I don't know why it's human nature to do a retrospective at the end of every year. I suppose it's the neat lines and grids that trigger some sort of impulse to do something like an after-action review, or "what have we learned" session. Regardless, I was finally overcome by the urge to do this after resisting it for nearly a week. It's amazing what just a little time away from your job does.
As 2020 started, my biggest stressors were my job, and the fact that my daughter was going on a school trip to Italy in 2 months (Feb. 2020). I was watching this new virus that was emerging over in China and it wasn't too far from this date one year ago that the first "case" of COVID-19 started popping up on the tracker. I earnestly started to wonder what would happen if it came here in January.
January and February were a blur. I was bringing a largely rookie robotics programming team trying to get ready for what would have been one of the most challenging competition schedules for our team yet. In the middle of February, my oldest daughter went on a 2-week trip through Italy with her school's Latin club. Just as the COVID-19 flare-up lit up on the other side of the boot. She made it back to the US just a day ahead of the closures.
In March, I took a trip to Long Island and went on an Atlantic Ocean fishing trip with my oldest best friend. It was glorious. We spent 12 hours out on the ocean in near-freezing (but blindingly sunny) temperatures. I caught 6 dogfish (sharks) and the crew gave us some Ling (think small Cod) to take home as we hadn't caught anything really edible.
This was the last normal thing that I did. The next Monday, the closures started. I went home from work (to work remotely) on March 17th, 2020. To this date, I am still primarily a remote resource.
And here is where this gets increasingly difficult to write. My world then compressed down to a rough rectangle of 2-ish acres. March wore into April ... into May ... into June ... well, you get the idea.
I worked. I took up gardening to keep myself busy. I also shifted from running to cycling, for my primary sport/exercise, as it's easier to keep cool on a bike in the hot summer months.
In August, I was riding far too aggressively and I jumped a curb that was too tall. This deformed my back tire to the point that 10 minutes later as I banked through a turn on gravel that I had banked through 50 times before, the handling characteristics were slightly different. My front wheel slid out, and, in slow motion, I hit the ground at 14 mph. I was shirtless, and had "road rash" from my shoulder to my ankle on one side, and I severely sprained my shoulder. I still haven't repaired my bike.
Autumn came and the emergency persisted. I fought to get my oldest child going to school 4 days a week. Remote learning wasn't an option due to the internet options where I live. It took us 2 months to convince the school of this. I built a greenhouse so I could continue to garden.
The winter solstice just passed. The emergency persists. My winter harvest was paltry, but hey - it's winter! In a little more than 90 days, we will have been in the emergency for a year. That's the length of the hardship tour I did on the Korean peninsula in 1994. Over there, I knew why my life was going to suck for a year - it was concrete. I can't say that here. Over there, I also knew that unless there was a shooting war that broke out, I would be coming home after 364 days. Again - not so much here.
And here I sit on new year's eve day, 2020. I harbor no illusions that 2021 will bring us solace. Even though it's not permitted, I don't really want to celebrate anyway. Maybe light off some fireworks in defiance - but that's about it. I know I don't have it badly at all - but that is just a variant of "it could be worse" - and while true, that is no way to live a life. Sure it could be worse - but it could also be so much better. We've lost so many of the things that enrich our lives.
May the new year bring you all bounty, peace, and contentedness.
