COVID-19

Date: March 22 2020

This is a roughly contemporaneously record of my initial days as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed. I could tell already that later developments were colouring my memories of the earlier weeks of what became The Pandemic. Events are presented in reverse chronological order — newest events were added at the top. I constructed this timeline in chunks. Each chunk itself has a date

This is the timeline so far as I remember it:

Saturday March 21, 2020:

The bus system stops collecting fares and directs riders to board and exit through the rear doors if they are able.

Monday March 16, 2020:

I am secondary on-call this week. My manager announces he is changing roles. I am moved to be under the manager of a team with whom I have been working closely with. My project at work does not change.

Sunday March 15, 2020:

The governor of Washington state announces a shut down of social gathering places. Restaurants have to switch to delivery and takeout only. Bars, recreational clubs, etc are closed. My girlfriend and I find our first two choices for dinner are closed early. We get Thai food. We go grocery shopping. Things are looking empty.

Saturday March 14, 2020:

I tell a friend that the library closure has had the largest impact on me so far other than Working From Home.
In hindsight, perhaps I would have gone out if I had known the bars would be closing the next day.

Friday March 13, 2020:

The library is more busy than usual. I check out four books.
There is a confirmed case of a Microsoft employee in Azure Compute with COVID-19. I work in a different building. I am not concerned.
I go out normally but a little bit earlier than usual.

Thursday March 12, 2020:

The library decides it will not be open until April 13th after it closes on March 13th. It announces an extension on due dates.

Post-Pandemic Note: the library reopened with curbside services around August 2020 and branches did not fully reopen until 2021

Wednesday March 11, 2020:

I go in to the office to get a security credential renewed. It is the most dead I have ever seen Microsoft campus. This includes times like November and December 2017 where the only days I took off in addition to those for Thanksgiving and Christmas were Wed-Fri following Christmas. Microsoft is not running the commuter buses. The public bus is also much less crowded than normal. Event cancellations make it difficult to plan any dates for the following weekend.

Monday March 9 and Tuesday March 10, 2020:

I am primary on-call this week. I am still adjusting to working from home.

Friday March 6 through Sunday March 8, 2020:

I am socializing normally. I still go out to bars. I meet up with friends to play the board game Pandemic over a case of Corona (the Mexican beer). My friends have a good sense of humour.

Thursday March 5, 2020:

Today is the day where I shift from going in to the office by default to working from home by default.

Wednesday March 4, 2020:

My Wednesdays included a lot of weekly meetings. I decided to go in to work to attend these in person. I received the third Microsoft-wide email regarding COVID-19 towards the end of the day. The King County Public Health department issued recommendations that workplaces should allow people who can work from home to do so. Microsoft's guidance is consistent with this recommendation: "all employees who are in a job that can be done from home should do so through March 25th".

Tuesday March 3, 2020:

I decided to Work From Home on this day

Monday March 2, 2020:

Signs are up in all common areas of my office building reminding everyone to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds.
I am surprised that people need this reminder.

February 2020:

I have no changes in my day-to-day life. I receive the first Microsoft-wide email regarding COVID-19. It focuses on the situation in China. I learned how low impact SARS had in the United States relative to the impact that I remember it had in Toronto. I felt that COVID-19 would be like SARS and H1N1. Those epidemics did not disrupt my daily life. I did not see why this one would. On February 29th, the first death in Washington state from COVID-19 occured at a retirement home in Kirkland, WA. Some of my friends visit Japan for snowboarding. They transit via Taiwan.