Hey all you cool cats and kittens!! How is everyone doing out there in this pandemic? Has anyone else wasted 354 precious minutes of their quarantine life watching the infamous Tiger King show on Netflix yet?

Nine weeks ago, hubby and I went from working a mere three blocks apart from each other in downtown Denver to working one room apart in the same house due to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders. Hubby took over our study as his home office for his engineering job, which was rarely used before and just decorated “for show.” Now our study is filled with engineering plans for Denver buildings, notebooks with nerdy scribble I couldn’t even begin to interpret, and three digital screens for hubby to conduct work and video calls. Meanwhile, I took over the couch as my office with one laptop and two dachshunds subbing as my co-workers.

Our home offices. Hubby stole the study, while I snagged the couch.

Hubby and I are very fortunate to still have jobs and to also be able to work safely from home. Dare I say, we’ve even enjoyed working from home! I think because hubby and I are used to being attached at the hip and doing everything together from weekend camping trips to commuting to work, we haven’t had any problems being stuck 24-7 with each other. More importantly, we also don’t have any children to deal with while being trapped inside the house… just two cute, old lady dachshunds who want to do nothing but sleep all day long.

It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of this quarantine, (which for our household was March 15 – the Ides of March!) we thought we would just need to shelter-in-place for two or three weeks to help “flatten the curve”. We assumed that after a few weeks of good behavior in quarantine, we would all go back to our normal lives. After a few days though, it was apparent that things would never go back to anything resembling the old “normal”.

“Normal” is now wiping down our groceries and mail (even envelopes) the minute it comes in our home. “Normal” is second-guessing ourselves when we want (but don’t need) to take the dogs for a walk or go on a leisurely bicycle ride or order take-out from a restaurant. “Normal” is visiting with family or friends via Zoom video calls instead of in-person, even if they live only two blocks away. “Normal” is putting away our company laptops at 5:00 o’clock and walking to the the couch in ours PJs for happy hour at 5:01 pm with to-go cocktails from a nearby local restaurant. “Normal” is turning down cheap summer flights in exchange for the gratitude of having a healthy life and incredible past travels to relive in the meantime. And “normal” is having no idea when you’ll safely be able to see friends, family, and co-workers without having to stand six feet apart.

Since we have no idea when we will be able to get out of the house to safely do “non-essential” activities like camping or hiking, much less a full-blown vacation, we are very grateful for several mini-vacays we had right before we were ordered to shelter in place.

Stay tuned for my next post where I talk about our first of four recent mini-vacays, a quiet retreat at Avalanche Ranch!

The best thing to come out of COVID-19 quarantining: to-go cocktails from local restaurants. Clearly, we’ve sampled quite a few!

Cheers to good health, positivity, and a cozy home to quarantine in!