There is no Story Here

I don’t have a story.

The transition of our research centre from an office building to working from home went  quite smoothly. There were some issues with getting additional VPN certificates, but they’re working on it. We quickly established communication – Zoom, Slack, and our MS office 365 with Teams came this week – and we’re actually communicating better than we used to. Even my office plants are being watered, thanks to the few remaining on-site maintenance staff.

Working from home has relieved me of my daily commute. My insurance agent (Co-op) wrote me saying I would get a premium discount. I had to switch providers because Bell had throttled my internet to 5 mB download, but now I’m getting excellent 80/10 mB via a local reseller. It was a bit tricky doing my own rewiring in the garage, but I managed. Now I’m more relaxed and more productive than I have been for some time. My wide is happier too because I’m around more.

It has been a bit chilly but the extra time and proximity to country roads has allowed me to start cycling earlier than ever this year. I’ve put in more than 200 km and I haven’t even had my regular spring tune-up yet (VeloFix will be coming to my home in early May to get this done). I haven’t lost weight yet but I’m not eating office junk food and feel healthier.

I know a lot of people are hurting, and I’m making sure to realign my work and my personal life to maximize the support I can provide. But I’m not on the front lines and there’s nothing I can do directly but offer my support, work as hard as I can to support government relief efforts, and stay out of the way. The hardest thing for me I think is wanting to be useful, wanting to be extraordinary, when in fact the best thing I can to is to keep my life as ordinary and uneventful as possible.

Location: Casselman, Ontario, Canada
More Information: http://www.downes.ca