Ryan's COVID-19 Chronicles

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...

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 lo...

This week has been going pretty well so far. My partner is killing it as a full-time mom and she even used her free day yesterday (our daughter is still going to be cared for by her grandparents on Wednesday mornings) to do some room painting, cleaning, organizing, and other productive stuff. I try to check in with how she's doing mentally pretty frequently and it sounds like she's enjoying the extra time with our daughter and the opportunity to get some things done around the house. Our daughter herself seems to be growing so much and living her best life every single day. It's a real treat to be able to leave my home office for a minute to see her whenever I want to, because her joy is infectious and she makes me so proud. As for me, I've definitely had some rough moments mentally this week. In particular, I had a tough morning on Monday just worrying about everything, and yesterday's blog post was tough to write because the gravity of the situation–even this ...

Here we are at the end of week two of self-isolation and it's already been more dramatic than I originally expected. So much has changed, and yet everything is the same. One thing that has been helping my partner and I get through these two weeks is  Ben Gibbard's Live From Home , a virtual concert series in which Ben Gibbard (lead member of Death Cab for Cutie) performs songs and answers fan questions online every single night. He even debuted a new and incredibly appropriate song called "Life in Quarantine" during one of these shows. It's kind of surprising just how comforting it is. Similarly, yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my favorite band, Nine Inch Nails, recorded and released for free two long-overdue sequel albums to their 2008 instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, titled "Ghosts V: Together" and "Ghosts VI: Locusts," to help fans get through these unique times. While the only thing that we've done to reall...

As a brief update to my post from yesterday, I did end up going for a run outside and it was absolutely wonderful! While I anticipated it would be difficult and expected to need a break or two since I haven't run outdoors in months, I ended up running even further than I planned without a single break! I ran for 4.3 miles, which is pretty close to my all-time best distance of 4.9! Unfortunately I also have bad news. The situation I detailed yesterday regarding my toddler spending the mornings with her grandparents may be compromised. As a result, she's home with us while we work today and will be until we can guarantee (to whatever extent that's possible) that it's safe again. Yesterday while my partner was visiting her parents to pick up our toddler, her brother stopped by to pick up something. Unfortunately, after getting closer than 6ft to his parents, he disclosed that he had been feeling mildly sick since Monday but was feeling relatively bett...

Remote work was the future and the future is now. Seriously though, the concept of remote work started way back in the 1990s when personal computers and the internet allowed people to work offsite for the first time. I've been reading about it "being the future" for quite a long time now, and while many organizations have adopted remote work in some capacity, it feels like a lot of organizations are stuck in the past in this regard. Or at least they were until COVID-19 pushed them kicking and screaming into the future. Adapt or die, I suppose? I'm curious to see how popular the concept is once things start going back to normal. I've been fortunate enough that my employer already had a pretty nice remote work policy, in that they allowed each department to determine the specifics of their rules for themselves and all employees have a laptop with a travel bag and power cord ready to go. Specifically, my department allows everyone to work from home four t...