Head Tale

I’ve been fortunate to be able to work from home since March 18 but as I take another big step and prepare to head to my first full week back in the library this week (with our branch to open to the public soon as well), I thought it might be interesting to make a list of some random memories from the past few months, some I’ve probably mentioned on this blog already and some I haven’t…

1. Not sure why but the “soccer walkers” I did regularly with the kids in the earliest days of quarantine where we went for walks with a soccer ball on the green space behind our house are the first thing to come to mind.
2. Something that triggered this list – it’s been so long in quarantine that I looked at a custom bookshelf we have in our house and couldn’t remember if we re-stained it during quarantine until I remembered that yes, we had to go to a hardware store for stain and it was one of Shea’s first trips to a store.
3. My “relaxing” playlist on Deezer – basically a playlist of the sound of waves crashing on a beach – was something I listened to nearly daily as my own little mindfulness/stay calm technique.
4. That relaxing playlist was very necessary when I let myself contemplate how bad covid could get (on that note, I know some people who thought it wasn’t helpful to let their mind go to negative places but personally, I think that’s somewhat naive and possibly more harmful to *not* be able to think about worst-case scenarios.)
5. I also created a “Pandemic Playlist” which was my soundtrack for many of my long walks, especially in the early days of the pandemic.
6. Created a spreadsheet of Canadian provincial as well as US and world covid numbers early on and regularly updated it (daily in March to weekly these days) to try to figure out the trends for myself since a lot of tracking sites didn’t let you play with data as much as I wanted.
7. On that note, watching CNN regularly with horror as I saw how the US reacted to the coronavirus compared to the rest of the world.
8. Between fiction and non-fiction books, I think I read half a dozen books that have pandemics/worldwide disasters as a theme.
9. Sasha’s covid test in mid/late April.
10. Generously tipping at a nearby restaurant whose owner told me he had to lay off 18 staff and having him say “That’s too much!” (to which I replied “It’s not enough for all you’re doing – and we’re all in this together.”
11. Joe Diffie was arguably the first celebrity to die of Covid but John Prine was perhaps the most affecting.
12. Trying to figure out why people were hoarding toilet paper of all things.
13. Signing up for Amazon Prime Video.
14. That one week that Shea was given permission to work from home but ended up saying “I’m just going to work at the hospital” since it’s so much easier to have all her files, access to technology and other necessities available.
15. Wondering if I’ve permanently ruined my kids by not forcing them to keep up with their online schoolwork more regularly.
16. Going for a drive and picnic early on to get out of the house after feeling pretty couped up.
17. Spending a lot of time thinking about how libraries responded to Covid – not just in Regina but across Canada and beyond.
18. Repeatedly telling the kids “You’re living in a major historical moment that they’ll be teaching school kids about in 100 years.”
19. Deciding to trade in our beloved but tiny rPod camper for a mid-sized RV when we have a lot of uncertainty about our regional campground and what facilities will be available once camping is allowed again (and also justifying it by acknowledging we’re unlikely to do a hot holiday next winter like we usually do.)
20. Finally letting the family give me a haircut in mid-May.
21. Sasha having a virtual birthday.
22. Sasha sitting on my lap and waving during some of my virtual work meetings (I heard about one major Sask employer that specifically mentioned “not engaging in childcare” as a condition for their employees to work from home and I’m like “What world are they living in?” with schools closed, daycares limited and grandparents prohibited???)
23. In the early days where I barely went outside, I would open the front door, lift the mailbox lid with my elbow then retrieve my mail.  I never got to the point that I would then wipe down the envelopes with a Lysol wipe or spray but even doing that so cautiously made me realise how much the world had changed!
24. After having a couple drinks and picking up my guitar, debating whether I should do my own livestream series called “Jason Plays Your Favourites Badly”.  Luckily, that idea never came to be!
25. I made some positive changes during covid (lots of walking!  Getting some long-neglected projects around the house completed!) but feel this weird disappointment that I didn’t get *more* done during this strange opportunity of being home for nearly three and a half months.
26. As a former board member, I was able to do a bit more helping with the closure of Coteau Books after their bankruptcy (which happened just *before* Covid hit and which I thought would, for sure, be the worst thing to happen to me in 2020!)  It was interesting to watch the progression of Covid through what I saw when I visited the office – our former President greeting me normally at first as we barely kept our six-foot distance.  Then, in my next visit, we kept our distance.  Then she was wearing a mask.  Then we were both wearing masks.
27. On that note, on the rare occasions when I did leave the house, noticing how quiet the streets were.
28. Thinking a lot about the implications – positive and negative – of having a workforce largely moving to working from home.
29. Thinking about people whose lives had changed the least – essential workers from healthcare to grocery store clerks who continued to go to work everyday just like they always did, retirees, etc.
30. Doing the ultimate coronavirus exchange when my parents brought some N-95 masks to leave on our driveway then, once I retrieved them, leaving a Costco-sized package of Lysol wipes for them to grab in return.
31. On a particularly stressful day, getting into a verbal altercation with a dog owner behind our house who was letting his dog run off-leash.
32. Sharing stories and stats and solutions with a group of friends who we normally go for regular suppers with but which easily transitioned to a private Facebook group.
33. My first visit into my branch after we shut down was about a week later when I met an intern so she could hand in her keys and gather her things.  I had a couple other visits over the three months – to give an employee who transferred to my branch during covid a set of keys and let her pick-up supplies, to meet with a couple managers and a contractor about how the library might be revamped when we re-open, a handful of times over the past few weeks to supervise paging staff as they began catching up on the backlog of holds/processing/shelving.
34. Shea’s and my nightly drink when she got home from work everyday.
35. Watching “Contagion” on Netflix very early in the pandemic – maybe within the first week of being sent home?  Then re-watching it a few days later a lot more closely, unable to believe how accurate it seemed.
36. Had a few emotional moments throughout the quarantine including watching Jim Cuddy Band play one of the first livestreamed concerts of the quarantine thanks to National Arts Centre and losing it as they launched into “Bad Timing”.
37. The dozens of words that have entered our vocabularies during the pandemic.
38. I did re-watch at least one NHL game on PVR during the quarantine but haven’t missed hockey as much as I thought I would.
39. First person I knew who had covid (and recovered) was a guy I sorta know through politics and who posted he recovered on April 8.  Have known a few others who were tested, maybe a couple who were positive and at least one who died – someone elderly in Ontario who is a friend of a friend-type deal.
40. A friend letting me know about Facebook Messenger for Kids which turned out to be a godsend as it allowed Sasha to stay in touch with many family and friends easily throughout the quarantine.
41. Never thought watching daily Covid updates by Premier Scott Moe would be “Must See TV”!
42. Doing chalk art with the kids and making hearts for the windows.
43. Used online delivery services where possible early on but made my first trip out in early April so I could hit a place that would have a few gifts we could get for Sasha’s birthday in mid-April.
44. Every time I go to a store now, marveling at how much more time-consuming and stressful it is when you have to follow arrows and can’t go directly to what you need and never knowing if you should go past the person starting at the wall of cereal options or wait for them to pick their Raisin Bran or what!
45. We didn’t do it every Saturday night but regularly had video chats with friends and far and wide throughout the pandemic.
46. Asking my parents to pick up a piece of free furniture for us on Kijiji which turned into our first extended in-person visit in late April after about six weeks with minimal in-person contact.
47. Feeling guilty every time I clear my throat in public.
48. Living up to the stereotype and not putting on anything but PJs and sweat pants for most of quarantine.
49. After lots of uncertainty, finally being able to get to our campsite in mid-May and begin getting set-up for the summer.
50. Beyond covid, how the world keeps turning for good and bad and how things like the Nova Scotia shooting and the Snowbird crash and the George Floyd killing would be wall-to-wall news (and they were to a point) but with coronavirus overshadowing and influencing them all.