Coronavirus19 Diary - Bumps in the Road

Mid week it was announced, Chicago would have a stay at home advisory in place for 30 days starting the following Monday. On Friday evening I got the call, I was, once again, on furlough. I had expected it might happen. Now working for a small, family owned company, considering the circumstances, I probably would have made a similar decision as they. Once foot traffic was back to an acceptable level I was assured I would be called back.

As I've stated before, during these difficult times we are more fortunate than many. Overcoming boredom would be my greatest challenge. Saturday I eased into my situation, I watched movies and a 1961 BBC Canada production of Macbeth, starring Sean Connery in the title role, that I been interested in for several years which had become available on YouTube. I considered it a homage to the recently deceased actor. 

There is football, although my home team seems to be fumbling about in the dark this season, and my gym is still open. With obsessive attention to sanitation, mandatory mask wearing, temperature checks, occupancy controls and the members self enforcing social distancing I feel relatively safe there. 

My holiday decorating will be toned down this year but we will have a tree. That is a project I can spread out over a couple of days. I'll straighten closets and clean and organize cabinets, once again, as  during the first lock down, taking on the responsibilities of the traditional homemaker of olden days. 

One bright spot was being home to see our President Elect speak and answer questions from reporters. He was informed and statesmanlike. I had almost forgotten what that sounded like. Also, several vaccines show promise.

Once again I repeat to myself a mantra I have repeated often during these benighted times, patience.

Coronavirus19 Diary - Despair, A Moment of Joy and Hope

 Finally on election night I forced myself to bed, depressed, watching Trump lead in several states needed for Biden to win an electoral college majority. My mind refused to rest. Over and over in my head I considered how I, and the country, would survive another 4 years of leadership by a man who was just short of, if not fully deranged. I would wake up and turn on the t.v. to see the latest counts. At 4 a.m. I saw that Wisconsin had been called for Biden and hope began to return.

The next day I felt as if I was jet lagged despite my feet never having left the ground. Over the next few days I watched as Trump's lead in key states began to shrink, disappear and eventually be surpassed by Biden. 

Saturday morning I stepped off the bus on Michigan Ave. enroute to work and encountered a group of people jumping up and down on the sidewalk holding their phones aloft. Horns began to honk. Two young guys came down a side street yelling. I pulled out my phone to see a text message from my husband, two words, "Biden wins". I let out a yell. It was a wild, unintelligible noise. A bubble of anxiety bursting and manifesting itself in a sound which was a mixture of relief and joy.

As I left work later that evening Michigan Ave. was packed with cars, their horns honking, flags flying from their windows. Networks showed people across the country and the world dancing in the streets. It was a moment of near unanimous global euphoria. 

But, as happens after many joyous celebrations, afterward we find our challenges remain. The pandemic worsens and administration officials refuse to acknowledge Biden's victory and assist with a transition, even with Biden receiving a clear majority of both the popular and electoral college votes. There is the question of control of the Senate. Poverty and mass unemployment still run rampant. 

But I still hold hope that we will come through this dark time a stronger union. There will always be extremists on both sides of issues but I have hope that a national leader that promises to bring us together, not attempt daily to drive us apart, will be the beginning a country that I dream of. Even if it is the first small step in a long road, a country where we begin to care and support fellow citizens of both the country and the world.

I have hope.

Coronavirus19 Diary - Future Hopes

 Election eve. I wanted to write this down, today, when I, nor anyone else, knows what the future holds.

I hope that tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, that I find myself living in a country that cares for it's citizens and where it's citizens will begin to care for one another. I find myself living in a country where the chaotic waters of the past few years begin to calm. That I find myself living in a country where we can begin to heal, to unite. A country where we realize that no one group, or ideology, owns it, but that we all share it. Where honesty and decency and respect begin to flourish once more.

I, nor anyone else, knows what the future holds.

I hope

Coronavirus19 Diary - Work and Hope

 I am working. It feels good to say it, or in this case commit it to virtual paper. After 3 months of furlough waiting for a return to my former employer and another 3 months of unemployment after being informed my position was being eliminated, I, once again, get up in the morning and head off, suitably masked of course, to work. 

I am grateful, that through luck, frugality and adhering to a tight budget, we managed to emerge from this period economically unscathed. I feel for those not as fortunate as we. I feel for those lined up at the food bank I pass on my commute. I feel for those losing homes, struggling, victims of an unprepared administration. 

Our country is an imperfect, dysfunctional union. Factions still battle factions. This could have been a period of unification. people working together and taking measures, fair and patriotic ones, that would have made this time less difficult for everyone. But the present administration, selfish and heartless, completely lacking in empathy, does not unite us but spreads hate, fear and division.

My hope is that the country is growing tired of this hate, this division, the countries emotional disease, just as they are growing weary of the still necessary mitigation efforts needed to control the physical disease we are experiencing. My hope is that the goodness and kindness in our country will rise once again to defeat the distress and despair and fear of those, different than us, with whom we share our country. I hope we begin to unite, heal and realize that one side or the other does not own the country but that we are all in this together.  

Coronavirus19 Diary - Observations While Biding My Time

It was 2 weeks prior to the start date that the job offer was made. There were things I needed to accomplish. There were specialized certificates I had to acquire and black pants to find for my new work uniform. There was a bit of this and a bit of that, all to ensure that my return to the workforce would go as smoothly as possible. Despite these preparations, until the start date, I still have some of the excess of time I have had for the last 6 months. I still have the time to observe, in detail, the events going on in the U.S.,  often at break neck speed. 

A legendary woman, her contribution to our nation virtually incalculable, sadly passes away. Within hours of the announcement of her death the political carrion known as the Republican Party are vowing to replace her despite a highly contentious election being held just weeks away, early and absentee voting already underway. The final Supreme Court nominee of the previous administration was put on hold for 8 months by the Republicans. 

A woman is shot 6 times in her bed yet none of the police officers involved are charged with her death. Only one is charged, with reckless endangerment for the shots that penetrated adjacent apartments, not for the shots that penetrated the body of the dead woman. Protesters, the great majority of them peaceful, once again pour into the streets of cities across the nation.

 All the while a dangerous, childish president, who we learn has attempted to turn tax avoidance into a fine art, states he will not guarantee a peaceful transition of power while attempting to throw into question the legitimacy of the upcoming election. Lest we forget, a pandemic is still raging across the country and 850,00 new people file for unemployment each week.

During these abnormal times people are longing for normal. Some states open up exacerbating the risk of new infections and deaths as a result of complications of the virus. Citizens, never adequately protected financially by the government for the necessary shut down, teeter on the edge of poverty and homelessness. 

Mask wearing, a proven deterrent to transmission of the virus becomes a political hot potato. People rail about their rights yet have no issue with trampling on others right to dominion over their own bodies. They wish to legally censure people for who they love. They moan about the lack of morals in the country today, yet do not show the simple human concern to wear a mask to protect others. 

I do not know how it will end. I try to remain optimistic. I remind myself that, according to polls, a majority of my fellow citizens still cling to the values of decency, truthfulness and the acceptance and worth of others. I hope for the best and bide my time as I await a return to work.

Coronavirus19 Diary - Chicago Is Not Dead

 It seems like every day there is another story about a restaurant or bar closing and people proclaiming the death of Chicago. Much of this is blamed on people working from home during the pandemic. Many feel that this is a permanent condition and downtowns will become wastelands of deserted high rises , once busy streets lined with towering, empty boxes of glass and steel. 

Although companies are seeing cost savings on the horizon resulting from work from home models there are problems associated with it. There is a lack of the positive effects of socialization including the spontaneous collaborations that happen when people work together in the same space. While some functions, such as record keeping and routine interoffice communication, can be preformed adequately at home, the ability to react quickly to an unexpected opportunity or obstacle is hampered when people have to be brought together in Zoom meetings or conference calls rather than being brought together in spur of the moment desk side discussions. 

There are human issues as well. Employees that live alone feel isolated. New hires lack mentorship and recognition for the quality of their work. People in small or shared apartments have difficulty creating a space to work efficiently from home. Some I have talked to bemoan the lack of a work/life separation and balance.

It is possible, perhaps even probable, that office occupation will never return to pre-pandemic levels. Chicago's downtown landscape is somewhat unique as it has been redeveloped over the last few decades to include a mix of both residential and commercial spaces. Over the course of it's history Chicago has been forced to reinvent itself several times. It has been burned to the ground, it's once infamous stockyards and meat packing district a thing of the past. Many of the warehouses from that time have been recreated into a art galleries. The riverfront, once pockmarked with parking lots, as seen in the opening credits of the Bob Newhart Show, is now a wall of spectacular late 20th and early 21st century architecture. 

There are signs of a more normal life returning. Although performances cannot be held safely yet, our museums, though not back in full force, are reviving. On recent visits to the Art Institute we, even as members, had to wait in virtual lines to experience socially distanced exhibitions of the work of El Greco and Monet. 

Some restaurants and small businesses have had to permanently close, however, once the pandemic is under control, once it is behind us, others will open in their place. It will take time but 6 months, even a year or longer, is not long enough to kill the drive of the entrepreneur, or merely someone, as I once did, who decides to pursue a desire. Who, aware of the risks, forges ahead, deciding the risks are worth taking a chance to follow a dream.

Coranavirus19 Diary - Fall's Future

 It is beginning to feel like fall. The sun comes in from a different angle, slanting across the landscape instead of warming it from directly above, as it does during summer's apex.

I watch a country in crisis. Led by a man that behaves like the mad Roman emperors of legend, who pits citizen against citizen, perhaps believing that by dividing us he will conquer. It is difficult to look forward to the future during these times, it takes all one's energy just to wade through the present.

We are more fortunate than some. Over time we were able to put away money for a rainy day and things  seem to be opening up in my industry, hard hit by the pandemic and lock down, partial lock down, another great failing by our current leader. I feel for those with children, scraping to get by, once proud working people forced into long lines at food banks.

I have faith that this will someday be history. Another chapter of "I remember when". I have faith that somehow, through either chaos or compassion and compromise, our country will reinvent itself. I do not have faith in what I desire to lie on the other side, a kinder, gentler, more unified society, will come to pass. I will go through time toward the future one moment at a time, waiting, witnessing and trying as I do to make sense of it all.