Left: Illustration of Schrodinger's cat by Jie Qi, Schrodinger's Cat, 2007, from Flickr; Right: KELO.com News news director from his home office during quarantine for COVID-19, portraying Schrodinger's cat if it were a broadcast journalist, 1/31/21.
HARRISBURG, S.D. (KELO.com) — Let me start with an obtuse physics reference concerning my coronavirus/non-coronavirus quarantine.
I am Schrödinger’s cat.
For you non-physicists, an explanation from all-knowing Wikipedia:
In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead as a result of being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur.
I am not COVID-19 positive. I am not not COVID-19 positive.
Meanwhile, here I am stuck in some in-between world like the physicist’s imaginary quantum mechanics cat. Not positive but not really completely negative. Working but not at work.
Last Tuesday afternoon, while at the work I work at–KELO Radio–I found out that my 26-year-old son Matt tested positive for COVID-19. He lives with my wife Donna and me in Harrisburg, the Garden Spot and Storage Garage Capital of Lincoln County. As soon as I could Tuesday, I called my doctor at Sanford and got a drive-thru COVID test that evening in the coronavirus garage near The Pentagon. Early Wednesday morning, my results were in–negative.
However, per Midwest Communications Radio policy, as I am in a household with a family member who has tested positive for coronavirus, I can’t come back to my work work–KELO Radio at 500 South Phillips–until Matt is out of quarantine. That could be Tuesday or Wednesday or maybe not. Neither my company nor I want to make anyone else sick or chance making them sick. We’ve already had enough disruption from this stupid virus on our people and operations, just like most other businesses in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the United States, and the world.
To return to work work, I’ll need another COVID-19 test–my third since December–and test negative. Again.
In the meantime, I’m working from my work home–in south Harrisburg, in my basement office–doing what I can as a news director, anchor, and reporter. The rest of the news staff has more work to do because I’m not there, and then they have to upload my newscasts and stories so they can air. It is not ideal, but it is working. Kristin, Carter, Anson, and Rich have done a great job picking up my slack as I chase journalistic mice as Schrödinger’s cat.
I also realize it could be much worse. I feel fine. Matt doesn’t feel too bad; he has a mild case of coronavirus. My wife Donna is still ok. I’m working, not from work work but from work home. I’ve had relatives hospitalized from the coronavirus. I’ve lost two colleagues with the South Dakota Civil Air Patrol who’ve died from the coronavirus. Some of my media colleagues in Sioux Falls have been laid off, furloughed, or have had to work from home since March. So I feel fortunate. A bit stir-crazy, but fortunate.
Sort of like Schrödinger’s cat–not sick but not not sick. Working but not at work. Meow!
