It’s been 206 days since my first Monday working from home. I’ve now finished Spring, gone through all of Summer and started Fall working from home. I’ve heard different things about when we get to go back to the office, and what that will look like. Everyone agrees it won’t be before next year, which starts in 85 days. I’ve heard it might not be before next July, which starts 180 days after that.
The Boy started remote 2nd grade 30 days ago, so we are in week 4. It’s becoming routine. If you had asked me before I just now looked it up I would have guessed week 5 or 6. Over the summer we had him FaceTime with friends a couple of times, but he always seemed sad when the call was over. Regular Zoom classes are making remote interaction seem more normal, but I know he misses his friends and it breaks my heart when I think about what he’s missing. Kids are resilient and adaptable, but I wish they didn’t have to be.
The Wife had been remote teaching until it was decided that all teachers had to remote teach from school in order to accommodate any kids that might need to come back. She had 1 that was supposed to show up, but they haven’t yet. So she commutes to an empty building to wear a mask and teach kids through her laptop.
The Girl has been back at work for months, getting used to cutting hair in gloves and chatting with clients through a mask. Business seems pretty steady. People with money for salons mostly still seem to have money for salons. I went to a car dealership with her last week to provide car buying support, which involved sitting in a variety of glass walled offices. There were two women working in another office in my line of sight for most of it not wearing masks. As long as I kept my focus on them I could imagine that everything was wonderfully, boringly normal.