dkRanch.net Blog: December 2020

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Thursday work

via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CI7AsFBBRFg/

Rehearsing for the virtual awards

via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CI6EAt3F92M/

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

The afternoon view

via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CI1pq_eh-x8/

Day 279: Reminding myself of life under COVID

A vaccine is available and people in the US started getting it yesterday, 14 Dec 2020. People in the UK started receiving it last week, but it's medical professionals and highly essential workers (limited government, likely some military, etc.). I don't know how quickly things will rollout, but I suspect that there will be pressure to rapidly ramp up production. Supposedly a second vaccine will get approved later this week in the US.

Life has been strange the last few weeks. As cases explode in the US, more than 200,000 a day, and hospitalizations and deaths increase, we still have plenty of people making noises about hoaxes. At a volleyball tournament recently someone said "more people die from cancer" and I left it alone. I didn't have the energy to argue or even get angry at the stupidity and ignorance of such a statement.

I also mourn for the 3,000+ that have died. There was a meme that the deadliest days in the US were pandemic days, alongside a few notable events. That's not quite true, but there is no reason to diminish the tremendous loss of life that could be reduced. Likely not eliminated, but losing a few hundred a day would be a long way from losing thousands.

At the same time, I crave interaction and normalcy. Just before Thanksgiving, Colorado moved most counties to our "red" status. We went from competing in a tournament on Saturday to being restricted to 4 kids at practice on a Friday. The next Friday we were down to 2 and a coach. Since Tia and I are in the same household, we both coached, but doing groups of 2 had us in the gym for 5 hours straight and we were wiped out.

There was one county that still could hold tournaments, and we played on the 4th Dec. It was nice to get away from the ranch and the lack of anything else, and good to see our girls perform. While we didn't face much competition, we blew them away. I've had too many teams play down, but we won 6 sets. We even were down to 7 girls and had a RH play MH.

The next week we went again, a different 7 girls, and won three matches against better competition. Proud of these girls, only half of whom practiced in groups of 3, played together. A good day for all of us, certainly for Tia and I.

I don't know how things will go from here. We have a practice this weekend, and we want to do some over the holidays. Permission to go to half a team, but no competition scheduled for at least 3 weeks, so we'll see. That in and of itself is strange.

Between those days, Tia and I went to the Keystone for a couple days. It was a good break for us, even though nothing is open. No snow, so we didn't bother to ski. My neck was a little sore from a pinched nerve and we didn't want to aggravate anything. We picked up groceries and I cooked. We hiked, and enjoyed the outdoors, but the area is strangely deserted. Few cars on the roads, only 4 in the parking lot near our condo, and I only saw 3-4 people walking around the lake.Strange times.

No bookings since March, and I don't know if we'll get some. We plan to use it more, at least until bookings pick up. Last week was the first "public" day for lift tickets, and we did see more traffic as we came home Friday, but still not much. The mountains are very cautious, with Aspen requiring quarantine or negative tests to enter.

Work is work. Days are blending, no real changes for me, though plenty of movement in the company. We've embraced "remote first", which means we'll likely always allow flexibility and hire outside our core cities. We'll also do more remote meetings, even for people in the office. I worry about that, because I've valued being in a conference room with teams. If they go remote first, we're all supposed to be at our desks, which defeats the purpose of my flying to the UK.

In talking with friends, we can't decide when events might occur. I'd like to think we're more normal by September (schools, sports, etc.), but events need lead time. Maybe local things, but who knows. That's been a big part of my life, so I'm a little unsure of how my career looks for now.

Kyle is in Spain, and enjoying it, but coming home next week. That's exciting. Can't wait to see him and hear about his adventures. It's neat to think he's getting to do this in the middle of a pandemic, and going to be able to travel back here. Hopefully everything works out.

Delaney finished a semester, which didn't seem as hard as the spring. We'll see him tonight and see how things are going. Kendall decided to go back to college in the spring and make the best of it. Fingers crossed. I don't know that I would, but she misses her friends and life there, so I understand.

The last two weeks of election madness in the US has been alternately maddening, funny, and stressful. I was 99% sure that the electorial college would follow the votes, but who knows. Watching lawsuit after lawsuit fail and the crazy reactions of GOP advocates and politicians has been something. I understand the difficulties of dealing with a passionate irrational base, but I'm still upset.

PASS also seems to be failing. I don't really know the status, though most people think there isn't any money. Three directors resigned, and I wrote about it. At this point, I don't care anymore about the organization. I'm only gaming scenarios to keep SQL Saturday going somehow, but until PASS discloses something, I don't want to actually do anything. I am only upset they haven't acknowledged the volunteers.

At least the Broncos won. With the cold weather and slowdown in life, I've gotten to watch a few games and like the slower pace of things, though I keep thinking I ought to be tackling more projects.