Life in the Age of Corona
A Daily Diary
Thursday, July 9th, 2020
Socializing
Summer has definitely arrived. It is hot and humid during the day and like yesterday I migrated from my garden office to my living room office around 11:00. Most of the day (7:30 – 12:00) was spend on calls, which were not terribly productive but informative.
Breaking news and talk of the town for the past two days has been the retirement of our CEO six months before his tenure would have ended, giving rise to a lot of wild speculations as to why. For us it means one year of uninterrupted work focusing on delivery. Once the new CEO has been appointed we will most certainly embark on the next organizational restructuring exercise. So far I have experienced four CEOs and each one comes in stating to not make changes and twelve months later voila a major reorganization begins, the implementation is typically completed by the end of the tenure of the CEO – at least this has been true for the four I have so far experienced.
Beyond that it feels like socially it has been a busy day. Apart from my 30 minute swim, which always almost feels like a holiday, we had a Webex happy hour with the team from work. Main topic of conversation was taking leave and where to go (nowhere!). People shared tips of things to do in terms of day trips around the area. I did not disclose my almost empty Lake Arrowhead as I really do not want to see half the office there, but did share some of the other places we have explored.
I then headed of to Theodore Roosevelt Island, a place I have never been before, to walk with one of my Vietnamese colleagues. It is a beautiful place, but it was hot. I realized I am not used to wearing shoes anymore. I had especially opted for a comfortable pair, a pair I have spend miles walking in airports with, just to find my feet in pain with blisters at the heels and toes. WTF? They worry about staff being abroad to long going native, well I have been going barefoot for 120 days now. I should maybe take to wearing my heels occasionally, so the feet do not forget what it feels like to be enclosed.
I got back to dial into the zoom book club meeting where we discussed a book I haven’t yet read. But it was fun to see the ladies. We are hoping for a socially distanced in person meeting in September. In the meantime I may arrange to meet Marsha for a walk in Rockcreek Park and Barbara and Mirek for drinks in my garden tomorrow night.
So all in all three social events in a day! Life is not too bad, especially since I have taken a half day tomorrow so I can sail on the Potomac again.
Chip says he build the ponton out by the marina as his extended living room and we can arrange to use it for swimming, an enticing idea. Just not sure about the water quality, though he claims it is fine for swimming. I shall monitor closely as diving of the ponton is tempting.
With all this going on I did not get in much reading, but just scanning the headlines it is more of the same. No tests, exploding numbers in the US, the moron in chief in denial and so on. Today reported case globally have reached 12.2 million and the USA is doing its best to contribute to the increase, adding another 62k cases today. This is a new record high, with record highs having been reported every single day for the past 10 days. Clearly America is first in Virus mismanagement. As a result deaths are now exceeding 135.000. It is just depressing.
