On January 1st, 2020, I could never have guessed where we would be today, April 9th, just three short months later. Things certainly started off rough: January saw some project issues at work that we’re still working our way through, and February saw my 2010 Outback displaying some decidedly not-good behaviors forcing an unexpected trade-in (my new Ascent is lovely, though, for what it’s worth).

March, though. Cheese’n’rice.

News of the current strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) started coming out in January, and Michelle took some logical steps to start building an emergency kit at home in February. By early March we started talking around the office that “maybe we should try simulating an ‘everybody work from home’ experiment” to see what gaps we had in equipment, space, and anything else. We started that experiment on Friday, March 13th, and we haven’t been back to the office since

By Monday the 16th, we were all encouraged to stay home if we could, and the very next day we were told to stay home if we could. At the time, it was acceptable to make a quick stop at the office if you were missing something (and most all of us were), but that was it. We’re now nearing the end of week four, and wow is this weird.

School has been interesting, too. Around the same time the office was getting shut down, schools in our area were, too. We started off with trying to figure out our own lesson plans for the kids to help keep them going and so that they wouldn’t lose what they’ve learned this year to-date and to try and keep them challenged. This week we’ve started the planned “remote school” sessions, and it’s going okay, but getting the kids engaged has been a challenge as we figure out new tools we’ve never used and new ways of connecting we’ve never tried before.

Where do we go from here? It’s easy to get consumed by the incredible swirl of negativity and cynicism in the world right now (I’m looking at YOU, Twitter), but there have also been some beautiful things happening, too:

John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” segments have been wonderful. Catch up here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOe_y6KKvS3PdIfb9q9pGug
Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie has been doing solo shows out of his house: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVuKHi9v2Rn6WytY_26KfgO2F2yp4Gqgv
Wes Tank has been doing some amazing interpretations of Dr. Seuss books, rapping them atop 90’s era Dr. Dre beats, and it works WAY better than you might expect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgMsmyenj6k

My hope is to get back here somewhat regularly to try and keep posting about my / our experience with all this. Maybe nobody will ever see it, maybe just the right person will see it and it’ll help them out. Who knows.

Stay safe out there.