robotech_master

 So, wow.

First off, I've never been so thankful in my life that I work from home. Given that I'm part of the health insurance industry, working from home for them means that my job is one of the safest ever—in terms of avoiding infection, and in terms of avoiding being laid off during this time of economic turmoil. If anything, more people getting sick means I'll be more needed than ever.

Just got a notification from my employer that they're closing the building where I used to work, indefinitely, for "cleaning." Reading between the lines, I suspect someone displayed flu-like symptoms that could have been Corona or flu or a cold or anything else, and in the absence of an easily obtained test for Corona, they opted to be safe rather than sorry. Given that means several people from my department will not be working for the next little while, I suspect that means I'm in for a busy few days.

Meanwhile, I'm desperately worried about my septuagenarian parents, who are in the age group most likely to die from the virus, and my Dad has chronic asthma on top of that from the time he was a heavy smoker as a foolish young man. (I remember growing up he was still in the process of weaning himself off, with Copenhagen snuff, when I was growing up as a small child. I think he stopped that about the time I ran across some Copenhagen cans someone had discarded near the playground at my elementary school and decided to try it out for myself because Daddy used it so it must surely be all right.) 

The good news is, since they live in the rural Ozarks, on an 80-acre holding, they're about as well-positioned as they can be to live without ever needing to interact closely with another human. They could even go out for horseback rides to keep from getting stir crazy. The thing that worries me, though, is that they're very active in their church, of which my Dad is (if I'm not mistaken) a deacon. And while their church is pretty small, I really don't want them breathing the same air as any other people right now. It's too risky, because people with Corona are infectious before they even have symptoms.

On the bright side, when I went and checked the church's website right now, I noticed that it's in the process of getting set up to stream its services online, so that people at risk can view them while stuck at home. And that leads me to another realization about the Coronavirus epidemic: in one way it's kind of a good thing.

The epidemic is forcing businesses and organizations to accelerate their efforts to make it easier for people to take part from home, in ways they might never have done if they weren't forced to. I find it hard to imagine that any church as small as my parents' would ever have gotten interested in livestreaming its services if it hadn't been that so many of its congregation were most at risk from getting sick and dying from attending in person. 

In my day job, over the phone, I spoke to a couple of people today who let drop that they were working from home now. And I suspect that a lot of businesses and organizations are finding that their employees or members can perform their duties just as well from home as they could from the office. And at least some of these are gains that will stay with us after the virus has passed.

So, that's a good thing there. 

Now, if only we can contain the spread of the disease enough to let us get a handle on it…before we have to start triaging people like Italy…

Well, yesterday was an eventful day.

( My adventures from here to the northeast end of Indianapolis and back, and the obtaining of a job! )

Anyway, that's the story of my adventures yesterday. Looking forward with trepidation to this coming Monday. It's going to be a different, possibly difficult experience getting back into the harness…but this time it's finally going to be a job that makes full use of my talents. I can hardly wait.