Skip to main content

Some Final April Showers

It's been a pretty cloudy and rainy week. Fortunately, however, there was just enough clear skies to enjoy the outdoors while the temperatures rose this week. Not that the rain is all bad in itself, since it definitely helped dissolve the last of my weed and feed application, breathed life into the vegetation much more quickly, and proved to us how smart it was to put our new shed up on wood planks rather than simply sitting in the dirt.
There's been a slight spike in COVID-19 cases in my state. Probably because much of our state was forced to vote in-person for the primary election, and 52 people who did so have been confirmed to have the disease. Apparently there's no plans for anything different for the special congressional election in two weeks so I suppose we can expect another spike after that. I would put all the blame on the government but it seems like a growing number of people think the government should stop protecting its people and end the lockdowns during an active worldwide pandemic. On a totally unrelated note, I wonder if our country's broken education system is ever going to come back to bite us?

But on a personal note, all has been going relatively well for us this week. My partner's first week working again has been a bit rough since her workload consists of a lot of busywork right now and she misses being a full-time mother and hearing our daughter's constant babbling throughout the house, but otherwise she's been a trooper about it and has still managed to make a  lot of fun memories with our daughter. I'm continuing to stay busy with my remote work, both for the office and video game, the latter of which I wrapped up quite a big project on yesterday.

In gaming news I beat the indie cyberpunk game Dex that I had been playing and started on Fallout: New Vegas next. I've gotten to play more Team Fortress 2 with friends online, and yesterday we had a slightly bigger group for virtual board game night where we played Deep Sea Adventure again and a newer party game called Wavelength where the other game writer and I proved how great of a team we are by winning twice. I'm almost mad at myself for never doing regular gaming meet-ups in the past since it's turning out to be such a great way to stay social.
Our daughter continues to grow and surprise us every day. She just turned 18 months old yesterday which just underscores how quickly time passes. Somehow she's halfway on her way to three years old already. What a scary thought!

I'm going to have another three-day weekend as I'm taking off of work next Monday to spend some more time with my family. I can't express enough how grateful I am that my employer not only allows this during such a crazy time but flat-out encouraged me to take the whole day off when I mentioned taking only half. It's just further proof that it's the kind of place I wouldn't mind working at for a long time.

Stay healthy and sane!
-Ryan
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing!

Popular posts from this blog

The Escalation of Events

So yesterday I stumbled upon  this article in which a respiratory therapist describes in detail what the worst of COVID-19 looks like in the hospital. These disturbing descriptions were all new to me, which is worrisome given how far into this pandemic the world already is. The details of the disease shouldn't still be unknown or downplayed at this point. I began to reflect on my experience learning about this disease and how long it took for me to take it seriously versus how quickly everything seemed to go wrong. I was away on business in Boston for PAX East (a big video game convention) from February 25th through March 2nd. There was talk of the "novel coronavirus" at the time but I didn't know much about it. While I worked my booth and walked the convention floor I couldn't help but notice the (relatively small but nonetheless) increased number of attendees wearing face masks at the event. I just kind of shrugged it off, thinking it was good that peo...
2 comments
Read more

I've Been Unemployed for a Month

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

News Updates for Posterity

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...
Post a Comment
Read more