Tag: #Covid

  • After Thanksgiving

    So… I over did it. Yup, we made too much food, and I have been eating leftovers for four days now. I don’t want to step on a scale, as I know it will only tell me a story that I don’t want to hear. I know, I know. I’ll get back to working out in… January.

    This year, as everything has gone to hell, and we had to rethink everything, and we had a bubble Thanksgiving. We got Covid tests, and quarantined for a week so we could spend time with friends and their kid. We all had a great time together, and it was nice to spend time around people again.

    Now, we did what we thought was the right thing, and tried to be as responsible and cautious as possible. But, there still was a little nagging thought in the back of my mind that we shouldn’t be doing this. That the “right” thing to do was to not see anybody. New York’s positivity rate is closing in on 4%, which compared to other parts of the country is nothing. Then again, I remember April and May in this City, when people were moving out and ambulances were running day and night.

    I am very confidant that we all behaved correctly with our given situation. And sadly, I can admit that, we are all getting tired of living in a lock down. The right thing to do is never easy.

  • Thanksgiving

    2020 has been a shit filled dumpster on fire, floating down a river.

    And for my family, we have had a tough three years for that matter. Moves, job loss, pandemic, family tragedy, the 2020 election, but we are still here. We are still planning for tomorrow, still dreaming, still trying to make life better for our kid.

    My Grandma used to tell me, “You gotta have goals. Gotta have something to look forward to.” The wife and I have latched onto that idea; working toward something. Not that we think that everything will go back to normal, or that in three months everything will be better. We just know that we are working toward a better someday, and that’s about as realistic as we can get.

    And in that sense, there have been a few good things. I have spent so much great quality time with my daughter. I am watching her learn how to read, and write her first sentences, and see that spark of learning in her eye. That’s something real, and honest, and wonderful to experience. In this year, I have been able to rekindle my love of writing, and the creative process. Also in this year of insanity, I have watched my wife take on more than she thought she was capable of, and come out on the other end more confidant and successful. I am amazed by her. I feel that we still do make a great team, and I think I love her more than the day I told her I loved her on 14th street in front of Trader Joe’s way back in 2007.

    This was not a great year, but I still have my family who is healthy, my great friends who I miss and can’t wait to see again, and I still have my hope in things getting better.

    Happy Thanksgiving Everybody

  • I Missed a Day of Writing

    So… When I started working on this blog back in July, I decided that I was going to do things differently. in the past, I wrote something when the mood hit me, which meant that this blog was rather infrequent, lots of ebbs and flows of inspiration. The choice I made in July was to write at least one blog a day during the week, with the exception of holidays. I was going to treat it more like a job, a job that I enjoyed, but it was a job that I had to accomplish each day of the week. Large or small, I had to write a blog.

    Yesterday, I missed it.

    There was a window for me to get it accomplished, but I kept letting myself get pulled sideways. We are trying to get Covid tested, and then there was making the Thanksgiving shopping list, and it was a nice day out, so I wanted to make sure the kid got lots of park time, and then I got sucked down a Twitter-hole of checking on Trump’s efforts in Michagain.

    In that same vein of thought, It has been close to a month since I have worked on any of my fiction. At first I chalked it up to the coming election, as that was and still is dominating a great deal of my mental space. But it has been three weeks, and I think it is time to admit that I have fallen off the writing wagon.

    It is a matter of self discipline. I am lacking it, and also staying focused. This isn’t meant as a pity party, but more a matter of recalibration. We are still a long way from normal, or even a normal schedule, but I have to find a way to work within this situation.

  • The Doom Anxiety is Back

    Who else is still feeling the same level of anxiety you had before the election?

    That would be me.

    And most of my friends as well.

    Just about two hours ago, the Chancellor of the NYC Public schools announced that in-person classes will be cancelled due to the test infection rate is now above 3% in the city. Well… crap.

    There has been 100,000+ daily Covid infections for over the past week, as well as over 1,000 deaths.

    And we shouldn’t gather for The Holidays, but people are clearly going to gather for The Holidays

     We are clearly in a Second Wave, and for some of you, it might be a Third.

    And Trump won’t concede the election, which has the very high probability of make things worse as his administration is refusing to working with the incoming administration.

    2020 ain’t over yet, so I know it can still get worse.

    Like I said, I’m not feeling better.

    I haven’t really written anything other than these blogs, and that is due to my nonstop Doomscrolling. I keep checking to see if it is getting worse. This is clearly now a habit I have created for myself that I am not able to break, as my phone is connected to me constantly.

    Deep breath…

    Deep breath…

    We can get through this.

  • Struggling to Get By

    I am tired. I haven’t been sleeping well. Trump’s refusal to concede the election, though I knew it would happen, isn’t helping either. I am also getting burned out of the routine that we are in, and I’m afraid of the possible 2nd/3rd wave of Covid that is coming.

    It really is like 2020 refuses to die.

    I am fortunate that I have my wife, as we are leaning on each other for support. We both find ourselves just getting by. In the sense that we can get the bare minimum out, but really can’t seem to muscle anything additional. Such as our Algot shelf project still hasn’t been completed yet. We are close, but still not there.

    The other thing that has been heavy on my mind is that it looks like September 2021 might be the earliest that we can get back to “normal.” If there is a safe and effective vaccine ready for next year, then we are looking at April or May until we can take it. That’s pretty much at the end of the school year. To me that says the kid won’t be back in a class until September. That means we will have a Summer together, and Fall will be the time, hopefully, that I’ll be able to get out there and find a job.

    And that feels like a million years away.

    Another million years of just barely getting by to hope that we get an opportunity to better our situation. Feels like we better have some good luck on our side.