Well, today was kind of a crappy day. Mostly on the emotional side. It was actually a somewhat nice day out for at least part of the day. There was an odd snow flurry in the middle of the day and it has generally been cold. That said, it just felt like we didn’t really give Ellie enough attention today.
Ruth has tons to do with making masks, and today she did a bunch of the local delivery, porch drop offs. So it was a lot of work and a lot of time for her just sewing and packaging. I worked quite a bit on Ruth’s website, hoping to streamline ordering of masks, so I spent most of the day in front of the computer. I like these projects, but I lose myself in them and lose all track of time.
So, we didn’t really do anything particularly stimulating for Ellie all day. A little bit of coloring, a lot of TV watching and finally a late night dance party after dinner. This quarantine life just has some super rough day every now and then. It is really hard to keep up with the energy of a toddler, especially when the weight of the situation makes me want to just not do anything.
I did, however, put together a pretty darn good dinner for us. For part three of our smoked chicken adventure (Part one was just having smoked chicken, the day we made it. Part two was matzah ball soup) I made BBQ chicken pizza. Home made pizza dough and all. It was pretty yummy, and my first time making a pizza dough. Who needs round pizza when you have rustic!
Watching the news and social media as the situation develops is also really rough. There are so many heated opinions, and people are panicked and stressed and worried. AS folks have started to receive their stimulus funds, this has only exaggerated the issues. There are delays with paper checks (some avoidable, like the ego of Trump wanting his signature on paper checks). There are issues with small businesses getting the loans they thought they were eligible for. The CARES act is already running out of money (probably because they ended up bailing out big corporations who don’t actually deserve the money.
As people get more and more stressed, there are more and more people opting for stupid ideas. May states have groups forming trying to petition local governments to lift business closures and social distancing regulations now. What I really don’t understand is who these people think will come to their businesses. It probably costs them more to be open than it does to be closed. We need to ride this out just a little longer.
It just makes me think of the “change curve,” which I have posted a good graphic of below.We actually talked about this during the first COVID-19 All Hands meeting at work, and it makes sense, today more than ever. Many of us have experienced this multiple times in our lives, whether it being moving to a new job, graduating college and wondering what happens next, having a child, are just a few examples. We don’t always share the experience with everyone else like we are with this pandemic; and with this pandemic, for many, the stakes are much higher (or at lest appear to be).
I would imagine that most of the world is now in the Bargaining and Depression stages of change. We are getting close to the lowest point, but what lies ahead is not going to be easy. We will climb out of this dark place, and we will rebuild. We won’t go back to the way things were, but there will be a new “normal.” It is hard to even picture what that looks like right now, but we will get there. Hopefully we come out of this as better people, and a better society.
Just for fun, I found this other copy of the change/transition curve, with some good commentary in cartoons:
So, there you go, just a few more deep thoughts from me late at night after doing dishes, scooping cat boxes, and taking out the trash.
Stay safe, stay healthy, treat others with respect, and we can make it through.
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