Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 

short lived

The governor put further restrictions into place last night, effectively shutting down all non-essential businesses. We can still work from home, but the real question is how long will we have work to do? I guess that remains to be seen. We’re all busy this week, so at least that’s something.

In related news, I’ve been arguing a bit with Jake this week about the social distancing stuff. So, in order to set a good example, I’ve decided to stop volunteering at the shelter until I either get and recover from coronavirus or the danger has passed. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am to have to do this. But, it was going to happen sooner or later anyway–I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a shelter in place directive soon. I did inquire about other things I might be able to do to help the shelter out, so I hope there is something else I can do to help in the interim. I know they are looking for foster homes for the animals. Right now is not a great time for me to do that for a number of reasons, but you never know when circumstances might change. It is definitely something I’d like to do someday and if I can figure out a way to do it during this mess, all the better. But, if you are able to foster an animal, please consider doing so.

 

social distancing

I’ve been practicing for this moment my whole life and am ready for it. Finally, an excuse to stay home! My yard is going to look so good this summer–I vow to pull every last weed.

Seriously, though, this is ruining more than a few things (besides the obvious).

First, the shelter is now closed to the public (though it is open by appointment). Given the pandemic and the subsequent economic fallout, who knows what will happen with all of those animals? Hopefully those who are able will step up and help out. People can still volunteer there, but you have to contact them ahead of time to make sure there will be a staff member there. So, I’m probably going to cut my volunteering back to one day a week (the pack walk) for as long as we’re all still allowed to leave the house. While that does involve other people, we’re outside for the most part, so I’m not too worried about it. I almost brought the pending pandemic up at the last board meeting, but (generally speaking) whenever I brought up the topic to others in the past, people looked at me like I had three eyes. Who has three eyes now, huh?

Everything at work had been going great the past few months. Things really picked up at the end of last year and haven’t let up since. We’re still busy at the moment, but I wonder how long it will last in this climate. The governor made a request for non-essential businesses to close their doors to the public this week, so we asked all of our employees to work from their homes starting on Tuesday. Brian’s still going into the office. Jake and I will as well, but we’re both going to work from home on occasion, too. There are some things I cannot accomplish from the house (like paying bills, doing the banking, etc.).

Jake had some big changes as well. He was on spring break when this first hit the state just a week or so ago. Pitt extended spring break by a week so he’s off this week, too. Next week, classes resume and will be online for the rest of the semester. There are four weeks left plus finals week (I’m not sure how they’re going to administer the tests). It sounds like pretty much all schools are doing the online thing at this point. I only hope he will be able to return to school in the fall. It sounds like things are getting back to normal in China and that whole thing lasted about two months, but they were in a severe lockdown, the likes of which we won’t see here. They also did a lot more testing, which is important. They better ramp things up here soon.

The nice thing about Johnstown is that it’s pretty much recession proof as we’ve been in one for 30 years now. But is it depression proof? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

finalized

Today, I received notification that my divorce was finalized as of March 11. This didn’t come as a surprise as Brian told me he received his notification last Friday. I think I’m ok with it, but it’s hard to tell as I’m completely stressed out over this pandemic.

lullaby

This was another one from Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series, which I really enjoy. I thought it was going to be a quick read, but then I got distracted by the coronavirus (I won’t tell you how many articles I just read while writing this post). Overall, I liked the book, but there were a lot of story lines going on and things got a little confusing at one point.

My rating: 3.5/5

coronapocalypse

I’ve been following this coronavirus thing ever since it first appeared in the news in January (I have a thing for pandemics, thanks to The Stand), so I’m not at all surprised about the way it’s going right now. It is a little surreal when you start thinking about everything that has been canceled (NBA, NHL, music tours, cruises, air travel, etc.), but this is being done to try to improve the situation, so it’s better than the alternative.

Things are a little nutty at the grocery stores. I was at Giant Eagle last night and they were sold out of quite a few things (water, toilet paper, eggs, hand sanitizer (of course), and bananas of all things). Crazy. It’s not like the stores are going to close. I just don’t want to have to go to them when everyone’s walking around infected. Some guy had his cart double stacked with water. I thought they were going to be doing purchase limits at the store, but apparently not. Luckily, I was able to grab a couple of gallons at Dollar General next door. I’m not even sure why we’d need water, but I always like to have a little bit on hand just in case.

Late last week, it was announced that the Brit Floyd show Jake and I were supposed to go to has been postponed until August, so that’s good. Hopefully things will be better by that point, but who knows.

I had a last hurrah part two today. My friend Carol was available for lunch so we went to TAP 814. I’ve been wanting to go there since it opened and I wasn’t disappointed. I had the Carnivore Flatbread, which was quite tasty (and huge–I brought most of it home).

As for work, the economy really has me concerned. But, there’s not really anything I can do about it. And, it’s not like having an actual job (versus being a business owner) is any more secure. Just ask the travel industry.