Today, I brought a colleague a chair. It was the highlight of my day.
I haven’t set foot into another retail establishment since mid-March although I have done a couple of curbside pickups. It’s not quite the same as browsing through the racks.
Coronavirus lockdown is wearing on my nerves. Like everyone else, I’m keeping my distance, I’m limiting the number of interactions I have and I’m staying home. Grocery shopping trips are quick and infrequent. I had to pick up several tubs of margarine during my last to check if they were vegan, and when they weren’t I put them down again. I felt guilty for touching them.
I’m tired of walking on the same sidewalks and even on the same trail. I want a bit of variety in my scenery – or at least the knowledge that I could have some. The weather isn’t helping. Cold, wet and snowy are not adjectives I associate with almost-mid-May. The past few nights, I’ve covered my peonies to keep them from getting frostbite. It’s like Mother Earth is giving us a reminder that we really should stay inside our safe isolated bubbles.
I shouldn’t be this frustrated. Our self-isolation is far better than the lockdown other countries have seen. It seems to be working, but the end is not yet in sight. Thank goodness for Zoom meetings with family and Teams meetings with colleagues. Technology is keeping us far more connected than it would have been capable of just a few years ago.
Early into my own self-isolation, I realized that my straight-backed dining room chairs, while lovely for a dinner party are not comfortable for 8 or 10 hour days. So I bought a reasonable office chair online. It showed up on my doorstep a few days later and it was one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I may not have a dedicated office space, but at least I have a comfortable chair.
So when one of my team-members complained about her own backache and asked about borrowing a good chair from the office, I looked into it and discovered it was a possibility. I still have office access (she doesn’t) and I was so desperate to get out of the office that I offered to head in and bring her chair down into the parking lot where she could collect it – that very day. It’s a little pathetic that that “road trip” and being able to talk to another live human being (at a respectful 2m distance) was so exciting, but it was.
I suppose COVID-19 is teaching us patience. It’s a lesson that’s taking a while to sink in.
