I’m in the second weekend of teleworking due to coronavirus. And I find myself asking, “Am I bored?” My response?

Yes, I am bored.

The Governor has us pretty much staying home. But that doesn’t mean my hubby and I will not go outside to walk the dog. Throw the ball with the dog. Throw the frisbee for the dog. We drive to a local park-like area with the dog, and on the way back, I tell hubby to drive down that street or go the long way home, just so I can feel like I’m getting out of the house for a little while longer.

I am bored!

So what do I do on Saturday and Sunday when it seems like I now have all the time in the  world, and I can’t go with my granddaughter Ruby to the mall, or to a show, or even have her come visit me (everyone is staying at their own home)?

• I put a batch of rough stones from Madagascar in the tumbler – clear quartz, rose quartz, milky quartz, and crocodile jasper. Can’t wait to see how they smooth out. But it takes at least seven days of tumbling (the first phase of the process) so I can’t do anything with that until next weekend. (Look at those beauties in the pic though, the first batch I ever tumbled/polished. They came with the tumbler: red jasper, rose quartz, sodalite, crazy lace agates.)
• Knowing that at some point I’ll have some awesome-looking gemstones from the rock tumbler, I start YouTubing on how to wire-wrap the stones into pendants. And I realize that, ugh! it’s going to take a lot of practice to get the wire-wrapping down. I practiced on a stone from a previous tumbled batch – yep, it’s going to take me a lot of practice to get the hang of that.
• I finished another RedVector course on advanced Microsoft Word. Total of 2.5 hours of online learning for that particular session. (Good thing I have earbuds. Hubby likes to blast Breakfast with the Beatles on Sunday mornings.) Loved the refresher course on creating macros, but wished it would have gone into a bit more detail. I learned something new though: create a macro that will go out and do a search on something from the browser of your choice. Then all you have to do is assign that macro to a word or words, for example “rock tumbling,” and it will open up the browser with search results on those words. Love that, and now I want to go practice creating that macro. At some point, I’ll have to share what I learned with you.

I’ve also signed up for other RedVector courses: Project management essentials; mastering Excel; and smart leadership and smart management courses. If stay-at-home continues for a few more weeks . . . yeah, I’ll still be bored, but hanging in there with current hobbies, online learning, trading texts or FaceTiming with Ruby, and getting outside with Bo, our Golden Retriever. Oy.

Staying home. Saving lives.