Why I Oughta...

A few weeks back, I attended my first in-person work meeting in 2021.  In fact, it has been the ONLY one that I've attended all this year.  And, one of the precautions that the team that I was visiting has been taking was the application of this yellow and black tape to the floor as a visual reminder of social distancing.  This was in a conference room and is meant to remind the user to stay in the square so they can safely stay at least six feet away from other attendees.   Posting this not because it is a unique experience for the world, but rather as a sort of COVID-era artifact that I encountered as we begin to return to work in offices.

 A few weeks back, I posted a photo to mark the beginning of my second Winter Break COVID puzzle - this 750 piece puzzle featuring Disney pins that you can trade in/around the parks.  Well, I hit it hard out of the gate - while I was still had some time away from work.  But, then, reality hit and my days were filled with Microsoft Teams calls.  As with my previous COVID puzzles (a smaller, 300-piece Christmas one and a 1000-piece Harry Potter-themed one ) that I successfully completed, I set this Disney Pins puzzle up in the screened porch where there is a lot of light and plenty of company.  After starting strong, this puzzle seemed to just kind of sit idle.  Couple work stuff with the kids using my puzzle table to do their Christmas Lego sets and this one got shelved for a bit.   But, this past weekend, I picked up where I left off, reset a few of the pieces that had come up and got busy.  Here's where I ended the weekend:  Pretty cl...

Just a couple of days ago, I posted an update on my Google Local Guides status with one of my photos (of Dogpatch in Naperville ) hitting 6M views.  Like all of you with your location history turned on, Google also sent me a note showing my annual timeline.  And, 2020 was certainly different.  And my location history tells the story.  (Thanks, COVID.) Normally, Google Maps will show all the trips you have taken in a year.  In 2020, I made it to five states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan), but that Minneapolis trip took place pre-pandemic.  The rest of those trips were from March --> December.  We didn't go very far from home. Here is something pretty striking.  My visits broken down by Shopping and Restaurants.  Big cliff in March: My time on mass transit went to ZERO after March: Part of the report from Google shows some of the places that you went -and calls them "highlights".  Interesting to see that ALL FIVE of...

We started this 1000 piece Harry Potter puzzle on December 13th .  And by "we", I really mean "me".  The kids helped a little bit - mostly because the oldest one was desperate to get access to the project table in the screened porch where I set up.  That's become our LEGO and puzzle table.  By December 18th, I had the border mostly done and the colors sorted .  And by December 22nd, it was starting to come into focus .  Today is the 30th of December, but, I finished this back on the 23rd. Just getting around to posting it - what with the Christmas hysteria around the house.  A couple of busy, full days sitting and focused on the puzzle got it done.  You can see the complete puzzle below:  Or, really...complete in the sense that I'm done with it.  But, there were two missing pieces.  This puzzle was on loan from our friends.  They said there was one missing piece.  And now, I think we caused it to have a second missing piec...

For a variety of reasons, we decided to get some tests done on our family recently.  And, first the good news:  all the tests for our entire family came back the same:  negative.  No COVID-19 detected.  But, the experience was mixed.  First, the stress of trying to secure a test?  Unreal.  We're ten months into this thing and there's still a run on tests.  We were able to secure a series of tests mostly, I think due to persistence and luck.  I kept refreshing my browser and finally booked appointment windows.   Ten months in, with cases hitting a high point right now.  And it is still tough to get tested?  That's more than shameful.  But, the news isn't all bad in terms of testing.  Why?  Because despite cases in Illinois hitting an all-time high and seemingly going higher every day (see chart below), the part of the testing process that worked WELL was post visit.  Once I booked the appointment, t...

A couple of years ago, I built a pair of custom-sized firewood racks that I keep in our screened porch .  They're made of Cedar 2x4's (larger than what you find at a Big Box store) and between the two cedar racks, we store a lot of our firewood inside the screened porch during the Winter.  I have another metal rack that I keep outside my office door and between those three racks, I can usually handle the two face cords of firewood that we order each early Fall/Late Summer.  You can see what two face cords of firewood look like in this post from last Fall .  We filled all three racks and had to pile or stack wood up both in the screened porch AND next to the metal rack.  So, we're already in a position to not have enough space for just two face cords. But, there's a theory going around - and seems to be manifesting itself in the southern hemisphere right now - that there will be a firewood shortage this Winter.  With COVID still here (hi there, pandem...

It has been over a year since I shared a post about our little Lizzie .  She's still little.  At least...quite a bit smaller than what I remember Maisy being when she was around.   We lost Maisy in the Summer of 2016, so we're coming up on four years of her not being around our family.  It also means that this Summer will be four years since Lizzie joined our family .  She's, ummm, NOT Maisy.  But, she is family.  And that means that she's around with ALL OF US during the whole social distancing period.  I found her the other day up on this bench - where she sits often - enjoying the day's sun.  Everyone copes with quarantine differently, right?