A grim anniversary

Hello.

And welcome to the one year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A year.

Can you believe it has been a year?

Last year at this time I was in my last semester of graduate school.

Last year at this time I was looking forward to graduation. I chose a local college specifically for the graduation experience and having the professors be local.

Last year at this time I was working my normal shifts in the hospital.

Last year at this time my husband was still going in to the office.

Last year at this time I was…

Since last year at this time I graduated from graduate school with an MSN-E.

I have not had the time to study for my certification regarding education.

Graduation was cancelled, with promises of an in-person graduation in the fall, if we wanted to wait.

Fall graduation was cancelled, with promises of an in-person graduation in the spring.

So far, the spring in-person graduation is going on as scheduled, with less allowed guests and I have turned in my list of two.

Since last year at this time I have worked ALL of my shifts.

Yes, we had a slowdown due to the cancelling of all elective cases.

Yes, some of staff got lent to other departments as required.

Not me.

No one wants to cover my shifts.

And none of our ER patients are tested due to the constraints of the testing.

Since last year my husband, who has a pre-existing condition, has not gone in to the office.

He has been working from home.

This has increased our electrical bill and our heating bill.

The office is above the garage and is susceptible to wild swings in weather, being poorly insulated.

In the summer the office is unbearably hot. To make the temperature of the office comfortable the air conditioner in the house has to be run at a very low temperature. The entire house has to be cold, so that the office can’t be 85 degrees. My answer was a stand-along AC unit that only cools the office. But the HOA rules state we can’t have a window unit. Sigh. We now have a free standing 2×3 unit that vents out the window. Because that is allowed. The vent, not the unit. The next issue is going to be the 4 mini doors that lead to the under the eaves cubbies which are not well insulated. This is a theme for the house. I will be working on insulating and sealing these doors when on vacation in April. Wish me luck.

Since last year I feel that all I do is work and sleep and work some more.

I know this is a depressive behavior. That I do the minimum of house up keep on my off hours. That I sit and read for hours at a time.

I am trying to cope.

But I am fully vaccinated at this time. And my husband’s vaccine group will be opening up next week.

And next week I am going to start volunteering at a vaccine site during the mornings before work. They have a 0830-1230 shift which means I will be available for my shift at 1430.