Life undoubtedly has changed. A global pandemic will do that. I haven't worked in a little over a month. My employer did what was right and paid everyone for the first two weeks of this whole shutdown, and I've used some vacation time I had saved up. Just this week I filed for unemployment for the first time ever. That felt weird. There are some changes that have hit harder than others and some aspects which have had little to no personal impact.
The big impact that most people are dealing with is just being home all the time. Even when I left my previous job, I didn't take any time off. I just went to a new place of work the next day. This is the first time since 2005 that I haven't been working. I know that this is only temporary and eventually I will be back at it, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy not working every once in a while. Don't get me wrong, there are days where I just aimlessly wander around the house looking for something to do. It helps to get up and walk around for a bit just to get the blood flowing.
We all knew that our screen times were going to skyrocket and I have tried (with some success) to keep my time down. On a typical work day, I'd average around two and a half to three hours on my phone. On a good day now it's up to around four hours but most days hovering around five hours. I mean, you can only watch so much HGTV and Netflix right? We don't have sports to waste the day away right now (christ I miss baseball). To combat the screen time villain, I've been spending time putting puzzles together for an hour here and an hour there. Just for something different to look at. Last week I dug out my records and just sat and listened to Led Zeppelin I. I've started re-reading The Walking Dead. All of these things little things can add up to staying away from the phone. I highly recommend it.
At the moment, my wife is also off of work. She worked for about a week longer than I did, but she had the opportunity to work from home. We have taken on some small projects around the house. We've painted our main floor bathroom and replaced some fixtures. I cleaned up and reorganized the basement. The garage has been swept. A permanent rod has been installed in the laundry room. We blocked off some space in the backyard for growing wildflowers. All these things would have eventually gotten done, yes, but now we're needing things to do to pass the time.
The largest impact on our lives has been not going out when we feel like it. Over the past month we have left the house once maybe twice a week. I'd say in a normal month we'd go out to eat five or six times. That doesn't seem like much, but when that option is off the table it makes you miss it that much more. And yes, if we really wanted to we could order for take out we just haven't done that. We should to support all the local restaurants, but we're also watching what we spend.
Luckily, we are child free. We do not have to schedule time to do home schooling. Good on all you parents out there that are having to put that on your plates. This seems to be one of the largest hurdles the general public has had to overcome. Not only are we all staying home, but most are having to juggle work and life all day every day. Good on all you parents out there rolling with the punches and drinking heavily to get through your kids' school day.
Just remember to take care of yourselves. And if I hear 'now more than ever' even ONCE after this has passed, I will lose my shit.
