Quarantine Diaries 1, 2 and 3 followed our lock-down in some sort of order (links to all can be found at the bottom of this post)

My last post on this blog was written after week one, when I still had to go to work two days a week. (Week One of the World Shutting Down – which I am counting as Quarantine Diaries – Part 1)

After that week, the office closed and we are both home – every day. Me not having to go to work everyday or even for a couple of days per week, calmed DC down a bit.

But… he was still having a hard time understanding why he could not go anywhere or why Mrs. H was not coming. Doug’s last day in the house was DC’s birthday. After that things began to get really scary so the only contact we have is when he meets us at a trail to walk – keeping his distance, or if he needs to do laundry or use the WiFi (he lives in a bad WiFi area), he stays in the garage.

“Mom! This is so ‘nis-able’. Sickness will be over?”
Followed by a growl 😢

It’s only been a couple of weeks but do you find yourself having anxiety when watching characters on television shows opening mail, willy nilly (where did THAT word come from?) hugging or shaking hands – or is it just me?

DC will now jump at any opportunity to walk. Normally this is not the case, but he is bored and looking for something to do, so walking and taking lots of photos, it is.

The one mile is not a big deal. We really went to see the daffodils, but this mile came immediately after walking 4.3 miles, and that IS a big deal.

Hair:

DC has informed me at least 3 or 4 times since we’ve been awake, that my hair is a “de-aster” and even “a mess”. Since I haven’t been upstairs to look in a mirror yet…. it should be interesting when I do.
It must be REALLY bad!

We will NOT be discussing just what I have done to my hair.

But speaking of hair… I had to order one of those hair cutting razors because DC was begging for a haircut. It took forever to come in. This was the first time I had ever attempted to give him a hair cut. Before his dad moved to Florida, he would cut his hair for him when he took him for a visit. Since then DC has gone to the salon. He really loves going. They treat him like a king.

I was nervous, but figured he would have plenty of time to grow it out if I really did a bad job.

Here goes nothing…
Never done this before ….
Sweating….
#GarageHairCut

So… I didn’t do a “bad” job (if you don’t look at the back).
He did come running to me and yelled (not angrily)
“Look what you’ve done to me!”
because I cut off his sideburns accidentally.
(Proper use of pronouns and everything)
But he’s happy. #Phew

Sleep:

DC must be as bored as I am – he slept until 9 am yesterday and 10 am this morning! As nice as this is, we have to get ourselves back on some sort of regular schedule eventually…

I decided that although I WOULD have to get him back to a regular schedule at some point, I was not going to do it now. These are long days for him and the later he sleeps, the shorter the day will be.

I had to put a stop to the ridiculous amount of people who thought it was okay to text or call me before 8am – mostly co-workers wondering about their unemployment benefits. I have been out of work since March 20th and had to apply twice. It was finally approved on April 4th, but I still haven’t seen a single cent (it’s April 27th). If I knew what was going on or how to fix it, I would be getting paid, right?

Stop. Calling. Me.

I. Don’t. Know.

In other news:

DC has become extremely helpful. He’ll pick up his dishes. He’ll even pick up my dishes! He’ll help me with the garbage and he puts the dishes away when he sees them in the drainer. I even caught him sweeping the other day. There has been some growth here during this lock down! He was always helpful when he was asked to do something, but now it is apparent that he is becoming more aware of what needs to be done without being told or asked.

DC offered to bring all of the laundry upstairs. Perhaps it was because it was in “his spot” on the couch (not that he’s ready to sit in his spot on the couch, it’s just the fact that they were there) – one less trip up stairs for me!

In more annoying news:

We live in a duplex. The neighbors moved out a few months ago. Somewhere early in April we were woken up at 7:30 am by the walls shaking and demolition going on next door. It sounded like they were taking a sledge hammer to the bathroom sink, tub and tile.

We had absolutely no warning. It scared DC to death (and me too) because he didn’t know what was happening.

Common courtesy? Maybe inform your tenants when you are going to demo the apartment next door?

Apparently common courtesy does not run in that family.

On day one of demolition one of the workers came to the door and asked to look at something in my bathroom! No gloves, no mask – just as if it were a regular day and there was no lock-down/quarantine going on. He looked at me as if I had the problem and I was the one being unreasonable!

Day 798:
It’s raining.
I live in a duplex – work is going on in the other side due to the last people finally moving out.
Loud banging and pounding (almost like they never left) and sawing going on day 3.
No where to go in the rain.
DC has asked me for lunch at least 30 times since 930 this morning (I finally gave in)
DC has reminded me about Easter at least 6 times since he got up at 8.
DC announces “Vickie, I heard a noise” every time the banging and sawing begins – even though he knows what it is – and I have to explain what the noise is… every time.
Why are they all working next door when they know that no one can go anywhere? That is always the level of consideration I get from the landlord.
Why are they all working with no masks or gloves in a very small apartment? Beats me.
It’s not even noon and I am over this day.

This went on for two or more weeks (weekends included). So not only were we stuck at home but we were made to listen to this all day every day. #HavingABlastInQuarantineWishYouWereHere

On a brighter note:

Disney put on a celebrity sing-a-long and of course we were there. I hope they do more. It was a good thing that DC’s aunt told me about it. We rarely watch regular television so we don’t normally see the advertisements for this kind of thing.

You can’t watch a sing-a-long with out popcorn.

Visiting News:

DC and I talk to his grandmother (my mother) every other day to check if she is all right or to see if she needs anything.

I decided one day that we should go and visit. I called her ahead of time to tell her that she is not going to open the door and we would stay on the porch. I had to make that clear ahead of time because I wasn’t sure she would be able to resist not trying to hug the stuffing out of her grandson. She promised to keep the door closed.

Went for a front porch, through the glass visit with Grandma today. She wore her Bazinga shirt for the occasion.

It was a quick visit. Although he knew that she would not be opening the door and we would not be going in, he started getting a bit anxious about standing on the porch. It was different and even though he wanted to do it, he could not take yet another thing being different for too long, but he was sure glad to have been able to see her.

In “We are willing to try it” news:

We baked…

So, we baked today. Yes, that is what I said “Baked”.

I don’t bake.

We scrounged around for ingredients. Fortunately Doug was on his way from the grocery store and coming to drop off our groceries at the front porch so I asked him to add frosting to my list.
We found a very old 6 cupcake pan and a doughnut pan. Why do I have a doughnut pan, you ask? I have no idea. So we made cupcakes in both.

Doug, when he dropped off the groceries brought me a very small bag of Hershey’s miniatures figuring I might need a chocolate fix at this point of the rainy, windy, thundery, lightning-ly day (you all know THAT drill). They came in handy. I melted them so DC could dip the tops of some of the doughnut cupcakes in chocolate.
I warned DC ahead of time that this was for fun and the end result could be a disaster and not edible, but it all turned out pretty well.

New Holiday News:

We declared “Junk Food Day”

It’s raining (again) and since it seems I’ve totally lost control of the day, junk food wise… we decided we’d just have at it and go the distance (just for today). DC is honing his frosting skills by frosting his Nutter Butters.
#DontKnockItUntilYouTryIt

And then there was Story Time:

The thing he is most proud of and totally had a good time doing was:

Quarantine Story Time With DC

So first…there are supposed to be subtitles. I spent a long time putting them in (and you will need them in some spots), but I don’t know if it is working or not. If you don’t see them you will have to open it up and hit the closed captioning button. Sorry, I am a novice at subtitles. If you do have to use CC, I can not be held responsible for the way his words are interpreted. 🙂
Anyway, DC wanted to read one of his newer (believe it or not) favorite stories… Chicken Little
We had fun making this. (Yes, I am aware the he keeps touching his face. He washes his hands before and after every activity he does because I can’t make him stop) #StoryTimeWithDC

As I mentioned earlier, I cannot go anywhere without DC so thankfully Doug does our grocery shopping and drops it off on the porch. Basically I have gone just about nowhere other than walking trails since this began.

Yesterday Doug met DC at the garage and took him for a bike ride around the neighborhood and I was able to go to the convenience store all by myself! The first time I have been anywhere alone since my last day of work (over a month ago).

I was gone all of 10 minutes but I have to tell you, it was pretty exciting!

Phone Skills:

Because Doug drops off the groceries, DC has decided that he is also the delivery man for anything he might want. You all know that DC, after years of me working on it, has finally started using the phone spontaneously. As I have written more than once, if he wants to call anyone I don’t ask why and I never say no because I don’t want him to think that he can’t use the phone if he needs to. I always want it to occur to him that he should use the phone if he needs something or if something were to happen.

Yesterday he announced “I have to call Doug”.

He went to his phone and called Doug and said “DC would like ‘sub-a-way’.

I explained to DC that Doug wasn’t a delivery service, but of course he got his ‘sub-a-way’. I am not sure what, if any lesson was learned there, but we will work on that.

End of The Sickness:

DC is still looking to me for a date. he wants to know when all of this will be over.

He asked if it would be over in May. I know that the schools in this area are closed until at least May 20th, some for the rest of the school year. I did not want to tell him May because as soon as May 1st came around, he would be convinced that it is over.

I made the mistake of telling him “maybe in June” and then kicked myself for it.

I should know by now, and I do know after 29 years of knowing these things that “Maybe” is NOT a word that DC understands.

I don’t know what I was thinking!

Please keep your fingers crossed for June! Thank you!

*****