chapter 1

Day 1 of Coronavirus teleworking

Susan:

We hoped that we wouldn’t get caught up in the whole Coronavirus thing, but we did. Jack and I have both been put on telework. This is a first for both of us. Jack works as planner and scheduler for a major distribution company, so he does a lot of his work by talking to people in other departments. I work in property management for a major retail operation. I do some of my work by phone and e-mail, but I solve a lot of problems face to face. When the Coronavirus became a pandemic, both our companies ordered everyone who doesn’t physically touch equipment to work from home. We both understand why, but it’s going to be a big change for how we normally do our work.

And our lifestyle is undergoing a major change! Our gym is closed, and both of us normally go three or four days each week. Restaurants are closed except for to go orders, so we’re going to be eating at home a lot. The pizza places still deliver, but Jack and I rarely order pizza. We’re careful about our diet and exercise. We’ve been married for two years and I could wear my wedding gown again if I wanted to, and Jack would certainly fit in his tuxedo. We’re going to have to be careful to keep from gaining weight.

I went to the grocery store and so much is missing. Fortunately, we’ve got enough toilet paper to last for a few weeks. They didn’t have much fresh meat, but I was able to get some vegetables. And a stack of the low calorie instant meals. That will have to do until this is over. I hope it doesn’t take too long.

Jack:

I’m not usually one for sitting for very long, so this telework thing is going to be hard for me. All the things that I used to get done by going down and talking face to face with someone will now have to be done by phone. Susan and I both brought home our laptops. We have our cell phones, of course, and we forwarded our work numbers to them. And we have an app that lets us use our laptop for phone conferences. Susan set up on our dining table, and I set up in our spare room.

Susan and I are going to have to make almost all of our meals at home. We can both sort of cook, but if we are stuck here too long we’re going to run out of recipes. Susan got some instant meals, and some vegetables. We’ve got a few meats in the freezer, and hopefully this will be over before that runs out. She thawed out some pork chops for tonight, and we can steam some broccoli and some brown rice to go with it. We’re going to have to find another way to exercise since the gyms are closed.

Susan:

Our first day hasn’t been too bad. We got our laptops set up and the wi-fi gives us good coverage. Since Jack and I are in separate rooms, we don’t bother each other when we’re on the phone. Which is a lot. It just seems to take longer to get something done by phone than it did in person. But we’re working through it. At lunch I made us each a wrap, with turkey, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and light mayonnaise. We had some almonds on the side. Got to watch our weight!

Jack:

I felt a little like a caged bear, since I can only walk around with my phone so much without bothering Susan. When five o’clock finally came I got us both a beer. We deserved it after spending first day teleworking. I browned the pork chops in the skillet with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper. Susan steamed the rice and vegetables. It wasn’t bad, but I guess we won’t win any awards for cooking. After dinner we watched a movie on Netflix. Susan said we owed ourselves a treat for adjusting to teleworking so she made us a bowl of chocolate ice cream. I’d forgotten that it was even in the freezer. Susan’s mother must have bought it the last time she visited. The ice cream was really good, but we certainly can’t make a habit of eating it, especially without a gym to go to.