Even at home, pandemic pandemonium hits
In all the years when almost everybody went to work by leaving home, we had no idea how much noise inundated the streets we live on when we’re away all the day.
We didn’t hear the barking dogs, the guys drilling holes in the street, the contractors’ whizzing power saws, the roar of tree crews pruning limbs and feeding them into the wood chipper, the incessant delivery vans’ doors sliding open and slamming shut, trucks clattering past or going beep, beep, beep, beep in reverse.
I spent more than 40 years working in three newsrooms, and in each of those were a few people whose voices carried straight into the phone conversation I was trying to have, so I know about workarounds.
Working from home every day has been a whole new workaround.
This will all be funny one day. We will gather in clusters and reminisce, sharing stories about how weird it was, how eerily quiet it was at times, and, for some of us, how hard it was to work through all the distractions at home.
Besides taking notes during phone conversations, I made some notes about the experience, starting early in April. Soon, I saw a trend emerging and thought “parody.”
Such a parody might play like this:
Ringtone ... Gasp! Where’s the phone? Oh yeah, it’s charging. “Hello?” Voice on the other end is garbled. Pull the phone free and run to the one place in the house where ... “Hello? Hello? I think I lost you. Hold on.” To that one place where reception is adequate. “Hi, are you there?” Beep, beep, beep.
Ringtone again. “Hello?” Voice on the other end is clear. It’s the expected caller. “Oh, so good to hear back from you. Sorry, I had to move to get reception.”
The interview begins. Furious note-taking with pen on notebook. Fifteen minutes later, the dog struggles to her feet and whines. Oh no, she needs to pee. “How are you funding this project?” Dog whines again. She heads toward the back door. Can she hold it until I’m done here?
Ten minutes later, interview done, business trip with dog. Mission accomplished.
Day of multiple interviews on comprehensive story about the demand on food pantries. Same day, trucks arrive to do repaving job. When did paving get so loud?
“Thanks for your callback. I’m going to walk to the back patio to do this interview. If I lose you on the way, I will call back when I get out there.”
First interview from the patio.
“How many cars have you been seeing each day?” Dog whines at the door to come outside. I open it, she runs out and starts barking. Caller, chuckling, says, “Working from home?” Chuckling all around.
Hot as Hades, but with a nice breeze, front door is open to screen door. On the phone again. Dog? Sound asleep, draped over side of her bed. All going well.