How is it June 1?
The past two-and-a-half months, in many ways, has flown by. Some days, however, lasted an entire week, or so it seemed. Who else has had days that felt like weeks and weeks that felt like months?
It has been 80 days since my children were in their classrooms. And it has taken this long for some students to get the hang of this remote learning thing. Working from home has had its challenges for many people not used to juggling work with their kids being home and trying to learn, plus all the usual household chores.
Luckily, I have a job that can be done mostly from home. Give me internet access, my phone and my laptop and I am good to go! But while I am able to work from home — and having municipal meetings via zoom has helped make reporting the news easier – I do miss seeing people outside of a screen. I miss my usual seat in the Southwick Select Board meetings (the one right next to the door so I can chase after a speaker for a quote or photo with little disruption to the meeting), I miss covering events and going into schools. I miss chatting with my co-workers.
Slowly, but surely, as businesses open up, I will begin mixing my working from home with working NOT at home. I’m excited to get out into the world again, with caution. I’m armed with my masks and hand sanitizer and I can eyeball six feet quite well these days. The Westfield News office will open again this month, but also with caution. We will be distancing ourselves from each other and the public. Masks, disinfectant and sanitizer are the new staples of our office supply order. And we can’t wait.
Our staff misses our interactions with each other and you! We have regular customers who purchase their daily paper in our office, folks who like to place their advertisements in person and several visitors who just stop in to say hello, often with their canine companions who know in which drawer Flora keeps the dog treats.
As we open up, we will likely stagger our office hours among the staff and continue to work part-time from home, especially those of us with children still learning from home. We will publish a notice in the paper when our office is fully open and ready for you. And we can’t wait.
