(no subject)
Bill is having a Weekend. His quarantine was officially up today - but in truth, he went back to work on Wednesday, because he was scheduled to carry the embassy duty phone for the next week. (Basically, when someone calls the embassy after hours because they're an American in trouble or they know of an American in trouble, the duty phone rings and whichever officer answers is in charge of trying to solve the problem.)
So you can imagine that the duty phone is kind of a fun job right now. Bill carrying it is a special kind of fun, because he hasn't actually stepped foot in the embassy in two weeks and hasn't been able to access any of his emails or notifications, so he was going into the job somewhat blind. He tried to get out of it, but couldn't find anyone willing to take it for him.
Until today (Saturday morning), the duty phone's been mostly quiet. This morning, however, it's been ringing on average every half hour or so, and always for the same reason: Americans trying desperately to get out of Poland and back to the U.S. Luckily, this is something Bill can handle without much additional effort. LOT (the Polish national airline) is running charter flights for the next week or so from Warsaw to Chicago, and they can only be taken by Americans. The only thing the embassy is doing is to verify that potential passengers are American citizens; once that's done, LOT calls the passenger to arrange payment and seat assignments. So mostly, the callers are people who haven't heard back from LOT since they sent in their request, and they're worried.
The worry, I can understand. They're essentially signing up for evacuation, and having been evacuated, I can confirm the process sucks on many levels, and the anxiety doesn't lift until everyone's on the other end of it.
The desire to leave... yeah, that one I don't get so much. Poland has far fewer cases of coronavirus, and as it's now on official lockdown, I don't anticipate it'll get too crazy. (Also, Poles don't tend to be hoarders, so there is also food on the shelves at the stores, not that I can verify this first-hand since I haven't been for over a week. My info is mostly second-hand, but so far, I'm not hearing of any shortages on anything. I do plan to go on Monday, though, and I'll report back then.)
We're staying put; for us, it's the better plan.
Other than that, though... Bill unlocked the front door this morning and walked to the end of the block. He said it was a truly wonderful walk. I forgot to give him the trash bag, though, so he's gonna be doing it again fairly soon. I somehow don't think he'll mind much.
Bill: I'm going to walk to the delikatessy! Who wants gum?
Me: You know we're still supposed to be social distancing, right?
Bill: Oh. Right. *long sigh*
(I am such a funsponge.)
The boys had a lovely time in the backyard this morning, chatting with the boys next door, who were in their backyard and having a fine time talking to them over the wall. (Small heart-stopping moment when they all admitted how much they missed playing together, and why couldn't they come play at our house now that Daddy's out of quarantine? *sniff*) And then they all realized they could hear the kids three yards down the street, and they all started shouting each other's names back and forth to each other. We let 'em yell. They might as well.
It's hard to write. The house is busy and I am busy, and it's hard to get into a romance-driven mindset. But something EGT said the other day, how she's trying to write two sentences a day, and I thought, "Okay. I can manage that. Even if they're crap sentences, at least there's two of them." So that's my plan. Two sentences a day. Yesterday, at least, two sentences turned into about a thousand words. Even if they're crap, at least they're there.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.
So you can imagine that the duty phone is kind of a fun job right now. Bill carrying it is a special kind of fun, because he hasn't actually stepped foot in the embassy in two weeks and hasn't been able to access any of his emails or notifications, so he was going into the job somewhat blind. He tried to get out of it, but couldn't find anyone willing to take it for him.
Until today (Saturday morning), the duty phone's been mostly quiet. This morning, however, it's been ringing on average every half hour or so, and always for the same reason: Americans trying desperately to get out of Poland and back to the U.S. Luckily, this is something Bill can handle without much additional effort. LOT (the Polish national airline) is running charter flights for the next week or so from Warsaw to Chicago, and they can only be taken by Americans. The only thing the embassy is doing is to verify that potential passengers are American citizens; once that's done, LOT calls the passenger to arrange payment and seat assignments. So mostly, the callers are people who haven't heard back from LOT since they sent in their request, and they're worried.
The worry, I can understand. They're essentially signing up for evacuation, and having been evacuated, I can confirm the process sucks on many levels, and the anxiety doesn't lift until everyone's on the other end of it.
The desire to leave... yeah, that one I don't get so much. Poland has far fewer cases of coronavirus, and as it's now on official lockdown, I don't anticipate it'll get too crazy. (Also, Poles don't tend to be hoarders, so there is also food on the shelves at the stores, not that I can verify this first-hand since I haven't been for over a week. My info is mostly second-hand, but so far, I'm not hearing of any shortages on anything. I do plan to go on Monday, though, and I'll report back then.)
We're staying put; for us, it's the better plan.
Other than that, though... Bill unlocked the front door this morning and walked to the end of the block. He said it was a truly wonderful walk. I forgot to give him the trash bag, though, so he's gonna be doing it again fairly soon. I somehow don't think he'll mind much.
Bill: I'm going to walk to the delikatessy! Who wants gum?
Me: You know we're still supposed to be social distancing, right?
Bill: Oh. Right. *long sigh*
(I am such a funsponge.)
The boys had a lovely time in the backyard this morning, chatting with the boys next door, who were in their backyard and having a fine time talking to them over the wall. (Small heart-stopping moment when they all admitted how much they missed playing together, and why couldn't they come play at our house now that Daddy's out of quarantine? *sniff*) And then they all realized they could hear the kids three yards down the street, and they all started shouting each other's names back and forth to each other. We let 'em yell. They might as well.
It's hard to write. The house is busy and I am busy, and it's hard to get into a romance-driven mindset. But something EGT said the other day, how she's trying to write two sentences a day, and I thought, "Okay. I can manage that. Even if they're crap sentences, at least there's two of them." So that's my plan. Two sentences a day. Yesterday, at least, two sentences turned into about a thousand words. Even if they're crap, at least they're there.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.