The last month has been utterly crazy, so I’m not going to do my regular thing of going over the goals I had to assess whether I succeeded or not. Let’s just assume total failure and leave it at that, because it’s been totally nuts, not just for me, but for everyone I imagine. My story’s perhaps a little different, so let’s get this blog up to date with what’s been going on for me and then next week I should be in a good place again.

So What’s Been Happening?

My last blog post was on Wednesday, February 26th only a few days after I found my Mother had stage four lung cancer. That was quite something to swallow, especially from this distance, 4,482 miles, as the crow flies.

From then, things deteriorated quite quickly, and on Friday, March 6th, the unthinkable happened.

I’ll set the scene for you.

I’d been wanting my Mother to get to read this blasted book I’ve written and I’m still working on. When it became clear that perhaps the timeline might be too short, I had a brilliant idea – I’d been advised to read the thing aloud because errors stand out better that way, and it struck me that I could record it and send it as something akin to an audiobook.

I started on the Thursday, but I wasn’t happy with the recording, so on the Friday I started over and was about halfway through the first of two scenes that make up Chapter 1 when the the door opened and my dear lady wife came home.

This was about 1pm. She normally gets hope around the time I hit the hay.

She’d some home to soften the blow of some bad news, and it was the worst.

Next day, I charged $2,900 for a return ticket to Bristol – up from $1,500 just a couple of weeks earlier – and on Monday, March 9th, I left to go home for the funeral, which had been scheduled on that day for Friday, March 20th.

Time At Home.

I’m not going to get all emotional here, so don’t worry about that. I’ll do my grieving in private.

What added to the woes, however, was the ramping up, somewhat belatedly, of the global response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

I arrived on March 10th, some six days before Boris Johnson decided to dissuade people from pubs, clubs, restaurants and so on, and four days before Trump banned travel from the EU Schengen area to the US, which he almost immediately extended to include the UK and Ireland.

On March 20th, the day of the funeral and four days before my return flight was scheduled, I got a polite email from KLM:

We are very sorry, your flight was cancelled. We realise that this is an inconvenience and has a big impact on your plans.

The local authorities of your destination have initiated entry restrictions, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19). At this moment, we are unable to rebook you, because it’s still unclear when these restrictions will be lifted. However, you will be able to rebook your flight until 30 September 2020 or you can request a refund in form of a travel voucher. Either way, you can rest assured you can travel at a later date.

KLM Flight Info airfrance-klm@connect-passengers.com
Date: Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 01:03

Luckily my dear wife was on the West of the Atlantic and could get hold of Delta within minutes of trying, and managed to get me a flight out some 48 hours earlier than planned.

Home Sweet Home.

So, after a long day’s travel, I arrive back in the States, only to be confused – all the people I encountered on leaving the plane were pleasant, polite and friendly.

Was this really Atlanta airport?

Turns out, yes, it was Atlanta.

Those nice people were from somewhere else.

Once I’d reached Immigration the situation changed. Everyone from there through to, and including, TSA Pre-screening were as obnoxious, rude and unpleasant as they had ever been.

I was back!

Finding My Feet.

The United States appears, to me at least, to be about two weeks behind the UK in terms of the COVID epidemic and response. The schools in Tennessee were closed earlier, but they close here at the slightest excuse so that’s not a good metric.

The biggest problem has been keeping to a 14-day quarantine when the stores close before the dear wife can get any needed supplies after she leaves work.

So I broke quarantine yesterday, the sixth day home, to get some groceries.

Sorry, but if the world wants me to take this quarantine seriously, the world needs to take seriously my need to feed my kids and understand that I’m not going to sit here and suffer a quarantine watching my pantry empty, when everyone I know, including back in the UK, has shown no symptoms at all.

If you’re going to suggest that I order my groceries online and have Walmart put them in my car, you need to register a time for that, and that means that there needs to be a time available. There wasn’t.

Delivery? Nope. Sorry. Not for me, they won’t. They don’t even say why.

I’m not a selfish git, though. I will be practising this social distancing and only making trips that are essential and unavoidable. I just class feeding my family in this category.

Have I Done Anything At All With The Book?

Yes.

I may be stuck at home with the kids – who are also stuck at home – but in between making sure they get some schooling in and have enough liberty to not go insane, over the last few weekdays I’ve managed to squeeze in perhaps 45 to 90 minutes of work each day.

It’s been a multi-front operation: continuing with the recording; editing what’s already recorded, and pushing ahead with incorporating my revision notes.

I’ve completed recording and editing the first scene, and I’ve completed incorporating notes through both scenes of Chapter 1.

Meanwhile, I’ve also discovered that I can’t stand the sound of my own voice and that, thanks to nerve damage following jaw surgery back in 2008, I have a slight speech impediment that I’d never noticed before.

That’s a kick in the nuts to my confidence that I could have done without.

So… What Now?

I usually close out with ‘Up Next,’ but not this time because I use that in the next post to gauge what progress I’ve made on the goals I’ve set.

Today, I’m not setting any.

I’m going to have to remain flexible and simply do what I can, given the absence of any control over my living arrangements.

So, my only goal is to take care of myself and my family, do what I can to minimize the risk of catching this COVID thing, and meanwhile work on whatever else as and when I can.

Stay safe everyone, don’t panic and try to enjoy your week.

Categories: COVID-19, My Life, Personal, Revision, The Old Man, Work Update

Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, My Life, The Old Man