Family gatherings

We're starting to act like the pandemic is at an ebb. Yesterday we had a large family gathering (idk, 12 people? That seems large these days to me.) some indoors, some outdoors. Everyone except the kids was vaccinated and we were eating, so we did without masks, and it seemed…

Back to the office, sort-of

One of my colleagues is leaving our company after 11 years. She's been a huge part of the company and we are all very sad to see her go. So we had a get-together yesterday to celebrate. It was weird, and great. I hadn't been back in the office for…

Slowly returning to normal

The pandemic isn't over yet, but things are starting to show signs of returning to normalcy. The other day the CDC said that vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in public. Shortly thereafter Massachusetts lifted its mask mandate. Then the schools decided that kids don't need to wear…

Milestone

Yesterday was a pretty big day for my family. For the first time in over a year, the kids were able to go to my parents house to visit and play. We have been super-careful since the beginning of all of this, and that has meant minimal interaction with my…

First day back

I was very very uncomfortable and hesitant about the plan for the kids to return to school. I'm still not convinced that it was a good idea. But it's done, the kids are back, and so far we're doing ok. Today was the first day of full-time in-person school for…

Uptick

It is becoming increasingly clear that we are at the beginning of a fourth wave. And yet Massachusetts appears to be barrelling ahead with its crazypants reopening scheme. We had 2200 new cases today, up from about 1200 a couple of weeks ago. It's probably too soon to know a…

Passover in isolation, again

Last night we had the first seder. On Zoom, again. I am thinking back to last year, at the beginning of the plague that we in our house call 'the big kerfuffle.' (The kids do not like talking about the virus and asked that we talk about it this…

Second Dose

I got my second shot on Friday. It was a great experience, the vaccination site was even more organized than when I was there three weeks ago, and I was in-and-out in about sixteen minutes (which is to say, I was vaccinated almost immediately and then waited fifteen minutes for…