Shelter in place

Oklahoma City joined other major cities in the U.S. at midnight, when our mayor instituted a "Shelter in Place" order.

Our city's numbers are now in the triple digits, with 8 deaths.   From 0 to who knows in just a short time, because the numbers change hourly.

I completed my first week of working at home.  Thankfully, my folding table came early (it was not supposed to be delivered until tomorrow).  It was really difficult working with Dave's wireless keyboard in my lap.

The folding table is a bit too high, so I have to adjust the chair I borrowed from the office into it's full extension, and then my feet dangle..so I am having to use my yoga blocks to put my feet on.

Fortunately, yoga blocks are sturdy, AND I can wash them off.

My neck hurts, though, so I need to work on the placement of the monitors a bit more.

The office was fully disinfected last weekend.  After that, we were allowed to go back into the office one last time, so I went on Monday, and got my mouse pad, and my notebooks, and sticky notes with codes on them that I might need.  No one else was there.

I am not being allowed to do many of my usual tasks while working from home, so this should be interesting.  I do not understand WHY I am not being allowed to do some of my regular work, because much of it does not involve HIPAA, or printing of documents (which I can't do at home).

I can already state without doubt that it is MIND NUMBINGLY boring, but at least I have a job.

My brother in law is laid off.  He was able to get out and apply for unemployment.

Then, my sister fell and hurt her shoulder, so had to go out to be seen for that.  She now has to go for an MRI next week, because the pain is still bad, and there was no fracture visualized in the x-rays.

My brother's estranged wife is ill, but we don't know if she has "it," or the flu.  Either way, he's been exposed to what she has, because she can't take care of herself, and he always has to help her.  Why her boyfriends can't do that, my sister and I will never understand.

As for the kids, I don't know about my brother's son and daughter in law, but they are probably able to work from home.  They're both highly paid civil engineers.  They'll be fine,

My sister's kids are a mixed bag...her son is a server, so is unemployed (his girlfriend is able to work from home, so they have half of their income),  and her daughter is a vet tech, and is still working -with ample precautions being taken. 

If these checks from the government ever come, we will set ours aside in case anyone in our family needs the money.

I successfully got myself to the lab for my blood draw, and then to my doctor the next day.  This is the first time I have gone by myself.   

Dave needed to stay home to receive deliveries, and to have an online meeting for work.

My blood counts are still okay... but my nurse said it's a good thing that I have to work from home for now, with my immunity so low.

We had to have our handyman come back and fix something that he did wrong with the new water heater, but Dave kept his distance, and I was closed in my office.

The new mattress and bed frame arrived on Wednesday, and Dave got the bed frame built (with a little help from me after I clocked out from work).

He built the drawers for it the next day, and our new bed is complete.  The new mattress is quite nice.

Today, we will finish taking stuff out of the linen closet that can go in the new drawers, and making our linen closet less of a mess.

My last outing into public was when we went to the Lowe's garden center last weekend.  We got three bags of soil, and I got a couple of herb plants, and some sweet potato vine plants for the window box.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day (despite the winds), so I got the herb garden weeded, the soil added, and my herbs planted.  I also did the window box, cleaned up the mint patch, and pulled some weeds from around my rose bush and clematis vine.

Today, we are supposed to have another beauty of a day, so we will weed the flower bed, put the rest of the soil in there, and put in some native flower seeds.

We had to pay our guy to come out and mow.  The back yard had gotten to thick and tall that our electric mower wasn't up to the task.  I had asked Dave every day to get out there and mow, but he ignored me, and it got out of hand.

Dave talked to both of his brothers last night, and they and their wives are all doing fine.

I am off to make breakfast and take my shower.  It's in the 40s now, but should warm up quickly, ow that the sun is getting high in the sky.

Enjoy your week as best you can. 

The times, they are a changing....

WOW, how quickly things have changed in the past two weeks.

It's no longer a "virus scare," but a harsh reality.  As of yesterday, my home state of Illinois is on "shelter in place" orders.

Oklahoma is catching up with other states very rapidly.  We had 2 confirmed cases only a week ago (they were both up in Tulsa).  Now, statewide, we are up to 53, and businesses are being asked to close.  The mall and movie theater parking lots are empty, many strip mall stores are closed, and restaurants and bars will be closing soon.

We were at my dance show, in enclosed spaces with lots of people, two weeks ago this weekend.  I am thankful that we are still symptom free, and  that I have not heard of any of my dance friends becoming ill.

The dance studio is closed until further notice, but the director has gotten on line classes going, and we will stay afloat if enough of us pay and log in for those.

All events in the area have been, and continue to be, canceled.

Dave has been able to call and speak to his dad.  He's doing fine.   He may call again today.

Dave's set up to work from home is flawless, and he has completed his first full week on the job at the dining room table.

Our water heater is installed and operational, and our new bed is due for delivery on Tuesday.

After a few mandatory meetings, my employer sent us home this past Tuesday with the understanding that we would be off on Wednesday to find a space in our homes to accommodate working from home.  We were told that we would then be called individually to come back to the office to pick up our stuff.

Well, as with everything else changing and changing again, almost on a minute to minute basis, they changed their minds.

I had to get permission to go back and get my personal items from my desk.  Others had to do the same thing.

Then, our IT department took our work stations apart, and prepared to being them to us.

Our house is closest to the office, so I was the first for drop off, but then my equipment didn't work, and it actually took two days to get my connection working.  The computer I had at work was over 7 years old, possibly more like 10 years.  It was a huge, old tower.

It took all three of the IT staff coming to my house at different times, and a totally new machine, to get me set up, plus a 2 member team from H/R bringing furniture, because my desk is too small for everything.

BUT, at least I am up and running now, as of 4:00 Friday, and will be less likely to go stir crazy.

While I may have been first to have my work station delivered,  I was absolute last to get up and running, HAHA!  We clock out at 4:30, so I got to log on, and work, for about 25 minutes on Friday.

I have ordered a folding table, so that I will have room for my keyboard AND my mouse right next to each other as they should be, but this first week, which I start in the morning, will be rough on my body.  We will find another use for the table after this crisis is over, so my employer doesn't need to pay for it.

My bi-weekly lab draw is tomorrow after work, and then my monthly visit to the clinic is Tuesday.

I have only been isolated at home since Wednesday, and I am doing okay so far.

David really had this in his sites....

I was keeping my headspace clear of all of this, because I needed to.  I let him take charge, and I am very grateful that he did just that.  Otherwise, we would be scraping, and freaking out about not being able to get food or TP.

Now that I am established to work at home, and we are well provisioned for a few weeks (with the exception of fresh foods and dairy), I can offer up some of my headspace for this.

We are allowing daily news updates to keep informed, but the rest of the day we have music on, and we find something to entertain us in the evenings.

I will take my walks on break as usual, just in the home neighborhood, instead of mid-town OKC.  I will continue to do yoga and stretching.

We have that backgammon set we got for our canceled Thanksgiving trip, and we have our dominoes....so when we get bored of watching something on TV, we can play a game.

We are going to make an outing today to the garden center at Lowe's before they make them shut their doors.

I want some bags of soil for my flower bed and herb garden, and maybe a plant or two to try again with the herbs that got drowned last year.

Breakfast time, and then we are going to get over there early, while people are still at church, or online church.

Have a good Sunday!

Keep calm and carry on....

So, what to say?

Dave and I are both very vulnerable to COVID-19.  He has high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, and I am a chemo patient on a drug that has potential lung and cardiac impacts, as well as suppressing the immune system. 

My brother is a smoker, pushing 70, and is diabetic, so he is also highly vulnerable.

My sister and brother in law are the healthiest of us, but his company has started laying people off, so their fears are more of financial ruin.

Dave and I have spent a lot of money getting stocked up on frozen and shelf stable food, and have a stash of paper products that we usually keep on hand anyway, since we get them at Costco.

We have gone out to eat for the last time until this is over, and we won't have to go out to the stores for a long time, so we will recoup that money on the back end by not spending much for the foreseeable future.

Dave's dad's memory care center is on lock down.  The only people allowed in or out is the staff, and they are taking precautions.

Dave's company set up a "work from home" experiment last week, and he is all set, so he told his boss that he would just stay put, rather than going back to the office until being told to go home. 

He will start his first full week of working from home tomorrow.

My company had meetings on Friday to brief us on the current status in Oklahoma.  Since I work for the Emergency Medical Services Authority, we are overseen by the office of the medial director, and we are being protected. 

We were told that the work from home protocols are being put into place, and we will be ready when the time comes.

However, I do not see how my job can be transferred to home, and my job is ABSOLUTELY critical to the revenue cycle.   

What I foresee is that everyone else who can be set up to work at home will be out of the office, so I can still go there, and do my job, but still be in a form of isolation.

If the office is sterilized, which our cleaning service can do, after everyone else goes home, and I am part of a skeleton crew in the building, with no one else in my area, it should be okay.

The billing has to go out, and I can't feasibly do the paper billing from home.  It would require too much paper, printing equipment, envelopes, and a postage meter, and Dave is already taking over the dining room table.

SO.. we will see how things unfold.

If I have to, I will just take all of my vacation time, and someone else will have to go to the office to print and process the billing.

In other news, our new water heater is being installed tomorrow, and yesterday, we purchased a mattress and a platform frame with drawers. 

The frame needs to be delivered and built before we can have the mattress delivered, so that's all being scheduled.

Since Dave will be here full time, that shouldn't be a problem.

That trip out to the mattress store was probably our last time going out for a while.

The new dryer is installed, and my new lap top is great, AND, we will still have a little bit of money left to keep in the bank to pay for our Thanksgiving trip.  Yay!

I am off to make breakfast.  It's a rainy day here, and I didn't sleep well last night, so I will be doing some yoga and reading later. 

Make the best of your Sunday!

Spring has sprung

We had another successful dance showcase last night.  My class did very well, from what I could tell.

I don't think I made any mistakes, but there are so many turns in the choreography, and the stage at this venue is carpeted.  I did okay until the last turn, when my feet stuck.  It was a full 360 turn, and fast...and I didn't make it all the way around.... but I don't think anyone knew but me.

It was fun.  Dave came, so I was glad about that, but he needed to leave pretty early, so I missed most of the performances.

He didn't take any pictures, so hopefully, the pro got a good one or two.  Here's our class picture...

Hopefully, there will be a video this time.  There hasn't been for the past several shows.

Our plans to try to save most of our tax money are falling apart.  

The dryer started making a nasty screeching sound, so we ordered a new one.  It will be the counterpart to the washer we had to buy last year.

Our new water heater (and filters for the line leading to it) is ordered, and the handy man has been here to give us a quote for installing that, AND, while he is here, running a water line to the fridge -- so that we will finally have a working ice maker.  We bought the fridge two tax refunds ago.

Once that project is complete, we will have replaced almost all of our major appliances in the past 2 years.  Fridge two years ago (planned and budgeted for), washer and dish washer last year (not planned or budgeted for), now water heater and dryer (one planned, the other not)....Ouch.

We need a new bathroom sink faucet, too.  This one works, but the cheap finish is peeling off, and it looks like crap.  We've wanted to replace it for a while, but I basically just got tired of it looking so crummy, and we determined to just DO IT!  Dave can do that project himself, but we have to go to Lowe's and buy one.  

Other than the planned expense of the water heater project,  we planned for a new lap top for me.  My old one was seriously outdated, and was starting to act up.  It probably would have cost as much to fix it as it would to buy a replacement.

My new one is super nice, and it was quite reasonable.  We got it at Costco.

We have also gone to the expense of getting some supplies laid in, like frozen foods, cat food, and other essentials, just in case we have to do a Corona virus quarantine for a couple of weeks.  This was also unplanned, but the tax money took care of it.

I'm trying not to think about that situation too much, but Dave is being pro-active.

My employer has also started talking about possible quarantines, and has gathered up every employee's emergency contact info, and who our internet servers are at home to investigate possible work from home options.

Dave already has the capability to work from home, and has told his boss that he may have to do it if anything happens, in order to protect me from potential exposure.

We probably won't travel to Chicagoland this year.  With the virus scare, it's probably going to prove to be safer for me to stay put.  We had hoped to go to a Cubs game and the Art Institute.  OH well.

We do have our cabin trip at Thanksgiving to look forward to.  Between now and then, we will probably take a staycation, or maybe go check out a different state park with cabins during a different time of year.  We will take disinfectant wipes with us, of course.

The weather has made a marked change.  The trees are flowering, the daffodils and vinca are blooming, and there hasn't been an overnight drop below freezing for a week.  The next week's forecast is 70s and 50s for highs and lows.

Unfortunately, the wind has been crazy, which I absolutely hate.  I REALLY wanted to get in the hot tub when we got home last night, but it was not going go happen with 40 mph gusts.

Hopefully, we will get to doing some spring garden projects soon.  I want to put more soil in the flower bed and herb garden, and try the herb garden again this year.

Last year, I put in a great herb garden, and then it rained and rained and rained...everything died except the sage, and much of the soil washed away, due to the plot turning out to be in a low spot where the torrential rain pooled.  

I have one of those stackable pots, too, and I want to try that again with different plants in each level.

Today, I really need a day off, so probably the only thing we will do is go look at faucets. If Dave goes to see Pop, I will stay home again.

The time change messes with me, and I had trouble sleeping on top of that, and then there were cat shenanigans in the early hours like usual.  Ugh.

I have had busy weekends for a month solid, and am looking forward to next weekend being easier...unless, of course, our OTHER planned expense of shopping for a new bed happens.

Our mattress is 9 years old (they say you should replace a standard mattress every 7-8 years, and this one is a standard coil mattress), we are wondering if my hip and shoulder pain might be worse because of the bed, and Dave wants to investigate the option of a bed frame with drawers, so we can move the bed linens to those drawers, and out of the drawer in the hall closet. 

Dave wants to go down to Dallas to look at one at Ikea.  That's the closest store to OKC.  

Oklahoma doesn't have any, but Texas has FIVE, two right in the Dallas area. Crazy.

What appeals to us about the Ikea mattress is a great warranty....and it's under $700.  We shopped locally, and the type of mattress we are interested (hybrid) in is over $2K, unless it's on sale.  Holy shit!!

We may shop around here before making the trip to Dallas, and maybe change our ideal mattress type in order to get something more affordable.  We'll see.  

Last, but not least, my treatment plan is going okay.  The hip and shoulder pains come and go, and I learned some cool new self-care techniques with that two weekend workshop I mentioned previously.

The fatigue is manageable, barely.  It would sure help if I could get better sleep.  

I am glad that walking weather is back, so I can get out and exercise and get fresh air.

I am off to the shower, as it is already 9:30, thanks to the stupid time change.  Have a good Sunday, even though there will be one hour less of it... 

March comes IN like an EMU, and goes out like a TAPIR..

..and they don't even know what it means!! 
HAHAHA!  Here's a giggle for you to welcome March...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znFY7PYomEA

I saw my doc on Tuesday.  After I told him about my various side effects, and the leg pains, he elected to NOT give me the belly implant shot!

I WAS SO FREAKING HAPPY!!  I was dreading that nasty injection so much, and was really worried about what new pains would come...would I be able to dance at all?? Or walk??

Here's to the hope that the hormone blocking pill is enough to back up the chemo pill, and I won't have to get the injection ever again.

Started the chemo pill again on Wednesday, at the full dose.  I had nausea the first two days, but am okay now.

I get VERY fatigued, but that's something I have learned how to power through, after years of treatment.

I've managed to stay well through a nasty flu season.  I've heard that this year's flu shot was useless against the strain of flu that is going around. 

People at work are starting to get sick now.  At first, it was the flu outbreak at the dance studio, but everyone at work was still fine. 

Now, not so much.  Two people were out most of last week, and then the girl who sits right next to me was out Thursday and Friday.

I wiped her desk down with disinfecting wipes.... as well as all of the printers, copiers, door knobs.... etc.

I am taking every precaution I know of... Making chicken bone broth, and drinking it every day, taking extra vitamins, getting fresh air exercise whenever I possibly can, washing my hands until they're red and chapped, and I am highly conscious about not touching my face unless I go and wash my hands first.

Sleep is the difficult precaution. 

This kitten has made sleeping through a good long night virtually impossible ever since he was released from the guest room at night.

I mentioned this do Dave when we brought Frankie home in December.... "I'm going to need my sleep, and it's not going to happen with a kitten in the house."  This has turned out to be the case.

The shenanigans usually start around 4 am.  Usually, it's fighting on the bed, or at the foot of the bed, with lots of  growling, hissing, literal screaming (Annabel), and parkouring off of the bed. 

By 4 am, Frank has had enough quiet time, and he's hungry and bored, so he picks fights with the big cats.

The automatic kibble feeders go off at 4:30, so that gets the cats' attention for a while...maybe 15 minutes...but then, it starts up again.

The workday alarm goes off at 6, so I have been missing out on approximately 2 hours of sleep every morning (I have been getting up at 6 on the weekends, too, simply because the cats will NOT let me sleep any later...while Dave snores until 9 or later).

This is obviously compounding the fatigue situation.

Last night, I took an ambien so that I could go to sleep easier, and then, at 4:15 this morning, I moved my pillow and body pillow to the futon in the guest room, and shut the door.

The cats don't usually wake Dave up (which is beyond my comprehension), and I am the one who ends up getting up with them...NOT TODAY. 

I was worried that the cats would scratch at the door and yowl to be let in, but that didn't happen!

I told Dave last night that he HAS to take care of this for me. 

Leaving him with the cats was effective...he got up and gave Frank his breakfast, and I slept right through it, all the way til 7:30!

So we have a method that will potentially work-- on non-work days, at least, HAHA!

Maybe if I can get a little extra sleep on the weekends, that will help.

We were supposed to take yesterday as a "down day" for me, so that I could rest after only getting about 3 hours sleep Friday night.... but it didn't happen. 

The only thing I was supposed to have to do was go get a hair trim at 10....but we ended up doing errands until almost 2, then Dave dropped me off at home, and went to see his dad.

While he was gone, I did my chores, made another batch of  bone broth with last week's chicken carcass and some pork bones, and finally laid down for a little while.

Then, last night, we went to our friend's birthday gathering up in Edmond.

I was so tired, we left at 8 and came home.  I took a nice bath, and that ambien....and was in bed by about 9:30

Today, I have the second half of a workshop I signed up for, a couple more small errands to run, and when I get home from that, I will make a pot of chili and sit my butt down!

Next weekend is our dance studio showcase, so I will be performing next Saturday night.  After that, I will get a little break from studio activities.

Happy March, happy St David's Day, and happy spring!