Today I noticed that it has been four months since I left the office on a Friday to head home for the weekend. Since that time I have not been back to the office.

We were asked that Friday to make sure we took our laptops with us so we could work from home if needed. However, I don’t think any of us thought we would still be working from home four months later. Over that weekend the first shelter in place orders were announced in the Bay Area.

I have kept busy with work  during this time and have been teaching remotely as well as working on different educational programs. We are adapting to the changing world as best we can.

I have spent a lot of time in my yard while at home and have taken pictures almost every day. In the picture above, this is what my yard looked like four months ago. My rose bushes had lots of leaves, but did not yet have any roses on them.

I was supposed to have jury duty in April, but it got cancelled. I was looking forward to seeing the new court house in Stockton. Instead I took a virtual walk around the building. See: No Jury Duty

I finally finished the Yoda Puzzle that had been on my card table for a very long time in an unfinished state.

I then started working my way through the building plans of my Ankerstein sets.

See: Building A Bridge

I have been posting pictures of the builds on my Instagram account: @vanbraman

I have been listening to some records.

I have written a Covid-19 Cover Story.

I have done some genealogy and worked a bit on my Mayflower line since this year is the 400th anniversary of the landing in Plymouth. I have a couple more books about the Mayflower on the way to me. I am hoping that they will arrive this week.

I am also reading a book about Pocahontas who may also be an ancestor. If I can only work my way through all the bad research I may be able to find the links that DNA are pointing to.

I started the post with a picture of my front yard four months ago and will end with a picture of my back yard from yesterday. I have spent a lot of time in my backyard during this time. I try to get a bit of sun each day by taking a reading break in the backyard.

So how much longer will I be working at home? I can only answer by saying that it depends on a lot of things.

Today our county has reinstated a lot of restrictions because of the large increases in new cases and hospitalizations. All the precautions we took by staying home and social distancing really helped flatten the curve, but most of that has been undone in the past month.

Keep safe,

Steven