Ryan's COVID-19 Chronicles

This will probably be my last post on this blog, unless something surprising and dramatic happens in the future—and hey, if this last year and a half has taught us anything, it's that surprising and dramatic things happen. Here's all the big, good news I have: ❤️      I, my partner, and all of our immediate family members are fully vaccinated and have been since late April. We officially all survived to get the vaccine, including most notably my lovely 87-years-young grandmother. ❤️      My partner gave birth to our second child, a beautiful baby girl, who unfortunately spent three days in the NICU as a very small, very-nearly-premature baby with low blood sugars, but is now healthy and growing strong. ❤️    The spread of the virus is lower than ever in the US (if I'm reading the data right), and in my area, the government's mask mandate has been lifted for vaccinated people. ❤️    My partner and I got to hang out with a fri...

I stopped updating this blog on a regular basis because, after months of hoping for the best,  nothing was really changing . Fortunately, that's not exactly the case several months later. I mean, don't get me wrong, there's still plenty of COVID-19 cases, deaths, pandemic-deniers, and people just not taking things as seriously as they should. But hey, we've just had more vaccinations than cases in the US , which is such a freaking relief to see. Oh yeah, there are a few vaccines available since I last posted any pandemic updates and more on the way, and we now have a president who seems to take the pandemic seriously, and the last one instigated a failed coup d'état attempt, and in retrospect I really picked a bad time to stop blogging about these things. That said, I'll leave all of that stuff for the history books to explain, and keep this blog focused on my own experiences during the pandemic that has now overflowed into 2021. Through some combination of bein...

A lot has happened since I last posted here. Multiple holidays have come and gone, my parents had a COVID-19 scare that fortunately turned out alright, and most fortunately I've got a job again! Unemployment hasn't been fun. Not that it ever is, but combined with the following factors: The pandemic The lack of unemployment compensation due to the pandemic The lack of stimulus checks because America The transition into the "everything is dying and it's cold as heck" season I was getting especially stressed out to the point that I was starting to not feel like myself anymore. Even the small things I would normally do to improve my mental health were constantly out of reach. I would talk to friends and find it difficult to focus on what they were saying. I would have a drink in the middle of the day. I would tell everyone I was alright and most of the time I believed it. I knew I was getting worn down. I knew I was floating toward some form of depression. I started b...

Sorry I haven't written here in a while. So much was happening in those first few months of the pandemic, and then it seemed like everything just kind of slowed to a crawl before it all went stale. Every day has been the same thing. People don't believe facts. People are getting sick. The pandemic isn't over yet. We need to stay home. We need a sense of normalcy. The numbers are down. The numbers are up. On and on and on in a never-ending loop. Like many people, I fell into a sort of numb depression without even realizing it. The pandemic and quarantine weren't great for my mental health, and I stagnated. I kept on going through the motions, but it was all in a sort of half-conscious way. Fortunately, a few months ago I became aware of this and made some changes to improve my mental health and overall lifestyle. It seemed like everything was going to be alright again. Then, after an incredibly stressful two months at work during which I worked and pushed myself harder t...

As I said in my previous blog post, I'm not sure there's really anything significantly new to say about this pandemic since it's been going on far longer than it should have. That said, I still want to keep this blog updated on a somewhat regular basis for future historical reference. In the absence of any new insights to share, I'm going to share and comment on some recent news. July 14: CDC says U.S. could get coronavirus under control in one to two months if everyone wears a mask This is pretty much the thing I've been preaching from the beginning because I respect the advice of educated experts. Still, it's nice to have the CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (spelled out, capitalized, and bold in case you forgot that this pandemic is literally what the CDC was designed to help us with) slap the nation across the face with how badly we're messing up and how quickly we could be done with quarantining if everyone just wore their damn masks. July 15...

I find myself struggling to think of what to write about in this blog anymore, even only once per week, that I haven't already said. This pandemic has just been going on for way too long. Nothing's really changing. Stupid people are denying the virus' existence, how to stop it, and refusing to follow rules that would get us out of this mess. My family is trying to stay safe while keeping sane. I miss the way things were before. I'm grateful for my daughter's ignorance. I'm devastated for everything we can't let her experience during this crucial part of her life. Many countries are beating or close to beating the virus while the USA lets it spread and destroy. President Trump has spent more energy attacking the CDC and Director of NIAID in a week than he has spent attacking the virus and protecting people from it for the last five months. Nothing's really changing. How many thousands more need to die or be impaired for life from this virus? I just want t...