So...Where Are the Zombies?

We have barely even made it through the opening credits to this pandemic, and I'm about ready to walk out and demand my money back. At first, it seemed like a pretty nice notion to get to work from home and avoid the commute. But now, I'm seeing the monotony. Now that the library is closed to the public, I have to do all of my normal work in a house with 6 other people, at least 2 of whom (not naming names) have no sense of social norms. For example, I've been interrupted about 16 times as of this point writing this paragraph.

I've been spending my mornings mostly getting the boys fed before getting myself showered and then answering emails and getting going on work. I've been trying to record as many lectures as I can for the courses that do not use a formal textbook. I did that a few semesters ago for my statistics course, because I sometimes teach it online anyway, and that's been helpful to have, so I have sort of wanted to get the rest of my lectures recorded anyway, but it's pretty awkward to do at home when I can be interrupted at any moment. Merritt ran into the room in the middle of one the other day to shout, "Dad, I'm dressed!" like he had just won a Nobel. That should be fun for the students, I suppose.

We're running out of ideas to keep the kids busy, too. They started out treating this like a big vacation, for which we won't blame them, but it's been getting pretty ridiculous. Carver puts up a big fight when we suggest he get dressed, for example. It's a constant struggle to keep their screen time to a minimum, while also keeping them from rolling around in the mud in the back yard or take them somewhere no one is supposed to be. Kira has been helping them keep up with their eLearning tasks (using iPads), and has taken them to some public places where they are not likely to run into people in close proximities:

I was semi-successful at getting the younger boys and Avey to help me with a yard project yesterday, preparing some ground for planting flowers in the next few weeks. It's been a bit too cold to really get some yardwork done, but we should have some nice weather soon.

I filled my need to fiddle with the house by replacing all of the outlets in Avey's room. They were all the old almond color, which clashes badly with her new paint job, and they were at least 20 years old, so now they are all an updated decorative white. She even painted a couple of cover plates the blue of her accent walls so that we could put those over the outlets on her white wall, adding a nice complement.

I also replaced the very old GFCI outlets in our kitchen and the mud room bathroom, as they were probably older than 20 years and looking pretty sad. I planted grass seed in some spotty areas today, hoping to catch the weather in time as the other plants begin to grow.

We refinanced our mortgage this week, taking advantage of the lower interest rates while we can. We were impressed to find that our home's value went up quite a bit since we purchased it, which was nice. We're excited to save a lot of money, and have some good plans for paying everything off.

Avey and Carver had colds this week, and Kira had a headache over a couple of days, making it seem like we were in some kind of quarantine. They are all better now, and nobody else has symptoms, and they never had any of the specific symptoms of COVID-19, so we're not worried about that. There are very few cases in our state, anyway, but we all want to keep it that way, too.

St. Patrick's was weird, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Avey at least dyed some milk green for Hakan, who was excited, and Avey and Kira bought some mint milkshakes (to Hannah's and my horror). Hannah made Apollo a green bow tie so that he could get into the spirit:

Today is Apollo's second birthday, and the first one he's had with us, so we have a few plans to celebrate. I baked a cake for us people, and bought him a fresh new bone and a peanut butter treat. We also have a few doggy toys that he can destroy. It's one of his favorite things to tear the guts and squeakers out of stuffed toys, so we'll let him have at it. At least he's good about knowing which toys are off limits...

Hannah's been going into her office job a few hours a day most of the week, but now that the schools are closed at least until May, she's not driving the bus. She is able to get online training for which she gets paid, so at least that's nice.

Kira's clients have been canceling appointments even with her offers to meet over the phone, so that's been a little frustrating, but we're all glad that my job is more easily adaptable to this weird situation. I'm still confused as to why the zombies have not shown up yet, as that's what's supposed to happen according to every single movie ever made. Maybe they're just biding their time...