Liz has had medication waiting for her at our local Walgreen’s. And knowing this was a need that would require us to leave the house… we decided to lump several other tasks on the same day. If we were going to be out and about, we may as well try to get all the things done.
Liz has been a lot more motivated than me of late, in terms of working on the house. While I had some momentum setting up the washer and dryer, I’ve since settled from that motion.
We changed up our usual game, and broke out Ticket to Ride. I’m used to this game being one that involves a lot of people, but was surprised that the two of us could play fairly easily.
One thing I wasn’t expecting: long periods of card drawing and hoarding. And then a flurry of activity. I was a bit more aggressive in trying to preemptively block routes, and am wondering if that’s a good strategy or not, with just two players on the board.
Had a fun chat wiht Liz, as she’s been trying to measure the impact that the Coronavirus has had (and will have) on DePaul’s students: tracking current students, new students, and what it all means for the DePaul, both this year and the next.
The laundry has been piling up. And under normal circumstances, I’d be going to the laundromat. But we’ve had a washer/dryer combo sitting in the basement for some time now, waiting to get hooked up.
We’ve punted on setting these up, choosing instead to focus on the first floor of the house. It was a conscious choice, and the bulk of our efforts have been on getting the first floor a bit more in shape, a bit more habitable.
The weather was really something today, with us hitting a high in the upper 70’s. As a result, Liz threw on some garden clothes and went outside to tend to our garden boxes.
I think that for Liz, she needs to keep active and to do things. It helps her, to keep her mind focuse on other tasks. For me, diving into ordinary chores and tasks is incredibly difficult, due to the dissonance between the mundane thing I’m doing and the world outside my window.
My sense is that we’ll be isolating ourselves for more than a few weeks. A few months is my guess, and possibly even through the fall. By the time the coasts get a handle on things, my sense is that that is when Middle America will start to larger numbers in terms of infections and death.
It’s tough to only see family via video, and doubly so since it’s been harder to see the Fords. But video has gotten better over the years, and while it pales to being in the same room… it’s still something that can connect us, despite our distances.
Liz and I bought a folding table at Home Depot over the weekend, and she got this set up today in the dining room. Prior to this, she had been working in the bedroom and also sitting on the floor of the main hall area.
While there are some areas that are still wavy, the taper really did “hide our sins” in terms of some of the gaps and differences between our boards.
Yesterday, we spent most of the day working on the house (cleanup mostly). But in the evening, we went out for a lovely, relaxing birthday dinner at Osteria Langhe.
When we got to checking the ceiling, it was *ting* *ting* *ting* everywhere. After a minute, we decided to just let me go and review/re-hit every single screw, rather than having Liz test. Because they were almost all bad.
All of us began working and hanging out in the dining room together, with Bob focusing on the duct work and Liz and I continuing to drywall. Despite the cramped space, we managed to navigate around one another pretty well.
This afternoon, Liz and I got a text from Bob asking if we’d be able to finish up the living room drywall before tomorrow. I agreed to the work (and to also relocate about 10 sheets of 10′ drywall out of the living room), all before tomorrow AM. So we could have a taper come over in the afternoon and begin his work.