Skyrim on the Switch. We only eat out once a week now, because we are cooking more.
It has - and this is an incredibly privileged and fortunate thing for me to admit - been a relatively stable and calm period. There have been some anxiety dreams, and many days where I struggle to get any work done. In other ways, the anxiety feels almost comforting. The world seems a more dangerous place. In other words, it feels like my childhood. There is a sort of wan pleasure in being able to nod and say, "Yes, NOW you kids get something proper to fret about." But all in all I'd rather have a world where the biggest things we have to worry about are the plots of TV shows and where we are going to go on vacation.
I have gotten into a few frustrating arguments on Facebook, with COVIDiots, the sort of people who think Michigan outlawed the sale of seeds and American flags. I am avoiding these now.
I've been reading a lot. I've polished off six or seven Agatha Christie novels since this all began, all first time reads for me. I have also listened to dozens of hours of Hearts of Space and dozens of episodes of the 1940s radio sit-com, The Great Gildersleeve. Yeah, I know. I have deliberately anachronistic interests like this in lieu of having an actual personality. ;)
I miss road trips. I miss conventions. I miss physical contact with my girlfriend and my squishes, as well as local friends. I miss Thursday night at the diner with my kids, and hugging my folks. I miss the monthly Lord of the Rings RPG I was in, and I miss sort of schlepping around the local freak and geek community like a middle-aged personification of a shaggy dog story.
But, all this will return. And in the meantime we are fed and safe and carrying on, if not precisely thriving.
I've been working through Raymond Chandler lately, good stuff.