Being

This piece, released in the middle of the pandemic, sort of encapsulates my mood. Things are looking better, but things are still in that in-between space of movement and quiescence.

I haven't taken many photographs during this time; sort of because it didn't seem like there was anything remarkable to photograph. Life continued in muted colors, against a backdrop of slow-motion train wreck.

A Christmas acquisition for our little back patio

John discovers I Love Lucy (please don't mention American Gods)

John's drive-by 7th birthday

In which he got a pretty good haul

America finally got a president who was interested in helping the country, not just himself

Tommy, after throwing an extended fit about...something

We had a close brush with the virus. Against local guidelines at the time, we had some family over to celebrate John's birthday. We enforced masks and stayed outdoors on our back patio, and that may be what saved us in the end. One of our visitors tested positive for COVID-19 just a couple of days later. Alison and I got tested and were negative. Still, I was forced to miss several shifts at work.

I did end up traveling a few weeks later after my quarantine ended. It was an opportunity to catch up on my reading.

Drive-in theaters were the rare occasion to catch a film

Vaccines slowly made their way through the various prioritization groups. My coworkers notified me that I could get my shot at a mass vaccination site at Cal Poly Pomona. Alison had received hers a week earlier at a pharmacy. A bunch of us went one day and got our first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I had some difficulty with the follow-up 2nd shot, but I think I got that sorted. At least, I'll find out when I show up for it.

We were invited to take our kids out to a residential development that a friend had worked on. It was a good opportunity to get out of the house and see people we haven't seen in a long while.

Reentry into society is going to be a bit of a difficult thing. For me personally, with the prospect of being vaccinated within a short couple of months, my personal risk is substantially reduced. All sectors of life seem to be pushing to move faster than I think prudent (church, school, work), so now I get to be the stick in the mud. Well, that always was my personality type, I suppose.

Actually, on the topic of school, I'd like to have more in-person learning for the smaller kids, but it seems like the 4 hours we get once a week is as far as we're going to get in the near-term. It will make things dicey at home, because I think Alison is going to have to start reporting in-person soon, leaving me as the only one at home to supervise John, while my own workplace is pushing for me to come back. We'll see what happens...in the meantime, I'm just trying to be.