Country Quarantining

2020-10-12Uncategorized Standard

[Photos taken 12 – 17 October 2020, posted online 30 March 2021. Sitting at a cafe being run as a restaurant, with servers. Every guest has to give their name, social ID, and phone number for possible contact tracing.]

A 8-10th grade teacher in Bjarki’s school was diagnosed with Covid-19. As the teacher had been in the cafeteria with the students, all of the 8-10th graders along with their teachers got sent into a week-long quarantine, ending with a covid-19 test.

We are ridiculously privileged in having access to house #2, so I could whisk Bjarki away from the rest of the family, meaning their life could go on as before, while the two of us holed up out in the country. (50-ish images total)

Monday 12 October 2020

The view from an afternoon walk out in the country.
Bjarki doing some homework.
The first Monday proved to be a little bit complicated, as we had remote teacher-parent-kid meetings planned for both Bjarki and Emma, the gymnastics coaches were conducting a zoom practice, and homework needed to get done. This was my attempt at planning out the day. The keyboard was part of the home-office setup I’d stashed into the car the day before.
Zoom gymnastics practice starting.
The view up the hill.
The lunch walk turned into an afternoon walk.
C’est moi!
Down by the boat-houses.
Swans out on the lake.
Dinner #1, beef, veggies, and pasta, which would be reheated over the course of the week as lunch and dinner.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

This time we managed to go out for a lunch walk to the damn.
Clouds putting on a show.
Bjarki communing with nature.
Not too happy being forced outside.
Gorgeous.
Guitar practice.
I’d had enough of the designer-y Matrix-esque lights in the master bedroom (they always reminded me of the Sentinels, which is not a good feel in a bedroom), and finally worked up the courage to swap them out.
One down, one to go.
Victory!

Wednesday 14 October 2020

It was a very windy day, and the chimney was making all sorts of banging noises. I tried to insulate the opening to dampen the noise, but had little luck.
The big task of the week was getting through the math homework. It looked a little overwhelming at the start of the week, but as the days went on and Bjarki made a bit of progress, it started looking a bit more manageable.
Gymnastics put in a practice that had a walk in it, so out we went.
Windy wind!
There´s less growth higher up, as the weather is more fierce.
The wind was fun to play with.
At home base, we compensated for a low bread supply by making American pancakes with oatmeal.
Oh yeah!
Dinner #2, chicken, and pesto pasta, the other dinner that got reheated for lunch and dinner later on.

Thursday 15 October 2020

Every meal had a cucumber, carrot and tomatoes it felt like.
Baked beans are yummy.
Taking the trash out to the container down the hill.
We took the long way back home, walking along the main road for a bit.
The other side of the lake is covered in summer houses.
That corner is called Lady-Trolls-horn or corner (Skessuhorn).
More pancakes.
Bjarki using my workstation for a bit. I was super happy to find this office chair in the garage/rec room, left there by the previous owners. It saved my shoulders from falling off, like they would have had I been stuck using the dining chairs.

Friday 16 October 2020

That morning we drove to Borgarnes, where a nurse inside that garage-door stuck a pin up Bjarki’s nose and down his throat. He wasn’t terribly happy about either.
Thanks to the powerful phone data network, I managed to work throughout the week. Together, Bjarki and I gobbled up about 8-10 GB of data per day!
I somehow got Bjarki to do some gymnastics outside on the deck, as it wasn’t completely freezing outside.
Next time I’ll take greater care in arranging the mats!
Dinner #3, chicken soup.
The food we had left as we waited for the covid-test results. Happily, Bjarki tested negative for covid-19, but by the time we got the results it was too late to drive to town. In fact, as best as I could tell, nobody at school got infected, thank goodness!

Saturday 17 October 2020

As this was our last day, I had no excuses left not to finish painting the foyer.
I even pulled the fridge forward!
It’s a fairly friendly green color. Maybe I’ll go find a friendlier one later, but this will do for now.
My little clean-less trick… putting a plastic bag round the paint tray.
Painting around the sliding door was no fun at all.
The last little bit of white wall about to get painted, and the remains of the tape roll that had started the day full.
So tidy.
Victory! This took me about six hours, eek!
With that, we drove back into town, where Anna showed us a carrot baby she’s pulled from the veggie garden. I guess we need to plant sooner this year!