Working From Home

Like almost everyone else I know, I’m working from home and have been since the 2nd week in March.  Jim started working from home the 3rd week in March.  Both of our companies have given us the general idea [nothing set in stone] that we’ll continue to work from home until at least January… so crazy.  But better to be home safe than out in the world exposed to the Covid.  We both feel extremely lucky to still have our jobs, the ability to work from home, & our health.  Neither of us knows anyone personally that has been infected.  But watching the news any time of day is enough to keep us from venturing out.  We only leave the house for 4 reasons:  groceries, booze, doctor appointments, or mental health walks.  Although it’s been WAAAAAAAAAAAY too hot for me to walk.  When I go, I leave the house at 5am.  We always wear masks when we’re out.

I took a whole bunch of photos throughout the first 3 months of working from home, so I decided to share them here.

When I found out I’d be working from home, I got the girl cave ready.  Thankfully they let us bring home our laptop, laptop docking station, monitors, speakers, keyboard, & mouse.  The girl cave is a natural place for me to work.  Jim is working downstairs in the dining room where he can spread out.  Since I needed a desk in the cave, I had Jim help me bring my art/drafting table up from the basement and set it up facing the window to the left of my workbench:

       

Darwin was very helpful.  And Birdie quickly became a staple in the girl cave in her basket during the day:

      

There were some issues at first, with the cats and the cave.  It’s Birdie’s litter box area, but Darwin started sleeping under the workbench where he could easily dart out and attack her when she tried to use the litter.  I had to put up a temporary barrier.  In the 2nd pic Darwin is standing on the cage of a temporary mouse I was taking care of for Christyne, trying to see what’s happening downstairs:

       

At first he was VERY curious about my work desk and would stand on it to take in the view of the driveway:

       

He only jumps up on my desk a few times a week now.

A major issue when I first got home was my ponytail palm plant.  When I first bought it, years ago, it was in the bedroom.  Darwin would stalk it and shred it as often as possible.  The fronds are sharp on the edges and I didn’t want him cutting his mouth.  So for the last 5 or so years it’s lived at my office.  When they announced they’d be closing the building to all but 5 people back in mid-March I made a mad dash back to the office and brought my “jungle” home [that’s what my coworkers call it].  Here are some pics from a few years ago of my actual work office, so you can see the jungle and the ponytail palm in her former [PRE-DARWIN] glory:

       

       

The ponytail palm was an INSTANT target of Darwin’s.  He can’t seem to help himself.  I tried giving it a haircut and putting it up on a plant stand but he knocked it over.  I finally put it on top of the tall red bookcase in the girl cave:

       

And somehow, during the night, he managed to get up there!!!  HOW???  There were palm fronds everywhere.  Notice the one hanging off the doorknob.  Crazy!:

       

The only way he could have gotten up there was to jump on my desk, then up on top of the purple bookcase, then somehow climb over the doorway to the top of the door, then jump up to the plant [he’s never done anything like that before!  Apparently he was very motivated]:

       

So I had to set it up on a temporary shelf in the highest girl cave window:

       

He wasn’t very thrilled with that:

Now it’s outside.  Much safer.

Meanwhile, I turned my desk sideways because I couldn’t really see out the window over my 2 monitors.  It’s much easier to lean sideways and see what’s going on out on the street:

Here was my view when I first started working from home – pretty bleak:

Of course it helped that I washed all the girl cave windows within a couple days of being home 🙂

It was so weird to see the streets so deserted… because pandemic… scary:

Meanwhile my good girl Birdie faithfully kept me company:

And Darwin continued to use my desk as an excellent vantage point:

       

       

It was amazing to watch the leaves come out on the trees from my desk.  It’s something I’d never really paid attention to before.  First pic was taken 4/16/20 [NOTICE THE SNOW!!!] & last pic was taken 5/26/20:

       

       

       

And when the lilac tree beneath my window bloomed it filled the cave with it’s wonderful aroma:

By the end of May I was having knee pain from the art/drafting table – there’s a bar that prevented me from stretching out my legs.  And back pain from sitting in 3 different chairs.  I think the height of the art table was just wrong all around.  So hubby helped me carry it back down to the basement and helped me carry my computer desk up to the cave.  Thankfully I held onto it when I moved in here almost 9 years ago!  At first I was using Jim’s purple office chair [first pic] but now I’m using my bungee office chair & there’s no more knee or back pain:

        

It’s perfect with the dead cat pillow I bought at IKEA a dozen years ago:

Darwin often spots something interesting in the driveway:

I always LOVE seeing the kitties getting along:

       

Today I was trying to finish up work when Darwin jumped up on my desk:

       

He went behind the curtain and I kind of forgot he was there until my hand was suddenly being attacked through the curtain.  It made me LOL!:

       

Working from home with Jim has been awesome.  We visit each other a few times a day just to check in.  And since we’re one floor apart we don’t usually disturb each other on conference/video calls.