Lockdown: All along the washtower

It was the rare Monday where my work wasn’t great but the day was still pretty good.

I was working on something that should have been easy but was sloggy as heck to put together. I honestly don’t know why. It took the better part of the day and it should have taken an hour. When I finally submitted it, I think it was pretty good, but there’s no way the pretty-goodness justifies the amount of time it took.

I had a Zoom meeting to talk about another big project. It was kind of daunting on first glance, but the conversation actually helped me put it together in my brain so that I should (should!) have something useful by the end of Tuesday, which is when I sort of promised it.

Okay breakfast was a bowl of turkey chili and rice. I know. It’s crazy. Normally if I have dinner for breakfast, I have a healthy breakfast for lunch. That’s not what I’ve been doing lately. It was a large breakfast so I kind of skipped lunch, opting for a few bites of potato salad as a snack. Dinner was a bowl of cereal, the last of the faux Honey Bunches of Oats.

I keep spelling that Oates. My brain is telling me to listen to “Private Eyes” or to read “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”

I attacked the Monster for a bit (without explaining, Monday night is the best night for the first, easy task — the one that makes the biggest difference in getting the other tasks done). Didn’t get to my car, which I have a few things more to do with before I take it in.

Neither did I get to bed by eight as planned. I got to bed around nine and fell asleep around 9:30. That should have been okay, except I woke up twice before my alarm. The second time it was just past one, so I just stayed up. Four hours is better than three, which is what I’ve been getting on laundry nights.

No walking because laundry.

Tiger got back to me, responding to my text the other night. Crush Girl and I got into a text conversation about her favorite show. We also talked about how we feel about the state’s relaxing of guidelines, which neither of us feels very good about. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels the way I do.

JB and I traded some messages about how his family is handling the lockdown. He has four teenaged kids, so I was really interested in their experience.

And early Tuesday morning, as I was getting ready to head to the laundry, Ali in Boston and I traded a bunch of texts about several topics. My Silent Book Club (on hold for the foreseeable future) and this other project I’m working on. She also had some questions about owning an e-reader. I gave my usual advice about how nothing will ever be better than a physical book, but an e-reader offers a lot of great things too good to reject categorically. A book lover should have both.

Monday was perhaps the most mundane day I’ve had in a while, and I think it’s what I needed. I have Tuesday morning off, but I’m looking forward to a productive half-day at work. And putting some heat on that fish fillet I bought the other night. It’s been a while since I cooked fish, and I feel my body craving it.

Connection is critical. If you’re not getting enough and if you’d like to trade texts, IMs, or DMs, just reach out. I’ve got room for you in my silly existence.