Coping with self-isolation

Yesterday, my wife was lying on the bed looking at her phone and I asked her what she was doing to which she replied, You don’t always have to know what I’m doing.

Fair enough. I don’t and what’s more to the point, I don’t really care. When I’m bored, I like to bug her and she knows I like to bug her and so, in her own polite way she’s telling me to fuck off.

I can imagine this is happening to a lot of people these days. That’s why it would have been better if

the COVID 19 crisis had come along when we had kids. At least they would have been a distraction. Now, we’ve just got each other. Not that my wife doesn’t have stuff to tell me when she’s looking at her phone. She follows Twitter and Facebook and Instagram a lot closer than I do so she reads about stuff like Tyler Shandro freaking out at his doctor neighbour long before I’d see it in the news. Then, she learned that Shandro was using AHS to get the personal cell phone numbers of doctors. Then, he phoned them with his complaints about their complaints about him and the changes his government has made to the healthcare system.

That’s interesting stuff. It makes me wonder when he’s going to put on his big boy pants or if he even owns any. After all, he’s impacting people’s livelihood and their working conditions. If they didn’t care about the impact on their patients, then they wouldn’t be doctors. I can only imagine the kind of harassment he’d receive if he was a woman on the other side of the aisle.

So, sometimes Nicola does have interesting things to tell me she’s learned on her phone. But, mostly not.

Apart from bugging my wife, I’ve had a bit of a hard time entertaining myself in this time of self-isolation. My capacity for television watching is reserved for the evening and only a couple of shows or one movie. To help with selection, we’ve been sharing our preferences with friends and family. That was one of the topics of conversation we had with friends on “Houseparty” a free computer/phone app that can be used to have video chats with friends. Last Saturday night, we were invited to a BYOB party on Houseparty. At the specified time, I charged up the computer and voila, there they were, each couple in a separate window spread across my screen. Next time, I’ll use the television as a monitor. (I’ve heard Google Zoom can be used for the same purpose.)

Pineapple garnish on cocktail in foreground

Earlier that afternoon, we’d had dinner with my daughter and her husband. We were supposed to meeting them in New Orleans that day so we decided to share a meal instead, remotely of course because they live in a town not far from London, UK and we live, well you know in Slave Lake, Alberta. For their one outing a day, they enjoyed weather that was 15 degrees centigrade above zero while it was 17 below here. My wife cooked a New Orleans dinner while my daughter’s husband did the same thing at their end. At 7:30 their time and 12:30 ours, we connected by Messenger video chat and shared a meal. It was excellent.

One week later, we did the same but with a meal we might have had in Nashville because that’s where we supposed to be if not for the COVID pandemic. My wife made brisket and my daughter’s husband fried chicken and we shared another meal. It was almost as good as being in the same room. We learned about the frustrations my daughter experienced as a member of a consulting team help prepare a Canadian Tire style company to sell their stuff online. (Good timing, right?) Of course, she was working from home in a second bedroom they’d converted into an office upstairs in their apartment. She told us about the virtual tours the members of her team had given of their work spaces. The most memorable was a guy who shared the dining room table with his partner in a tiny London where they participated in simultaneous video conferences.

My daughter’s husband was on Easter break from the private school he teachers high school physics and math. He was busy recording YouTube lessons that his students can watch in the different time zones they inhabit. It was kind of funny to compare the different organizations, one with a consulting company to help them eventually get online. The other, a school where the teachers were supposed to put their lessons, assignments and quizzes online tomorrow.

Our daughter received a promotion and had saved the champagne they’d purchased as celebration for our video chat. (I was touched.) Her husband’s brother brought out the sword he’d been given by his brother for opening bubbly at their wedding. He told our daughter, “Don’t be coy with the sword” that he handed her probably for the first time. Her first couple of swipes were coy but her third was a success. No pop could be heard which surprised me. When I questioned my daughter, she showed us up the top of the bottle which had been shorn clean off. Holy shit, that must be sharp, I thought. Our daughter complained that a shard of glass had become embedded in the computer monitor they were using to project our image.

Combined with the occasional phone call, Facebook and Instagram have been the primary mode of contact with our other two children and friends. That’s kept Nicola busy. I’ve been reading and, of course, writing this little ditty. We take our dogs for walks and I cleared a path through the snow to get to our backyard should spring ever arrive.

We also watch the COVID 19 numbers, mainly on the Worldometer website. Nicola keeps me updated on what’s happening in Canada and here in Alberta. We’re hoping, at some point, the numbers will begin to flatten which seems to be happening in Italy and which countries such as China, South Vietnam and Singapore are already experiencing. Until then, we do our best with the routines which I learned from an space station astronaut are essential for maintaining sanity. Any suggestions out there in the ether?

I’m looking forward to spring.

April 4!