Settling in

The new temporarily-normal is beginning to take shape, in the little things.

Colbert hasn't come back yet, so we don't have our start-of-the-day monologue, but for now we're trying out The Daily Social Distancing Show. Friends have told me that Trevor Noah has his feet under him and the show's coming back up to snuff. More importantly, it looks like he twigged, faster than the rest, that a different format is needed for these times. It doesn't feel like the usual audience-interaction comedy show; rather, it's essentially a well-produced and well-written YouTube video in its style. (This shows in its editing, more than anything.) That's canny, and it wouldn't surprise me if others try to follow suit.

Just finished setting up Kate's new desk. The primary way in which the situation caught us slightly flat-footed is that, while she's used to working from home a little, she didn't have an adequately ergonomic setup for doing so every day, and ergonomics matter. Fortunately, I picked up all the key peripherals from MicroCenter shortly before things started to shut down, and the desk we ordered via Amazon arrived yesterday. I can't say it's the nicest thing in the world (I spent a good chunk of last evening swearing at badly-written instructions and overly-tight tolerances, longing for Ikea), but it will hopefully get her through.

Only one crisis so far -- minor, but only barely. A few days ago, Kate called me down to the kitchen, where there was a huge and growing puddle on the floor. A minute of looking at the water flow proved that it was coming from the fridge, and a panicked call to our plumber (god bless our plumber) informed us that there is always a shutoff valve for these things. Another minute of running around the basement (and finding a wrench, since the bloody thing was almost solid), and we managed to get it stopped.

The floor's definitely unhappy: the boards have warped noticeably in the days since. (Not sure how we could have dried it more effectively, but I suspect there was more we should have done.) Once the current mess is over, we'll have to get it sanded and refinished. But as crises go, that's a pretty liveable one. Thank heavens Kate happened to go down for lunch early: if it had gone another half hour, we would have taken a lot more damage...