MIQ Musings – Days 7 & 8

MIQ Diary – Days 7 & 8 – The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.

Saturday.

Another 430am wake up. I’m beginning to think there’s a cosmic alarm clock attuned to my wavelength. While I do like making the most of the day, this is getting ridiculous.

An 830am health check, again by phone. Questions answered. They keep asking me whether I have been outside in the past 24 hours, to which I respond that I have not. I wonder if they are going to forcibly expose me to sunlight, and whether, vampire-like, I will turn to ash.

I have felt a sense of trepidation about the weekend. During the week I can do work and interact with people who are also working. During the weekend, while I am happy to work (and it’s a necessary distraction today), I refrain from firing off too many emails so as not to bug people.

Thankfully today’s task is completing of a spreadsheet full of odd questions. Banal but strangely challenging to be succinct. Such fun, & with several hundred questions, something that could keep me occupied for weeks. Best foot forward, then!

A couple of phone calls too, which makes the time fly. Thanks to Ken Chertok & Kathy Scarborough for whiling away the hours with me – it is a lot of fun to talk 😊

My ear is thermometered by a roving band of MinHealth workers some time in the afternoon too. Normal.

Onward to the evening, during which I watch Apollo 11, a superb documentary about…you know what. Epic, although definitely better at the cinema. Check it out.

Then some light reading. My second read of Ted Chiang’s “Stories of your Life and Others” is keeping me engrossed.

I realise I am half way through my isolation. Why do we remark on arbitrary milestones?

And so to bed, at 830pm.

—

Sunday.

So much for being cured. I wake up at 130am, so decide to go force myself to go back to sleep. Then 230am, then 330am, then 430am. I yield to wakefulness.

Some weird dreams too. Exactly what my head is working on is a mystery, but I hope he knows what he’s doing.

830am comes around & I leave my room for an in-person health check. Banter. Normal, predictably.

No work today, I decide. Instead I watch a couple of movies. I figure you can’t beat some Indiana Jones to while away the hours, so I do Raiders & Temple of Doom back-to-back. They are great slice of hokum – exactly what is required on a wet Sunday.

I also do some more Kindling. Ted Chiang again. Very, very good.

Meals are delivered at noon and 6pm. I order these a day or so in advance so by the time they arrive I can’t remember what I said I wanted. I treat this as a fun game (without the fun) – guess what’s in the box. I am not very good at the game though, so I am routinely incorrect. I am incorrect again today.

More movies, more rain. I avoid alcohol, although it’s on my mind.

I am not quite sure what makes me switch to the present tense for this update.