Making adjustments

The term "the new normal" has been thrown out a lot in the past few months as people make adjustments to the conditions presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, including social distancing and the wearing of masks.
In my case, there was a pretty large shakeup in life, with the temporary layoff taking place on April 1, which I have to admit was completely unexpected. Two days later, I applied for unemployment through the New Hampshire state web site. The good news was that I was paid for the week I was laid off and also received a week of pay for the personal time I had accrued through the first three months of the year.
Each week, I went back to the unemployment web site and filed my claim, but the weeks went on with no money deposited in my account. Eventually, as it went out to more than a month without anything coming in, it became obvious I was either going to have to find a job or move out of my apartment if I wanted to keep paying my health insurance bill (Affordable Care Act my ass).
One of the coaches I work with during my normal life, Peter Kelly, is the general manager of the Yum Yum Shop in Wolfeboro and had said soon after the layoff happened that if I needed a job, he had a spot for me that would likely be available in the middle of May. While out walking one afternoon, I saw Peter and fellow Kingswood hockey coach Mike Potenza in the shop parking lot and stopped by to say hello. Peter again let me know he had a position if I wanted it and since the unemployment still hadn't come through, I took him up on his offer.
I went in on a Thursday afternoon and filled out paperwork and got the lay of the land. And wouldn't you know it, that Friday afternoon, the notice came that the unemployment funds were going to be deposited into my bank account.
I started work on May 11 at 5 a.m. and after a couple of days, moved to starting at 4 a.m. Now, I'm not averse to waking up early. In my regular life, my alarm goes off around 5:30 a.m., but setting an alarm prior to 3 a.m. is a bit of a challenge.
As I've mentioned before, I have worked in kitchens pretty much all my life, so that environment is nothing new to me. However, every kitchen is different and working more on the baking side of things is an adjustment. I'm slowly learning the ins and outs of making pies, donuts, turnovers and cookies. The good news is that I work with a lot of really nice people who have been more than helpful in getting me through it all.
It's definitely different, but I don't quite feel like it's the "new normal" yet. I am happy to be working, mainly because I was going out of my mind of boredom sitting at home all day. On work days (Thursday through Monday) I get out of work around noon and still head out in the afternoon for a walk. On days I don't have to work, I try to walk a little in the morning as well. As a creature of habit, I am learning new habits and routines but I am also hopeful that at some point I am going to be able to get back to the routine that comes with covering sports every day.

Talking sports

Over the last few weeks, living without sports has been an interesting experience. Networks have done a good job of bringing back old sporting events to our televisions and I spent a lot of time over the last two weeks watching old Olympic events from the Summer Games in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 along with a few highlights from Games even further back, including Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004, Atlanta in 1996 and even the gold medal game for the original Dream Team in Barcelona in 1992.
That was a lot of fun, and usually, in a normal world, I'd be writing about sports all the time, covering the local high school teams and other events going on throughout the community. Of course, I'd probably also be complaining about all this rain that would certainly be wreaking havoc on our spring schedule.
But, with no high school sports or community activities and with no longer being employed, I have had a lack of sports interaction (or really, interaction in general). So, I was excited to get to talk some sports on Wednesday when Wolfeboro Community Television hosts Mike Danais and Charlie Hossack invited me on their show, Mike and the Hoss, to discuss sports in general for a little while.
Mike and Charlie are local coaches, teachers and parents who I have had the pleasure of knowing for a number of years as I've covered their kids playing sports through the seasons. I was on their show a while back when it was still okay to be in a studio in the high school with other people less than six feet away, but this time it was a little different.
The show, as most shows are these days, was shot through the Internet, with each of us in our respective homes. I logged in to Google Meet and spent close to 45 minutes talking over things with Mike and Charlie. We talked about baseball, the NFL Draft and the Olympics along with a little update on what I'm doing in this time of no sports.
It was nice to be able to just talk about sports and while there were no real live sports going on, the fact that the NFL Draft had just happened, that was a good discussion point. Additionally, I am always willing to talk about the Olympics and have plenty of background information on the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Charlie also had us talk some baseball, ranking players at different positions around the diamond. Since baseball is my favorite sport, this was also a lot of fun.
Truth be told, this whole quarantine, unemployed thing has really been getting to me. If you had asked me five months ago whether I'd be walking 10+ miles a day just to get out of the apartment, I would have told you that you were crazy. But that is the case. Although I love watching television, sitting in my apartment for eight hours at a time is just too much.
Yes, it has been a month and it is time to find a job (even if it's just on a temporary basis). I've probably been procrastinating a little bit on that front because I'm hopeful that I can have my real job back soon, but I am not terribly optimistic on that and there are bills that have to be paid.
But, for a while on Wednesday, it was nice to talk sports with some familiar faces.