random notes from a pandemic

[cellio]

Boy did it feel weird to be isolated for Shabbat -- no torah study, no services, no shared meals, just me and Dani home all day. Some Reform and Conservative congregations (including mine) streamed services, but I don't use computers on Shabbat. If weeks turn to months I wonder how much pressure I'll feel on that. One bright spot is that we have a lunch-time torah study (parsha of the week) on Wednesdays that I can never go to because of work, but since it's virtual now I can block off that hour from work and attend. So at least I'll have that.

Pesach is in a few weeks. The seder we would have gone to is going virtual. I care about the ritual aspects way more than Dani does; his connection is family not religion, and we won't be with his family. It'll feel weird for me to basically read the haggadah while he plays along, maybe? I wonder if it would be safe to invite, say, one other couple and sit at opposite ends of the dining-room table. Maybe the virtual one will start well before sunset (sunset being late now that we're in DST)? I don't know what to do here.

Local businesses are struggling, as expected. Today we got take-out from a local restaurant to do our small part to help -- got two meals' worth of food, so lunch today and probably lunch tomorrow. I got email from the shop where I have new eyeglasses pending; when they come in I can pick up curb-side, but of course that removes any possibility of adjusting the frames to my face, which is always necessary. So I guess I get my new glasses when all of this is over.

With both of us working from home we've needed to develop some protocols: close the door when in a meeting, use headsets, coordinate lunch times. Eating lunch together helps with the isolation. Both of us are used to casual in-person chatting with coworkers and video chat isn't the same -- it's the difference between bumping into someone at the coffee machine and chatting for a few minutes, which feels natural, and taking a deliberate step to initiate a video chat just to say hi, which feels more forced. Our doc team (which is already remote even without a pandemic) is now talking about a regular casual video chat; maybe that will help. Maybe the Pittsburgh team should do that too.

Dani and I wanted to play an on-theme game yesterday and our copy of Pandemic is missing. Much sadness. We're trying to figure out if we left it at some friend's house or what. It's the older edition, before they changed the board and the game pieces in ways that combine badly for the vision-challenged, so I actually want that one back, or to replace it with that edition, rather than getting the current edition, if it turns out we need to get another copy.

Comments

[hlinspjalda]

We are not nearly as observant as you nowadays, but we have also been struggling with the problems of virtual minyan, Shabbat, and the questions surrounding seder. We're used to being on our own for seder out here, though, so that won't be as different for us. The big question is whether we'll be able to get enough whole wheat matzah, which is the one thing we cannot do without at Pesach.

I remembered late last night that I have several jigsaw puzzles I put away for a time "after we move." They may have to come out sooner; Mr. Fixer and I like to do puzzles together. The important strategy for me is to get him to turn off the TV (or stream live bird feeders instead) so I can think without so much audio distraction.

[goljerp]

Yeah, Shabbat has been strange for me, too. It's really my most social day of the week -- not that I'm anti social at work, but on Shabbat is normally when I hang out with friends. This week, my shul did a pre-candle lighting thing and a havdalah thing on zoom, which was nice -- although definitely not the same. :-)

Last week, JD and I played dominon over the phone with a friend: we had our set; she had hers, and we were on speaker phone with her. That worked out pretty well.

I'm worried about how we'll get stuff done now that Joy and JD are going to be working and "at school" in the same room as me (we're wired in one room, which is fine when we're all quiet, not so much when we all need to talk; our wifi pretty much is limited to that room as well...)

Passover

[goljerp]

Oh, and Pesach -- if your issue with the seder is computer use, would you be willing to telephone? I guess it also depends on whether the leaders will expect everyone to see a screen, or understand that some people would be audio-only. My family is pondering a conference call seder, and I'm thinking that I'd do that on the second night, which is Rabbinic...

I started writing more, but realized that it's becoming a post of my own, so I'll put it on my journal. :-)

[osewalrus]

Yes, Shabbat has definitely been weird.

I participated in a half-day fast last Thursday that my shul advertised. It felt good to be participating in communal activity. Our shul has moved its classes to virtual, but being Orthodox we are not doing virtual services. Passover will be strange indeed. But one advantage of a religion as old as ours is that we have experience dealing with all kinds of situations, including quarantines.