The Pandemic

Wow, it has been a while. The Pandemic and remote work have forever changed my life and the tech industry.

On March 13, 2020, my wife and I went to pick up our ten-year-old from school. I went into the school and to the playground to play with him. The day before, my manager said we should bring our laptops home if the COVID-19 “scare” worsened. March 13, 2020, would be the last day I would step into another building until April 7, 2021, when I was vaccinated with the first dose of Moderna.

It was a year of incredible change. My son learned to learn from home. I worked remotely 100% of the time. I knew that I was more productive from home. We mastered the use the Instacart and Door Dash for grocery delivery. The Amazon boxes piled up. We utilized our backyard as a playground, pool area, and campsite. I learned how to install a drier, set up and maintain a pool, and my son and I built a gaming PC together. I made an iOS app that utilized data disease.sh to report on state and country data for COVID-19. I could not publish it because I’m not affiliated with a healthcare organization, but it was great for personal use ;)

My COVID-19 iOS app

I read four books during this time. Here is public profile on Goodreads. “The Great Influenza” by John Barry was fascinating. He concludes that one of the most important factors of how deadly a pandemic is, is the messaging from leaders.

I ran a lot. I was able to level up to Purple in the Nike Run Club. This was 1,553 miles logged. I’m currently at 1,775 and hoping to reach 1,800 by the time winter hits. Update: I met my goal on 10/15/2021.

The Pandemic is still very real for my family. My son is 11 and not eligible to be vaccinated. We are hoping by the end of October he can get vaccinated. He will be 12 at the end of December, so that is the latest we will wait to have our whole family protected.

We will keep living, learning and adjusting. Life is still good.