It’s the end of the day, and I’m doing my nightly calculations. What did I get done? Did I move anything forward? What’s the priority for tomorrow?
As always, there is much that I didn’t get to. I seem to suffer from eternal optimism, believing that I’ll complete more tasks than is ever possible. But on the other hand, today at least, I got more finished than I would have if it were not for COVID.
I attended my mother’s doctor appointment… by telephone. She’s in Illinois, after all, and I’m still here in Vermont. But she called once she was in the doctor’s office. We even had a chance to chat and catch up a bit. I suppose it is always better for someone to be in the room during an examination, but I appreciate the way the medical staff has adjusted to having patient’s families listening in and participating through the wonders of cell phones.
This afternoon, my daughter and I met with her high school counselor. She put in her requests for her classes for next year—with advice given via Zoom video call, and by going into the school’s portal online.
We then officially registered her for driver’s ed, hopefully for the summer. We scanned her permit and sent it in—via email.
Next up, we had three parent-teacher conferences. They are six minutes long, all by Zoom. (In between, my daughter played with the dogs and I answered emails.)
By 4 PM, I was on another Zoom call, this time a board meeting. We exchanged opinions, shared documents on our screens, consulted with experts and made decisions… all without ever leaving our homes.
After a few minutes break—which I used to walk around outside for a bit—my daughter joined me for her last parent-teacher conference.
In a “normal” world, all those meetings would have been in-person. Of course, I would not have been able to attend the doctor’s appointment with my mother; it would have fallen to my sister. (She happily stayed home to work today—notice that is “stayed home to work”, not “stayed home from work”. She needed to watch their puppy, who at one year still believes in chewing on many things she should leave alone.)
Zoom meetings are tiring, and by now, the charm has long worn off. But they are so efficient. Gaining back hours into my day today? Silver lining for me, folks—and one I will happily repeat even after we can meet face-to-face again.
