Skip to main content

Antisocial Distancing

Beginning this morning, Spouse is working from home. Till further notice. In our tiny, teeny, ~600 square-foot dollhouse of an apartment.

We have a bedroom just big enough for a bed, a wardrobe and a dresser (so long as the bed is pushed into a corner and Spouse is willing to clamber over me to get in and out of it).

We have a kitchen just big enough for a small (5 feet high) refrigerator, a sink, an oven range, two small counters, and two shelving units (necessary because there are no upper cupboards).

We have a bathroom just big enough for a sink, a toilet crammed under an eave, and a shower smaller than a phone booth (link for those who don't remember phone booths). 

The only room of any size is our living room, which is full to bursting and has:
  • a sofa
  • two ottomans
  • a television
  • shelving
  • my desk and chair and computer(s)
  • Spouse's desk and chair and computer(s)
  • three cats, one of whom is hiding behind the media server
So yes, clearly, all the living is done in this room, and I do not see how it will be possible for there to be two people in it at the same time if one of them needs to be working on client calls. I'm not even sure we can both be in the apartment without my actions disturbing Spouse while on the calls. 

We are lucky! We are not sick; one of us has a (probably) stable job; we have savings to see us through a few months. Lucky, lucky, lucky us!

But I am a hardcore introvert who needs people-free time, including spouse-free time. I'm also anxious anxious anxious and I've been using media to distract myself. Oh, and I crank my playlist to eleven (okay, three-and-a-half) when doing housework. And now I'm waving bye-bye-bye to all that, and hello to all of this. I'll be a reasonable grown-up again in about 20 minutes. But right now, I'm pouting. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Dubious Joys of Ownership

Our rental property continues to physically embody the reasons why people don't make money off of rental properties. Checklist for the last two months: Tenants not renewing  Downed branches (and possibly damaged tree) from windstorms need removal Possible leak in attic Probable mold in attic The management fee for finding/renting to a new tenant is much heftier, of course -- roughly equivalent to a month's rent. And of course that's in addition to costs from the usual refurbishing when putting a rental back on market: painting, deep cleaning, replacing anything that has aged out since the lease began (in our case, that includes at least a mailbox). Let's call that $1,500, though I honestly have no idea. No word yet on what the branch/possible tree removal will cost. Crossing my fingers that the tree is okay. The state requires a certified inspector to determine the presence of mold. (This costs us money but I approve of it. Mold can have a huge health impac...

Warning...

I just spent $640 on a new monitor. Not this one precisely, but you get the idea Cue PF Frugality alarms: Alert! Alert! Unplanned purchase! Funds diverted from debts still outstanding! Activate guilt shields! Criticism incoming! Yeah, I'm cowering. I know, I know. Why spend $640 that you (broadly speaking) don't have when you do have a functional, if aging, monitor and you're trying to get out of debt? Because unfortunately, "functional" isn't quite good enough. I work from home roughly once a week, and Spouse uses my monitor when on call at the new job. At work, we both have dual, (reasonably) high-res monitors, because our employers understand our workflow has us moving between applications throughout the day.  To illustrate, in my usual work at the current client, I am checking/have open at a minimum: Specification documentation, usually Excel or Word An integrated development environment app, mostly for the display aspects of my work ...

Biannual Update/Whinge

 I've sorely neglected this blog. 2020 has been a dreadful year for me, for both the pandemic-related reasons and a host of personal ones. I lost friends and family this year, to COVID, cancer, and aneurysm. I was in an accident that caused a "cataclysmic" injury, according to my surgeon, who seems eternally concerned that I'm not taking things seriously enough, and still in physical therapy. I've been sufficiently depressed to be prescribed another anti-depressant. And of course, even if I could work right now, there are no jobs in my field .  Not quite accurate, that. More specifically, there are no jobs in just my field. Employers seem to think their strongest strategy for getting through this downturn is to combine barely-related specialties into a single position: one super-data goddess, please! Yes, you must be expert in servers, database administration, data conversion, data warehousing, and data visualization. Oh, and website design/maintenance, including ...