Life During Lockdown

When Covid19 started spreading in the United States it became apparent to everyone in March that it was not just another isolated scare. It did not affect my daily life until the second week of March 2020. I received an email from corporate communications at my current client stating that all employees except essential manufacturing workers, would be required to work from home. Saturday, March 14th I was scheduled to run what would have been my first 5k race in years. An email from the race organizers informed me that due to the virus the race would be cancelled. It figured that when I finally decide to sign up for a train for a race, it gets cancelled on me! But I was not upset about that. I needed the exercise anyway and the entrance fee went toward a good cause. What bothered me more was the uncertainty the effects of the virus would have on the economy, and on my friends and family.

I worried about a parent who was in the hospital with an illness unrelated to Covid19. How awful to be in a hospital coincidentally at a time when the virus was spreading in hospitals? I have another relative with chronic lung problems and other underlying health conditions that puts them at a high mortality risk. Another parent was in denial that the virus was even a problem. Plus, I have other family members and acquaintances who were at risk of contracting a contagious disease. Other people I know would be affected by an economy in recession. I had a couple relatives travelling outside the US and I wanted them to get back before borders were closed.

Personally, I was not as afraid of catching the virus or of losing my job. I knew my job was relatively secure, my expenses are low, I am a healthy individual, and I have savings. Working from home is no problem for me because I am accustomed to it. In fact, I felt like working from home more often than I was at the new client anyway. I have a roommate to keep me company. And selfishly, this was a chance to prove to some of the political right-wingers that sometimes having a competent government is a good thing. When Donald Trump said that the virus was a hoax created by Democrats and that the United States would have zero cases by the end of February, I knew Republicans were off to a bad start. It ended up getting worse and worse for them as time went on. I don't take joy from people suffering just because I can say "I told you so" when Republicans fumble around. But I do take pleasure in demonstrating in real time why it is important to elect competent people to government positions who believe the government serves an important function.

But the incompetent response the right-wing extremists worried me. Rather than keeping people informed by being honest about what was happening, Republicans kept denying reality for fear of causing a panic. When things started getting really bad in an unspinnable way, I was concerned that there could be civil unrest. Things seemed peaceful in my neighborhood. My friends kept their jobs, and nobody I knew was getting the virus. Still, I couldn't help but react nervously to the news from across the country that the virus was spreading rapidly, and in the process, harming the economy, disrupting supply chains, and causing people to behave in uncertain ways.

Maybe I have seen too many apocalypse themed movies; perhaps my affinity for dystopian novels has made me more sensitive to certain headlines; or maybe my imagination got the better of me and caused me to panic. I felt the need to protect myself with a weapon. I know, I know. Some people thought I was overreacting. But what if people started rebelling against quarantines? What if massive layoffs resulted in people stealing from others? We certainly couldn't rely on the President to keep people calm. He has used the virus to divide people even further. The problem was that all I had for protection was a small folding knife. Getting a gun would be difficult during this time because the places that provide training, licenses, and sales would be closing. I decided to at least start the gun license application. In the meantime, I went to a relative's house and picked up a compound bow and 6 arrows. Then I went to an outdoors shop and bought a hatchet and a machete. Bass Pro shop closed so I couldn't go to their location to get new arrows, arrowheads, or accessories. It did not matter though. Once I had the machete and bow and arrow, I felt much more secure. But why? There were still no imminent threats to my life. And all I had was a bow and arrow and a knife. Not a gun. Even though it was an overreaction, it made me feel more secure. My gun license is still pending because I need to go to a training course, and all the courses are closed until businesses can reopen. The hunting and firearm license I got in Mississippi in 2009 was not good enough for the state of Mass apparently.

Working from home every day was much more of an adjustment for my roommate than for me. He had only been working from home one day a week, whereas I have gone through periods of time working from home for months on end. And for the project I was on when the lockdown started, and which I am still on, I was having to go into the office Monday through Thursday. The commute to the office was one hour. In addition, I bought an SUV so gas was costing me quite a bit more than with my previous little sedan. Now I avoid commutes every day! Ideally, I prefer working from home at least two days of the work week, but for now I can save time and money because of the lockdown working from home every day.

Some of my coworkers with small children have had to become full time day care workers and teachers and still get their own professional work done. Perhaps some of their spouses have lost their jobs as part of the economic consequences of the lockdowns. I do not have a spouse, children, pets, or elderly relatives to look after.

Many of the things I enjoy doing in my free time involve me being at home anyway. During the lockdown I have been practicing piano, teaching guitar lessons virtually, playing computer games, catching up on TV shows, solving crossword puzzles, going for runs in my neighborhood, cooking, reading, among other things. To fulfill the need to meet with friends and family in person I have regularly scheduled video calls. They are a substandard replacement for meeting in person, of course; but in other ways they are more convenient. You don't have to leave your house or put on pants. You don't have to worry about the weather or what you will bring for the occasion. I suspect that everyone will be using video chat much more frequently after this quarantine is over.

How does a person learn piano? Answer: by sitting your ass down in front of a piano for hours per week. What kind of scenario would allow for a person to sit their ass down in front of a piano for hours per week? Ding! Ding! Ding! Correct! The answer is: lockdown due to Covid19. I have wanted to learn piano for a long time. I always admired those who could sit at a keyboard and just play something, the same way I got a thrill out of watching someone draw something on demand. The piano is a beautifully sounding versatile instrument. I have played the guitar since 2007. I have been teaching it since 2018. But I don't know how to read music! I tried learning to read official music notation on guitar. That proved to be too slow for me. For guitar, I just wanted to play songs using tabs and chords. Then I tried learning music using a recorder but didn't like the sound. Finally I decided to take piano lessons because it would teach me a new instrument I had wanted to learn for a long time, and would show me how to read music. A local business in Foxboro provided lessons. I emailed them for information, and within days I was attending regular weekly 1/2 hour lessons and playing Amazing Grace without looking! Now I can play easy versions of Love Me Tender, Fur Elise, Simple Gifts, Gentle Leaves, Clair de Lune, and a few others.

Not commuting two hours every day has saved me a lot of time. Working from home saves me time too because if I complete work early, and there are no meetings left for the rest of the day, I can use that time to do what I want. This is how the days were in high school and college and it's how I think they should be in the working world. Get done what you need to do in whatever time it takes. If you finish early, then your reward is to do whatever you want!

Less time commuting and unnecessarily staring at a computer screen has given me more time to read. For at least two years I have been alternating between reading a book in Spanish then a new one in English. And I have gotten much more into series lately. One series I have gotten into in Spanish are the the collection of the "cemetery of forgotten books" by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon. My Argentinian sister-in-law introduced me to the series starting with the book Marina. The genre is a kind of supernatural mystery-fiction. I fell in love with Marina and have since read The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game. Next I want to read The Prisoner of Heaven and The Labyrinth of Spirits. My sister-in-law also gave me a novel called A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. Darker Shade is a fantasy novel involving a magical prince, his sidekick Lila, and their adventures between different versions of magically connected Londons. I enjoyed the first book so much that I purchased the other two in the series: A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light. A Gathering of Shadows is a page turner, which I finished much more quickly than I usually finish a 500 page book. The last in the series is on my shelf just waiting until I finish Harry Potter 7! That's another series I have been reading for the last few years. For a long time I had dismissed Harry Potter as mere children's stories, but when I started to get interested in them I  was amazed at how deep the Harry Potter story was and how dark the themes, how well written it was, how relatable the characters were! I had intentionally avoided the movies so as to not spoil the story. This was very difficult to do because, like Star Wars, Harry Potter references are everywhere in our culture. I wasn't able to avoid all the images, memes, and references completely so when I read the stories, the actors who portrayed the characters in the movies are the ones I pictured in my mind. On a few occasions I intentionally looked up the name of the character online to see how they were represented in the movie. I tried to read the first Harry Potter novel in Spanish back in 2016 but couldn't because my Spanish had not yet advanced to that reading level! Sure, the book was everywhere in English, but I wanted the challenge. Because I really wanted to read the novel, it gave me more motivation to learn more complex Spanish. I have incorporated the Harry Potter into my alternating English then Spanish reading list. Now I am on the last book of the series, The Deathly Hallows. It is very likely after I finish this book that I will read the Cursed Child and the other stories in the Harry Potter universe.

A perfect way to pass time (some might even say waste time) is to play games! My friend Claudia taught me how to play dominoes. Believe it or not, I had never learned how to play it. I play the USA Today crossword puzzle online sometimes. If I'm feeling smaht (sic) I'll try the WSJ one. Last year I bought a 300 count crossword puzzle book from Barnes & Noble with puzzles at various levels of difficulty. They range from "slightly harder than USA Today" to "way harder than WSJ." There are a lot of things that help improve your crossword game: having a wide vocabulary, knowing foreign languages, watching a lot of TV, watching Jeopardy, memorizing frequently used answers (like "oreo" and "Emir" and "PTA")and solving puzzles by the same authors multiple times. I got so proficient at the USA Today crosswords that I started challenging myself to solve them in under 10 minutes. My current personal record for a USA Today puzzle is 7:36. My friends and I have gotten back into retro Doom. I downloaded new packages, or WADs, for the old game and have played them on my PC. Sigil was an expansion created by John Ramero that I have played and beat. I'm at the very end of a WAD called S.T.R.A.I.N, a 1997 WAD that has been a lot of fun. Next I would like to either start a Minecraft server and get friends on it or perhaps get a PS4 and get back into Call of Duty. If I can't decide on those two, I will download another Doom WAD.

My friends and family and I have stayed connected during the lockdown using video chat. My brother's family in Arizona prefers WhatsApp video calls. My buddies and I who were meeting up more or less weekly before Covid19 decided to schedule weekly Monday night calls we call The Kumite, named after the infamous martial arts tournament portrayed in the Jean-Claude Vanne Damme movie Bloodsport. These Kumite's started as Google Hangouts calls. Now we use Google Meet, which works better. With my group of college friends I initiated a Zoom call two Saturdays in May. It had been a long time since we had seen each other so everyone was happy to participate and catch up. One member of our group is hosting the 3rd meetup tomorrow. For the last year or so I have been following Peter Caine Dog Training on YouTube. He posts funny, entertaining, and informative videos about art, animals, politics, sasquatch, among other topics. Other folks who follow Peter Caine have gotten in touch outside of his livestream chats to connect on other livestreams and social media accounts. Peter Caine streams live dog training classes on Saturday mornings. They are fun to attend because you learn something and you get to chat with internet friends. Connecting to people during isolation has been essential for me, and I think for everyone. As social beings, we need to stay connected even if we cannot do it in person. I have not been completely isolated during lockdown. I saw family for Mother's day, went to visit my parents one day since then to chat, I saw a buddy at his house, and I've met up with friends in parks.

The lockdown has challenged our sanity. It has given me a chance to focus on my own mental health. One thing I have done since the Coronavirus hit was to abstain from alcohol and marijuana. While others have increased their consumption of drugs and alcohol I have abstained! This has been essential to maintaining my mental balance. I feel better every day as a result of not drinking or smoking. I still drink caffeine and smoke tobacco (cigars and pipes) but those have less of an affect on me than alcohol and cannabis. I plan on continuing this abstention beyond the end of the Covid19 quarantine. My diet could use some improvement. I have been trying to exercise regularly.

In sum, Covid19 and the lockdown we are in has not been too bad for me. In a lot of ways it has been a positive experience. It has given me a lot of time back for not having to commute. I have been able to read, learn music, play games, exercise, and still stay in touch with friends. I welcome the passing of this virus though! Everyone wants things to get back to normal as soon as possible. When it's safe to do so, I will travel to visit my nephews in Arizona, go on a beach vacation, and hit up my favorite dine-in restaurants.