I am very proud to be married to my wife, Anne Michele, who is an emergency room nurse at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. Three weeks ago, she had exposure to several patients who had the coronavirus while she was at work. She was adamant that I stay home until the fourteen-day secondary transmission risk was all clear. So, I packed up my technology, put up a folding table I use for UGA tailgates, and I began to work in the basement. The next two and a half weeks were surreal, to say the least, and now that I am back in the office, I wanted to share some reflections, admissions, and confessions. Confessions – I love my routine! I love doing the same routine during the week and then the same weekend routine. I get stressed when the routine is not the same or when someone tries to change it. I stayed stressed while I was at home because everything was so different. – I am a complainer. I am a baby when things don’t go my way. So, when my “normal” went away, I got whinny. I will also admit I tried to nickname myself silky smooth in high… Read More
My life hasn’t changed a lot. We are a small office with private working spaces, so I still go into work every day. The biggest difference is how I do my grocery shopping. I’ve tried online shopping and then going to pick it up, trying to do my part in social distancing. But that doesn’t always work. The stores are still out of many items. My youngest son is still at home, so we are cooking at home again and sitting down together. My youngest son works in shipping. His biggest life change is he is now working longer hours and comes home more tired. He tells me he doesn’t understand the toilet paper and hand sanitizer shortage as that is all he is loading on trucks every day! When he goes into work, the first thing that happens, is they take his temperature. My middle son is a Marine and he’s stationed in Washington state. I asked what has changed for him. Not much other than some businesses are closed, and they are prohibited from going to Seattle. But, other than that, he is still doing much of his everyday life the same. My oldest son is in the… Read More
Homeschooling? This is not what I signed up for and neither did my husband, but this is where we are and, in many ways, I’m thankful for it. The school leaders had tough decisions to make and I’m thankful for their diligence and leadership during these hard times. I’m also thankful for the teachers working overtime to make this transition as easy as possible. My daughter has learned to love her Zoom meetings with her classmates especially the days they have a dress-up theme. Today is wear your old Halloween costume day 😊. I wish that was a call I was on today! So, what can we do all day? I’m at work in the office as we have a very small office with private working spaces, but my husband is working from home every day. There’s a lot of work being done, but also a lot of playtime, computer time and some whining in-between. But, I’m so thankful for Gabby’s teachers asking her to do projects at home such as build a tee-pee, make a boat that can float in water, and build a structure that can endure rain. These off-topic, fun and challenging projects has made her day… Read More
The neighborhood – Isolation, self? Pattie is going a little berserk: it’s between seeing me and the being with the cat – who do you think she prefers? After a little while, she goes a little bonkers and it’s time for Publix, damn the little bug. Our neighborhood is a little over-the-top social – there’s a group messaging chain, and it’s fun to see the creativity spawned by boredom. We had a cemetery in our neighborhood, in a lot just recently being built on, after a lot of tuggers and pullers it was moved, thank goodness, but we still have haunting visitors from time to time. I think they preferred the old place. In addition to the deer, dogs, cats, horses, squirrels, birds, geese, ducks, raccoons, I’ll tell you about the raccoon shooting another time; we now, also, have a family of foxes. Thank goodness they are foxes, for a while, we thought we had coyotes, no-loose dogs or cats for a while: The cat owners were worried about being cat-feed for the foxes – we think they eat rats, squirrels, and dead stuff: the message board calmed down, but it was buzzing for a while. The foxes visited this… Read More
We are well-prepared and here for you. Life is changing, faster than many of us can keep up with, but as our routines shift in an effort to protect those most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to take a few moments to update you on how our office is changing, and, more important, what will stay the same. Since our group is small and we have a lot of space between the five of us we will continue working out of our office and be available for phone calls during our normal business hours. If we are mandated to stay home for any period of time we will set up our office at our home and provide cell phone numbers to you so that you can continue to reach us during our normal business hours. Regardless of what’s ahead, we are here for you and will be conducting normal business transactions in our business office or out of our home offices. Starting, Monday, March 23rd we will discontinue all in-office meetings and will proceed with those meetings either via phone calls or webinar-type meetings. We are appreciative of your business and your trust. We are continuing to track… Read More
