[Chronicled for posterity.]
March 16 [Monday morning]
My last day of freedom to roam the wilds was this morning. I conducted a field foray for work into Los Angeles and West Hollywood. A local insurance agent and I took a drive to review four large Apartment building prospects. The agent was hoping to insure them, I was present to confirm eligibility and provide binding authority, pending eligibility. We’d known each other for more than ten years in a friendly work capacity and got along very well, it was enjoyable company. We met the owner at the first location, he wore a mask, the agent and I did not. Nobody shook hands.
The drive there should have taken well over an hour, closer to two even. But traffic was surprisingly light and we got there in just over an hour. The return drive was also surprisingly light and driving through the streets of Los Angeles were rather pleasant due to the novelty of light traffic.
Shortly after noon I received a call from Wife Klem while we were on our drive back to Claremont, a 10-minute drive from San Dimas. She was advising of Shelter In Place having been decreed and the importance of us returning home pronto. We did so with no further adieu. So it began, the Shelter In Place order. The agent was later successful in writing all four of those Apartment policies!
March 16 [Monday afternoon]
A work email to me and my field colleagues has advised that we are to work strictly virtual until the end of March. My initial impression was disbelief mixed with naïve enthusiasm for a paid stay-cation for the next few weeks. My colleagues and I had been working remotely since 2014, from our homes, but not like this, virtually. Pre-COVID I had appointments throughout the week at local agents’ offices to conduct training and marketing sessions for the commercial products. But this, the strictly virtual instructions, I enjoyed the staying home, not having to drive to meetings or dress up in trousers and wingtips. My meetings will be conducted virtually via Skype instead of live one-on-one in their offices. This took some initial retooling. Content was changed to make it more visually appealing [showing screens and data virtually instead of being there live talking and conveying ideas], also shortened the sessions to 45-minutes instead of 1:30 hours in agent’s offices.
There was plenty of work to do, especially with questions related to policies regarding possible coverage to pay for COVID-related losses. I was of the mind that this strictly virtual work was overreaching for safety, but I would gladly comply.
March 25 [Wednesday]
My field colleagues and I received updated work instructions extending our ‘strictly virtual’ capacity through April 15. I was completely naïve on this and it caught me by surprise. Oh no, this is no stay-cation, this is serious! Sure, I was well aware of Wuhan, China and the deaths in Italy, but come on, the shutting down of the world’s economy? A mental shift occurred in my head, maybe this won’t end soon. The business closures, economic devastation and job losses were just now at the beginning. Businesses had temporarily closed in mid-March, but this no longer had a temporary feel to it and business closures sparked off in thick rolling waves with hopes of opening soon seeming to have been dashed. Yes, I understand, death rages due to COVID, but what of the life wreckage starting to accumulate for the living, those who would live beyond this.
I would conduct my work tasks to the best of my ability, of course, and this would be the least of my concerns. We would personally socially distance, limit, if not entirely cut-off, contact with those outside our home. Dinners every other week with my parents and brother’s family are discontinued until further notice. Also, big news, Tom Hanks and his wife are laid up in Australia with COVID.
March 27 [Friday]
Shelter In Place is wreaking havoc unto the lives of millions. [The boy], though, thrives! He’d been living in the dorms at Cal State Fullerton, college life and dining at the campus gastropods did not agree with him. Well, he was sent home in late February due to the closing of the dorms and campus. He will complete the balance of the semester taking classes online from the comforts of his bedroom, much to his preference. His mornings and afternoons are spent with classes and studying, the evenings and night often find him video gaming virtually with his pals. I know there’s a mess being stirred up around the world, but it’s a comfort to hear my guy giggling and laughing behind closed doors as he whiles away the evenings with his friends in his spare time.
[My daughter], meanwhile, is not as keen on Shelter In Place as her brother. She had been enjoying her sophomore year in high school and the camaraderie of her Dive Team teammates. Going from a busy schedule of practice five evenings per week to being in lock-down every day and night with one’s parents is a drastic change. She’s making the best of it but understandably would prefer interaction on a larger scale.
-klem
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