In some ways, it's not such a big burden. We were not big going-out type folks in the first place. Coco has had to suspend her swimming sessions and met with her writing group on-line, and I had a D&D session over zoom, but it's not like we have a gym membership, or went to clubs every weekend, or ever went to the movies that often. And we can still take walks out here in the remote edge of Fairhaven.
Where the big difference comes, of course, is in work. Coco is no longer making a thrice-weekly pilgrimage to teach in Bothell, and my college has gone to almost 100% remote work, i.e., six to seven hours a day of zoom meetings, sometimes more, with emails and other electronic-based work in the cracks. So the work day is not a discrete as it once was, separated from "real life" at each end by a 1.25-hour or 12-minute commute. I have always fired up the email over my first cup of coffee at home anyway, but now there's no marker distinguishing just checking in from telecommuting. If I am not careful, my workday starts at 5:30 am and continues unabated until it ends at 5:30 pm, or 6:30 or 7:30 or whenever. I'm not sure that's the pattern I want to set for myself.
And the in-office routines are gone of course: the strolling around the floor to break up my computer time, the walks around campus to get coffee at the bookstore or check in on teaching spaces, the trudges up and down staircases to get to my deans or the library or my own office. I am moving less and snacking more during the day; after all, just a few steps away there's a full-service kitchen with all my favorites, not just a staff lunchroom with other people's tupperwares. I am wary of becoming a zoom-potato.
So tomorrow I think I am going to try a new regimen, or actually, I an going to activate the old regimen: have my morning routine - cat, exercises, coffee, check-in - and then go down and take shower and get dressed in outside clothes, just like I am heading out for the day. No more Batman sweats and t-shirts, with maybe a sweater to make it dressy. Perhaps I'll even make my lunch ahead of time, as I usually did before going into the office, and have it ready for an actual lunch break away from the computer, which I almost never took when working on campus. But I need to do something to make sure the day doesn't become a sludgy mishmash that isn't quite always working but more like never not working.
I need to stay active as well. Coco and I have been walking every day, and have started "storming the hills" as we call our interval training, but I have for a long time set April 1st as the traditional start of my biking season, and I'd like to back to that habit again. It's pretty easy to keep social distance cycling down the trail, I think.
It looks like this is going to be the new normal for some time to come, so I wish us all the best in developing our routines for coping and even thriving and we make our way.
And remember...
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