Hello again. How is everyone? Here it has been another day of feeling low-grade sick but perfectly well enough to do things. It has been a quiet time on the day job, and therefore I have devoted my time to Wizard’s Tower. I have at long last found the time to build a proper accounting system. (One that I hope Kevin could take over should anything terrible happen to me.) We’ve sold a shit load of books over the years.
Oh, and I have see the cover for Unjust Cause, the new Tate Hallaway novel. No reveal just yet, but suffice it to say that Lyda and I are absolutely delighted.
Today has also been a day for organisations to email me and talk about their plans for coping with the crisis. It is encouraging to see everyone from stores to financial institutions to travel companies are at least thinking about the situation and trying to do their bit.
However, it is small companies that I’m most worried about. They are much more vulnerable to economic shocks, and they are the least likely to be helped by our mendacious government. Wizard’s Tower will be fine because we have no employees or premises, but there must be loads of organisations out there hurting badly. It is difficult to know who to help first. If you need books, and who doesn’t, then please try to buy them from a local, independent store. My good friends at Mr. B’s are one option. I had a package from them today and will be spending more money with them soon.
Hi Cheryl – hope you feel well soon. I’m now ‘working from home’ because I’m in a risk group. That’s working in inverted commas because they haven’t got enough laptops for everyone, so they’ll be doled out according to business needs. I won’t know until next week if I qualify. Our team is being re-tasked to support teams who do the more urgent, customer-facing stuff (call centre staff), so maybe I will get one?
Lots of friends offering to do a grocery run for me if I run out of fresh stuff (I’ve got tons of tins, etc). I’m most worried about Mum, at the other end of the country. Mainly because she’s stubborn and lonely and doesn’t think that a global pandemic is a good enough reason to stop going to the garden centre or church.
I’m seeing stories that shops are running out of laptops. Hope you get one soon.
And yes, elderly parents are a major worry. Thankfully I no longer have any.
Hi! I’m fine. We’re continuing our sequestering – son has been homeschooled all week, we parents have split up the days so we get some work done ourselves but today I had to get a day off from everything so I took the homeschooling and after lessons we planted seeds in a tiny greenhouse and then I took him on a 2 hr walk in the woods nearby, where we found a more than hundred year old dam and had a picnic. Now I am drinking whisky and watching old SNL skits and thinking oh ok, this is Friday nights during a pandemic, only to realize that my Friday nights looked just the same before the big C.
Sounds like you are coping brilliantly. Wish I felt well enough for whisky.