First week of lockdown

[julesjones]

 I've been in work all week, although my office is getting emptier and emptier as people start to realise they have vulnerable household members. (No, not an excuse to run away - it didn't hit a lot of my colleagues at first that they were in that position.) Most of us can't work from home, but we can and have told the public at large that we don't need to and aren't going to talk to them face to face for the duration, even if it means putting off some of our work for months. It sucks for the people concerned, but if we're all at home or in hospital or in the morgue that work would have to be put off anyway.

The person highest on the totem pole has visibly aged at least five years in the last two weeks. I'm genuinely worried they're going to break from the stress and overwork even if they're never personally touched by the virus. Their salary is six times mine, and it is nowhere near enough for the responsibility they have.

The bus timetable is being drastically cut from today, and one of the routes I use has been cut from every ten minutes to every half an hour, so I will be abandoning that. The other one has been cut from at least every five minutes to one every ten minutes, so it's still frequent enough that I don't have to carefully plan what time I leave home and the office. However, one of the two route numbers that share part of the route has been withdrawn, and the other one has been cut back, so those passengers will be sharing bus space. Hopefully there will still be enough capacity that we can each have a double seat to ourselves.

A field hospital is being built a few minutes' walk from where I work. 1000 beds for medium level patients. The NHS expects to need at least 1000 extra beds in our region, and that doesn't include the high dependency beds.

I don't generally do prayer. It's something I would normally only do for people who would find comfort in knowing that someone is praying for them. If that is you; Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy. The church is the people and not the building; the building is only a way to focus. If the building is closed, we still remain. And for those who walk other paths, such prayer as would comfort you, including if that is no prayer at all.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

We are diligently practising social distancing here. We're extremely lucky in that we are both retired and have plenty of things to get on with, though G's Welsh landscape book has been put on hold and he's writing another programming one instead.

I hope you can stay well. At least the buses are quieter.

[watervole]

Thanks for posting. It's good to know what is happening to my friends.

[duskpeterson]

After reading your entry, I told my apprentice that reading Dreamwidth now is like reading a dystopian novel. Thank you for sharing with us what's happening with you.

[agoodwinsmith]

Thank you for the update. Please stay safe. I worry about public transit - but my natural state is worry. I think there needs to be a village position of Worrier: you tell them your troubles and they worry about it for you so you don't have to. I would be a natural. ;)

Seriously - stay safe.

[doire]

Do you know bustimes.org?

It tries to log where buses are and when they will arrive at a particular stop.
I've used it a lot when visiting my mum; the bus should arrive at the nearest stop on the dot of the hour, but doesn't. I can see when it's 4 stops away and know I have time to say goodbye and reach the stop. I bike in good weather so it's good not to have a long wait at the side of a country road in the rain.
Keep well.