Virial disruptions

As I noted before, my household went into a moderate social lock-down a few days before the Governor made the call for the whole state. And we've tightened up our practices a couple of time since then.

We're not completed locked down first because the government order allows for moving around is outdoor public space (yeah jogging!) as long as you keep your distance and secondly because one member of the household gets in-home healthcare.¹

We've started getting groceries by delivery and less perishable stuff from Amazon.²

Internet

We get out internet from our cable TV provider³ which means that we're on a shared segment. Of course these guys always advertise the maximum bandwidth you could possible get and you always actually get less because you are using a shared resource. Easy enough to understand and you can buy with that in mind.

However, with everyone home (and presumably doing a lot more gaming and streaming than usual) our segment appears to be close to saturated and the realized bandwidth is mush lower than I'm used to (and often with higher latency as well). At a time when I'm working from home.

What fun.

Time to call them and upgrade our plan, but it's not clear how much good that will do ... can they actually give me more just now?

It's not exactly cabin fever, but ...

I'm an introvert and not particular social, so staying at home for days at a time is perfectly normal for me. But I'm not completely asocial so staying at home for weeks at a time is not. Oftentimes, taking my books and papers or computer to some coffee shop and sitting quietly working by myself in a setting with some action and conversational buzz would be enough to get my fix, but I need something beyond work even in normal times.⁴

My wife is a bit less introverted and a bit more social than I am. She used to get out more, so it's hitting her harder. She frets. The more so because she's the one who manages the logistics of the household, which has settled down to just enough work everyday to keep her thinking about it but not enough to keep her busy.

We've gotten to the point where going to the pharmacy drive-through is an exciting family outing. Our toddler really likes the local drive-through car wash.

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¹ And, yeah. That's a nice balancing act.

² Tip these people. Seriously. Folks working these jobs generally need the money in the first place, and they are doing a huge service for the public good by letting many of us huddle down and minimize contact, while running more risk than the rest of us in the process.

³ The only other option is a heavily over-subscribed municipal-scale WiFi network operated by a commercial outfit. They must have good marketing because a lot of communities around here contracted with them. Alas, they seem either unwilling or unable to provide enough bandwidth to meet the promises they've made.

⁴ Being a programmer in a small shop is not a highly social activity, but you do get out from behind the keyboard to talk to your colleagues several times a day if your are doing it right. Teams need to coordinate, managers need to be kept up to date, and communication with the customer has to be kept up.