So today is the last day for us to work at the FRB, at least through the end of the month. My team is still in the middle of last-minute preparations for remote work of our staff, including doing department training. I admit I've been driving my team pretty hard, though really not harder than usual I would think. I would hope they realize the urgency of the time, which is something they sometimes fail to grasp and it requires a loud reminder, usually from me. Still, by mid-morning we had everything pretty much in place and I acknowledged my team that they did pretty well in handling the current "crisis". During the morning meeting where Barbara finally addressed our situation with everyone on the FRB team, and she acknowledged my team for meeting the challenge, and we got an ovation from everyone. Later on when she left, Eloisa said my team's performance this week was "impressive". I'm going to accept that pat on the back and I can only say at the end of the day that I breathed out a sigh of relief for a job done well. I said in the beginning of the week during one of my morning ask-a-question meditations, that I wanted to focus on providing massive value this week. I think I did just that. Not only where we able to provide hardware and training for the staff, that was not as easy as it sounds. The Finance Department in particular was particularly challenging. Let's hope they do ok when they're working from home in a world-full of change. By 5 PM we were still helping people who had lots of questions. By that time it felt like the time we had packed up and left the EEB the day USC Stevens moved out of the USC campus to the Transamerica building. It's probably going to be as confusing as that for a while, at least for the next week. And so my team's job is not quite done. But I think they'll be up to it. Before I drove home I got a call from Lisa. She was cautioning me that she had tried to go grocery shopping and the shelves at all the stores were getting emptied out fast, especially for the basic stuff. W-h-a-t? Now what's going on?
So this morning the announcement came that LAUSD is closing all schools for 2 weeks. So as I prepare to work from home for a while, it appears I won't be alone at home from Tuesdays to Thursdays. Johnnie will be with me and I have to figure out how to continue his studying regimen. Lisa and I had talked about the possibility last night. I just didn't think it would come so soon. And then I got a call from the people sponsoring the Bengston Energy healing event this weekend. THAT is cancelled too. Sigh. I was really looking forward to it. But I guess not. Leaves the weekend wide open for me. So this afternoon, with all these things going on, cancellations and closings left and right, It turns out that Westside Angelenos and probably the rest of the locality and even the state are in hoard mode. Everyone is buying up everything. It makes a little bit of sense considering we've all been advised to socially isolate for the next couple of weeks. I have to admit, when Lisa told me I had to go to the store and see for myself, and I too got a little bit caught up in it. I mean there were no eggs and milk left except for a couple of the expensive kind, which of course I felt compelled to buy along with other stuff I don't usually buy. At least for the next week I think I have enough supplies for Johnnie and I. Lisa also invited me to dinner this evening and I agreed. I knew I was going to end up eating fish and vegetables at her house but I also figured I wasn't going to be seeing Johnnie all weekend and so I appreciate the chance to see him again tonight. And that I did. I went over, Johnnie and Lisa were dancing, I got her to start cooking after a while. And then I put on YouTube on her Amazon Fire TV which I'm sure she didn't even know she had. Of course Johnnie had to put on Frozen 2 songs. And regaled us both with his renditions. He was way off-key in a way that I'm sure would have driven Miss Annie at Cornerstone Music Academy mad. But it was also so so cute! Anyway we ended up having a pretty nice dinner together... one of Lisa's "family" dinners such as it were. And then I went on home. Finished my steps and it would have been nice to go to bed early. But I was still somewhat amped from the week. I ended up binge-watching Iron Fist on Netflix of all shows. Went to bed at 3 in the morning. Hey it's ok. Gonna be a quiet weekend.
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