We are all now living in a new world – a world disrupted by something that none of us can see but that can make us very sick or kill us. As a result, the new normal is one where we modify all social conventions and most everything deemed non-essential is closed and so there literally is nothing to do. 14 days ago when STA started working from home I decided to start keeping a daily journal of this new way of life. The only thing for certain is that everything is different now.
When I started the journal I decided to do a daily tracking of COVID-19 cases and deaths globally and the US. On March 20th when it was clear that the economy was being impacted I added the Dow Jones to the metrics being tracked. Most recently I added cases and deaths for Massachusetts. Here is the data from March 16th through March 29th
16 March 2020, Day 1
COVID19 numbers
182,244 global cases, 7,127 global deaths
4,505 US cases, 82 US deaths
29 March 2020, Day 13
727,162 global cases, 34,030 global deaths
140,517 US cases, 2,588 US deaths, 4,955 Massachusetts cases, 48 MA deaths
Dow Jones: 21,636.78 (Sunday)
Here are a few excerpts further emphasizing the new normal;
March 16; All meetings are now not live (Zoom, Hangout, etc). Schools, large public gatherings (over 25), restaurants are closed. Marty Walsh required all construction projects be closed in Boston; we suspect this will happen in outlying communities soon.
March 17, (St. Patrick’s Day); Video and teleconferences are now the norm. Cats, dogs, and kids interrupt calls on a regular basis on video calls; it’s authentic actually. Felice and I started a game to keep track of how many times the cats interrupt us; 1 point if the cat stays on the floor 2 if they come up on our work surface. The cats definitely help this situation. At the end of the day Felice took a video yoga class from Wonder Yoga while I joined a virtual remote session at the BSA about remote working – there were about 300 people on that call – I guess we are all trying to figure out this new reality
March 18; after “work” Felice went for a walk and had a virtual glass of wine with Alyssa – F was supposed to be in DC and was planning to see her but that was cancelled. I can’t imagine what this pandemic would be like without technology to keep us connected.
March 20; We ended the work day with a Google hangout virtual living lab; it was nice to see everyone’s faces as we discussed how the first week of remote work. There is definitely room for improvement but overall stuff is getting done. We will continue to do end of the week living labs remotely to talk about how things are going with the team.
March 21; It’s the weekend and we headed to Block Island. We went to the beach for the sunset and ran into an islander that told us that the island had no medical facilities and asked us if we had a “back up plan” – apparently islanders are freaked out about visitors that might bring the COVID19 – there are no cases on BI so they believe they are all set as long as no visitors come. After the sunset we Facetimed with Pavan and Alyssa then had dinner – pasta with sauce and wine – restaurants are all closed. The good news about the weekend is that the stock market can’t fall any further.
March 22; Felice called a close friend – apparently she and her son spent time last weekend with the son’s friend who appears to be infected with COVID-19. They are rightfully concerned. While Felice was on the phone I watched a live meeting on Block Island where they were discussing more strict regulations of who should be able to come to the island at this time – this is likely our last weekend on Block Island for a long time.
March 23; Governor Baker issued a stay at home advisory closing all non essential businesses today; construction is included in the essential category which is a little confusing and contradicts Mayor Walsh’s previous declaration for Boston. It snowed today; forsythias are coming up in the yard so the white snow cover and yellow flowers were nice to see. It’s supposed to be sunny and in the 50’s tomorrow – this weather is a good metaphor for the unknown we find ourselves in these days. Some projects are going on hold so we need to keep a close eye on this.
March 24; Another client put us on hold for their renovation project – I started a spreadsheet of projects that are on hold as we have about a half dozen now. The good news is that we are still writing proposals and being given opportunities. After work the neighbors got together to sing Happy Birthday to Nance Vossmer who turned 92 today; it was nice to see everyone and Nance enjoyed the surprise.
March 26; The US passed China and Italy in the category of most COVID-19 cases today. I don’t think anything got put on hold today which is good. I went for a walk after work, Felice played flute!! Yes, the flute – pretty cool if she starts playing more. I’m definitely playing more guitar which is a plus.
March 27; 2 weeks down of remote work. At the end of the work day we had our Living Lab with everyone – talked about some more technical issues with some potential solutions that hopefully can get resolved next week – I would think we will be in this situation for another month or so.
March 28; It’s the weekend – and, there is nothing to do… well, there is plenty to do, just not the normal “to do” stuff. No Block Island, no concerts, no open restaurants, no social gatherings. We went to Rockport – it was nice to drive (I miss the Mini!) there. Nothing was opened but it was really great to do some window shopping and stroll along the water – it’s such a pretty place. We came back and the neighbors had gathered outside (6’ apart of course!) – Arlington is encouraging neighbors to come out at 6:00 to say “hi neighbor”. We got home at about 7:00 – it was raining a little but the neighbors were still outside. Felice grabbed a glass of wine, I poured a beer, and then we went outside to say hi.
At some point we are all going to be looking back at this historic moment to reflect on what we were doing and how this virus impacted us all. It appears that the normal we all once knew is not going to be back anytime soon – for me, keeping a journal of this time of transition helps – and well, it just so happens I have the time to do it.
-David
