A few things worth mentioning from my life in 2020.

COVID19 - In the beginning

One might say that COVID19 was all the rage this year. Ugh.

While no country handled it perfectly, the way the United States handled it can only be described as a giant clusterfuck. President Trump and the federal government pretended it was a hoax for months, and many states – mostly lead by Republicans – refused to implement any kind of social distancing or quarantine protocols while their death tolls skyrocketed.

By the end of 2020, the US neared 20,000,000 total cases and nearly 350,000 dead.

While vaccines were developed in record-breaking speed, the fact is that it won’t be until mid-2021 until they’re available for the majority of Americans to obtain.

COVID19 - Working from home

Cities, businesses, and individuals across the globe have been forced into the grand experiment of remote work. I think we’re seeing – and will see more of – a great shift of the workforce: cities -> smaller cities, smaller cities -> towns, towns -> rural areas.

It’s been basically a year since I’ve been in the office regularly, and soon it’ll be just as long for Miranda. It’s hard to see our employers trying to force us back into the office with any regularity in the future. Why would they? How could they say that one plus years of working from home “just wasn’t working”? It’s working out great for busineses (increased productivity), individuals (increased free time), the environment (reduced pollution), etc.

COVID19 - Stretching one year into a decade

When talking about events that happened in Janurary 2020, it feels like I’m referencing things that happened nearly a decade ago. Life was essentially cancelled this year – aside from a small amount of camping this summer – no traveling, no social gatherings with friends & family, no going to the movies, no night out at the theater, no attending concerts, no checking out new breweries, no beer festivals, nothing.

Thankfully a lot of the things that I love to do are quarantine-friendly anyway: Watch TV, play video games, bicycling, backpacking, camping, walking, etc.

While 2021 will probably be a better year compared to 2020, I won’t hold my breath. Here’s to hoping that maybe in 2022 we’ll start to resume our normal lives again.

le sigh

New Car

Within the context of 2020 it seems a little silly to even mention it, but Miranda and I bought our first car together: A 2020 RAV4 Hybrid XSE. The Mazda 3 was getting up there in years, and we wanted to sell it while it was still worth something. Why a RAV4? More cargo room, higher off the ground (for easier access to trailheads), all wheel drive, pretty decent fuel economy due to hybrid setup, and it looks pretty bad-ass on top of it all.