Six years ago...

[hardcorestitch]

At this point in time… everything good was cancelled. Everything bad went on. All due to COVID.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Looking back in my journal, we made the call on the 12th to cancel our Universal Orlando trip (that was supposed to start on the 15th) and found out on the 13th that DS's university would be going online instead of returning from spring break. We drove up on the 18th to get the rest of his stuff.

 

[EACarlson]

3/9 I was informed I was being furloughed as of 3/16 as I was going to be transitioning to a new position at work on 3/30 and we had already seen enough of a downturn that I wasn't needed in my previous area. 3/12 I got the ok to move into my new position as of 3/16. 3/13 I brought home my new work hardware as the entire company that could work from home was sent home. As soon as I left that afternoon, the school district announced that they were going to be shut down for the next two weeks. They did not open again until September. We were originally going to be in Dallas for St. Patrick's Day, but cancelled that about a month earlier as cases started creeping up in major cities.

 

[BostonEd]

cancelled that about a month earlier as cases started creeping up in major cities.

Funny. The weekend before the 11th, I was in DC having a mini-reunion with some college friends. Covid was "in the air" so to speak. We knew it was around but kept our plans anyway. I think there might have been a major spreading event in DC before we got there! And I think the infamous Biogen super-spreading event in Boston also was before I left. I remember wiping down my airplane seat. Also, we attended a Georgetown basketball game, and I remember commenting "Gosh, there sure are a lot of people breathing in here".

On the 11th itself, I was WFH, begrudgingly. Let me explain. Even before Covid, I was WFH one day a week pretty much every week, and even 2 days a week sometimes. On Monday of that week I was WFH and we got an email saying everyone had to work from home on Wednesday "to make sure the systems work" or something like that. I was annoyed, because I already worked from home a lot, and was planning to WFH on Thursday. I told the office manager, "Wednesday isn't going to work for me, due to some plans I have. I'm planning to WFH Thursday, can't I just do that?" Nope. Wednesday comes around, and in the afternoon, we get an email saying "yeah, don't come back any time soon."

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We had gone on a skiing trip at the very end of February ending the first couple of days into March and were getting excited for our trip in April to Vegas wherein we had "free" (paid with minimal points from MyVegas app that had taken forever to earn) Wynn buffet and the hotel nights were mostly comp nights from redeeming rewards from the MyVegas app. That April trip never happened as the world shut down by then but we were able to do it again the following March and MyVegas allowed for the comp hotel nights to be transferred over, the Wynn buffet however could not be because it was still closed at that time in 2021, we still have never eaten there as the price skyrocketed once the buffet reopened and we didn't feel it was worth it

When we had been talking about the Vegas trip before it had never happened we had said "a lot can change in a month" eeire words for a very eerie time that would follow.

 

[leebee]

When we had been talking about the Vegas trip before it had never happened we had said "a lot can change in a month" eeire words for a very eerie time that would follow.

Yes. I had plans to fly to NOLA to see my sister during March break. UMaine had already extended break to 2 weeks, airlines had started canceling flights, etc. I canceled my trip and rescheduled it for Easter, which would be the next break from school (hahaha). I remember saying to my sister, "That's a month away; we should have this all figured out by then."

 

[rowan1813]

Friday Mar. 13 was our last day of school before Spring Break. I teach high school and I was teaching AP Euro at the time. We were already scheduled for the week off for Spring Break but I was talking with my AP kids and I told them I thought it would maybe be extended for another couple of weeks so I had them take a vote if they wanted to keep working towards the AP test while we were out and I would find a way to communicate with them and keep teaching. They all said yes (bless them for wanting to keep working even though we were going to have time off from school). We got notice at the end of the day that Spring Break was going to be extended a couple weeks and something in me told me it was going to be longer so I started packing up papers that I would need to keep teaching my AP kids and help prep them for the final.

I remember those first couple of weeks trying to figure out this new thing called Zoom and how to post videos of me teaching to Google Classroom so my kids could keep prepping for the AP test. The AP test would later be modified to only 1 essay and the kids who put in the effort and kept working all passed. I was so proud of them. It was such a huge shift to online instruction, especially for my area where reliable internet and laptops weren't always available for my kids.

We went back a year later in person and that was a mess and a half.

 

[robinb]

Humor from that time …

 

[JackiesHubby]

On that Friday the 13th they gathered all managers above in our town hall meeting room and explained that a message would be going out telling everyone we would all be working from home for 2 weeks to help "flatten the curve" as was explained by Fauci. I am an IT guy so working from home is pretty much what we do anyway when we get called on weekends or nights to solve an issue. We all left and over the next 2 weeks I spent 3 days in all day calls explaining to execs and other managers why all ~7000 people in the company didnt have private dedicate lines to the VPN for connectivity and that each person shares their internet with all their neighbors for bandwidth. After day 3 the message finally was received however begrudgingly. After 2 weeks went by we had meetings about every 3 days where the execs kept kicking the can down the road over making a longer term decision (they never did- it just sort of happened on its own). 8 Months later they were scheduling different teams on different floors to come in and take home all their personal stuff with the expectation that we had no idea when/if we were coming back into the office. Fast forward to today - I bought this house in the mountains and left my home in Florida with my youngest daughter and her new husband as I am still working remotely.
The new company that bought our company during the pandemic has been trying to force people back to the office with different threats and promises but I've seen a lot of "old timers" call their bluff and just leave/retire. The thing that hacks me off is they were oh so grateful that we IT people could keep their business running during a pandemic by working remotely when they had little faith we had the ability, but now that things are "better" that gratitude has faded. Thankfully I am at the twilight of my career and will not have to deal with their whimsy.

 

[Living42Day]

So much has changed since the pandemic. I was a senior in college when school shut down on a Friday before spring break and I never went back. Graduation was cancelled, though I didn't attend my master's graduation two years later either...just not my thing.

I still remember one of my favorite professors pulling me into her office as I was walking down the hall to tell me the news about the university shutting down on the DL because they hadn't made the announcement yet. I couldn't believe it at the time, still can't believe that happened.

 

[ncc1701]

I have to admit it is all my fault.

I got a job in January 2020 with a long commute. I tried taking public transit but it was taking two to two and a half hours each way. Then one day I drove and it only took 45 minutes each way but cost $36 in tolls.

A little more research and I found out that alternative fueled vehicles could ride in the toll lanes free.

At a time savings of nearly 2 hours a day and a yearly cost savings of over $8000 in tolls, I bought an EV.

But I could not use the toll lanes for free until I got the AFV(alternative fuel vehicle) plates for the car.

I drove into work on March 13th and found it was just me and two others. Everyone else had decided they were no longer coming into the office, including my boss and my bosses boss, neither of which let me know.

I stayed until lunch and then went home.

Found the plates to my new car in the mailbox.

The world shut down and I never drove back to the office again.

I never used the car or the plates for the intended purpose.

Before the return to office started I found a different job that is full time work from home.

It was me trying to save time and money and the universe messing with me.

No worries it wasn't you. It was really my DH's fault.
He put in his 90 day retirement notice in January right before the first reports of something going on in China.
With about 30 days to go before the end date he got word the building would be shutting down the next day,
He was told by his boss he would get a work from home set up within the 2 weeks DH mentioned he was retiring within 4 weeks. Boss said so what. DH went up to the next level up in management, saying it was a waste of money to do it for just 2-3 weeks. They agreed as long as he was available by phone. Since we couldn't go away it was an easy decision.
So for the first 4 weeks Monday to Friday he stayed in the house. Not taking walks, getting take out or going to the store from 7am to 5pm.