Work at home Day 4 or 5 or 6 ….

Depends on when you count from. I’m losing track.

Last Thursday was the last day I was in the office. That day started with a haircut, then I drove to campus, and worked until about 4:30. I planned on stopping to get gas on the way home, and that meant that there I was on University Avenue, heading west towards the grocery co-op and grocery stores before 5:00, so I thought, “I guess I should shop a bit”. At the co-op, where fear was in the air, I was able to get flour, and eggs, and bananas, but no toilet paper. I got bacon and some Italian sausage envisioning future meals. I stopped at the regular grocery store thinking I could get more flour maybe, but they didn’t have any, and no toilet paper, so I got a big bag of sugar, 10-lbs. – all that was left, but still way less than what I buy for cookie season, so I was not intimidated by that big bag of sugar, the way other shoppers probably were. Then thinking what else could be good for hunkering down at home, I grabbed a bottle of whiskey. But turned out I really needed brandy more. Oh well – liquor keeps.

Friday I worked from home, although Mark and I went for a walk for coffee. Al came over to pick up extra computer monitors for his work from home, and John texted me at about 3:00 that he & Megan were on their way here from Chicago, because their dad Jeff was here, drove down from Michigan where he and Cheri were visiting her dad. Which they all say they told me was happening, but I completely forgot – although it could’ve been at the big dinner we had in Chicago, after the opera when Mark and I were on our way to Myrtle Beach, way back in February. I had two glasses of wine.

I think I told you about the weekend – family here, though we did try to limit contact as much as possible.

Monday marked the start of the real work at home – told you a bit about that too, already – and a virtual yoga class that evening. 7:00 PM is not my favorite time for yoga, I’m too tired and if I eat before too full, and if I wait to eat after, like Monday, too hungry, and especially since I was home – I bailed about 15 minutes early and we ate dinner. Re-heated turkey noodles and purple coleslaw, and leftover puff pastry straws.

And I baked a loaf of long-rise bread that had been rising all day.

Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day went unnoticed. I had a webinar at noon, and spent the morning getting ready. Then Mark & I ventured out as a team to the grocery store. We got pretty much everything we wanted, but no garlic. It was in its usual open barrel at Metcalfe’s and a guy was sort of poking at it and looking disappointed, or that’s what it looked like to me from my regulation six feet away. So I decided it wasn’t worth it to go over and wait my turn, to similarly poke at the garlic and be disappointed, and we checked out. It was a beautiful sunny day and we went for a walk after our shopping adventure. I made a swing by the corner grocery store on my way back, while Mark stopped for coffee, and I got two nice big bulbs. So set for garlic.

Tuesday I made sort of a weird dinner, by Mark’s lights – this sweet potato salad from Smitten Kitchen and kind of Spanish rice, using up the partial bunches of cilantro & parsley I had in the fridge and a little bit of Tipi tomato juice I had had in the freezer from summer, and thawed out to thin down the beef stew to make it into soup on Friday, and lots of garlic, and a jalapeno that was lurking the veggie drawer. He liked the rice. I said it was a light supper so we could have pie because half of the Pi Day pie was still left – but I decided to have a whiskey soda instead, I bought that extra bottle, remember, while Mark had some of the pie. And watched This Is Us, and some of New Amsterdam.

Wednesday was John’s birthday and I sent him his birthday song, and was planning to only clean out email with my laptop on the kitchen counter, and then take a vacation day.

That didn’t work so well – I ended up in two online meetings, worked until about 3:00, although at least I was in PJs until about 1:00. Then I finally got out for a walk, and then another kinda weird dinner in Mark’s eyes – pita bread with toppings: hummus, bacon bits and salami fried up together, cheese, the purple coleslaw, salad with Ranch dressing and grated Parmesan and toasted bread crumbs. I had my pita with hummus and the fried meats, while Mark went for cheese and the meats. I think Mark really doesn’t like hummus. For dessert, we finished the pie with the last of the ice cream, and watched the movie Yesterday, which was sweet and appropriately Beatle mania for Johnny’s birthday, my son who is named after John Lennon, and really all the Beatles, except Ringo – he’s John Paul George.

Thursday I set my phone alarm for my normal work day time, 6:45, when it’s still pretty dark nowadays – and then when it went off I couldn’t remember why I set it, and stayed in bed. I mean, Mark’s fitbit goes off at 7:00 anyways, and the radio comes on. Then I remembered that it was trash day and I hadn’t collected up the trash the night before, planning to do it in the AM. It all worked out OK. As I wheeled the trash cart to the end of the driveway I saw the trash truck approaching. I took the compost to the back yard and dumped it, and by the time I got back to the driveway, the truck had been by and I wheeled the cart back to its spot.

I made St Joseph’s Day bread – like challah with egg and honey, and anise seed and yellow raisons, too – sometimes challah has raisons.

I got more serious about grading in my online class after that, and then had an online meeting that went pretty much all afternoon. So I never went outside at all, except to take out the trash and compost, in the morning when it was nice. After my meeting, it was rainy and just not nice, although better than the thunder and downpour that we’d had earlier.

We facetimed with Belinda to see Sascha, Belinda and Stephens baby who’s just a few days past 4 months old. We haven’t been able to touch her yet because of corona virus, but facetime was fun.

For Thursday dinner, we had enchiladas filled with the sweet potato salad and cheddar and goat cheese, and the rice. We watched this Willy Nelson virtual music fest:

And I got the tax stuff together – thereby missing Paul Simon and Edie Brickell. I saw Lucinda Williams and the hat guy – he was cool – downstairs on my computer. And upstairs on the big screen, Nathaniel Ratelif, without the Night Sweats, and Willie, Lukas, and Micah Nelson. Oh, and Neil Young, who’s not on the schedule, but did a vampire blues. Oh yea, and I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, and scooped it into cookies, and then chilled it over night.

Friday my plan was to bake the cookies, then take the tax stuff out the accountant in Verona, and then go shop at Willy St. And take a bag of food to Belinda and Stephen and Sascha. I was hoping to get to the co-op between 10:00 and 11:00 when shopping is limited to over-60s like me and health care workers. But first I had a phone call with a prospective graduate student, so I didn’t get there until about 10:45 and they were having people wait in line to limit the number of people in the store, which I totally get, but was totally not prepared for, when there were about 10-12 people in line ahead of me, and it was 40° with little snowflakes whipping around. I decided to go to Whole Foods, and it was a little uncomfortably crowded there, although most of the people in the aisles were staff, picking out groceries for to-go orders. I got everything I wanted (carrots, onions, a cabbage, and even extra milk and toilet paper) except flour, and I picked up a purple onion, a bunch of cilantro, and a half gallon of milk for Belinda. I gave them three of the enchiladas and the last of the rice, and some hummus and pita, and cookies. I left their stuff on their porch and texted them to come get it, just like Door Dash.

When I got home I tried to order flour online and that turns out to be a bit difficult. King Arthur where I’m a member and get free shipping, good for heavy stuff like flour, is sold out. Various grocery stores in Madison, including Whole Foods, have order & pick up services, but you can’t get a pick up window for weeks. Rach called and we agreed that going to a less hipster grocery store would probably work to get flour, and in fact when Mark and I went for a walk, we stopped at the corner store, and they had not only 5-pound bags of regular Gold Medal unbleached flour, they had a few 10-pounders as well. I got a 10 and we walked home, and the sun came out.

On NPR they just said the rhythms of normal life have come to a complete halt. I know for sure I don’t have much of a rhythm – the main thing that seems to mark each morning is pulling up the shade in the bathroom to let the light in, and seeing all the cars that belong to the people who live in the 6-flat next door, parked. Not going anywhere.

Maybe I can gather my friends and do some kind of virtual Passover …

And thanks to Lisa Marine, who posted the overleaf picture – a Lynda Barry drawing, of your cat’s reaction to pandemic.