I’ve been thinking of late of the Lenin quote: there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.

Exactly two weeks ago, I was puzzling over whether I should cancel client sessions and work from home. Two days later, when I made the choice to do so, at least half the people I emailed seemed to think it was a ridiculously over-cautious choice. Three days after that, Cuomo closed all the gyms in NY State.

All that felt rather fast and dramatic. But the week and change since has felt anything but. While the COVID-19 numbers here in NYC have continued to double every three days, and hospitals are apparently nearing capacity already, the whole thing still seems rather abstract. While I hear ambulance sirens outside my window all day, this is Manhattan; I hear sirens outside my window all day most days, and it’s hard for me to tell if this is more than the usual.

Instead, Jess and I are sort of just floating along in our tiny life boat of an apartment, one day more or less the same as the next.  There’s a certain timelessness to it all; if you told me we’d already been doing this for months, I’d believe you.  In fact, I’ve already lost track enough to have needed to check my calendar for the timeline of events earlier in this post.

And, looking forward, things seem similarly abstract.  With apologies to the President, I’m pretty sure we won’t be back out by Easter.  But, eventually, we’ll be returning to the world.  Right?  But is that in a month?  Two?  Three?  And how many years from now will that seem?

Fortunately, for the moment, we’re still having a pretty excellent time, all things considered.  I’m getting a bunch of work done, cooking up a storm, getting to spend quality time with Jess.  And despite being cooped up together nearly 24/7 in not a whole lot of space (I don’t know the actual square footage of our apartment, but it’s certainly under 600 square feet), I’ve apparently not yet annoyed her enough to smother me to death with a pillow in my sleep.  Here’s hoping that keeps up.