It’s our first Saturday in our social distancing, and things are going OK. It’s only about 20F degrees outside, so that’s helping with the “can we go” requests we get.

We started out normally, with a five-minute extra sleep-in. Then the kids couldn’t get the back door open to let the dogs out, so a small kerfuffle ensued. We recently got new doors installed, so they’re nice and snug so far. I’m not sure if there was any weather impact, with the cold, or just inherent strength, but it worked fine for me. It does seem when the door’s tight agains the jamb that the kids can’t twist the knob all of the way to free it.

We had a normal Saturday breakfast and play with things and the late getting kids dressed we usually do. The “are we going to swim lessons” questions we usually get were instead “swimming is cancelled because of stupid Coronavirus, right?” I think it’s sinking in with the older; the younger just echoed “stupid corona.” We pointed out some cleaning to do and games we can play and books we could read and puzzles that have been started, and they countered with “can I use my iPad?” Sure, zombie out...it’s Saturday; it’s what I’m going to try to do.

The wife dug into clearing her stuff from the office. She kept bringing me those boxes you get things in, that for some reason we hadn’t tossed yet. I pulled out a couple now-spare chargers and cables, and the boxes are now ready for trash day. She’s also found a lot of “I was wondering where that went,” and “I’ve been looking for this” things. We do have several review binders from our financial planner, stacks of bank statements, and other things we’d like to shred. I ordered a confetti shredder, because the strip shredder we have makes easy puzzle pieces, but also fills up very quickly.

The little is down for his midday nap again. He closed his eyes as we listened to a book, and the proclaimed he was done napping when the book finished. We debated a bit, I won, but promised to try to walk the dogs and do a “hang loose” wave after he wakes up. Simple demands from this one.

The older is disassembling and reassembling a kit car while watching a Spanish dance competition. She claims it’s keeping her in touch with her Spanish immersion school, but I know she likes the dance and isn’t paying attention to the lyrics or dialogue.

I watched a little of the White House presentation earlier. More urging to stay distanced, and avoid getting tested until you’re full of symptoms. It makes me wonder how many checkers or people with chills are showing up to do that. The Surgeon General made a good point; in addition to using a limited supply item in the test, you’re also taking limited supplies and times from the hospitals and clinics with the masks and other things they need to use; nice use of unintended consequences in that delivery.

So far they’re still echoing “15 days,” which is an extra day from the “two weeks” noted before, but they’re making it seem like every day is the start of the 15 days.

When the office is more clear, I’m going to redistribute the computers. There are three “corner” desks, so most of us can have our own space. Mine already has a wall of glass with monitors for my desktop and the work and persona laptops. 

The wife brought a monitor from her office, so she’s going to set that up on her desk for use with her laptop. It’ll be a weird change to see just some computer stuff and not the myriad piles of “get to it later.”

I’m giving the kids a Mac mini we don’t use much.I have an older gen Intel, and a really older gen G4 that I’m not sure how to involve yet. This matches what they use at school (probably newer than mine). It’ll be largely huge FaceTime, and Roblox, I’m sure, but there’s a chance that there’ll be some of the school stuff.

Except for dog walking, and dinner with a movie later, nothing extra is planned.

Everyone is still healthy, and it seems like a pretty normal Saturday. With extra, overdue cleaning.