There are a few times in your life you are acutely aware that you’re living through history – 9/11, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Borat movie premier… – but those moments are fleeting. Which makes this last two-year-and-counting, protracted, once-in-a-lifetime pandemic feel so weird.

At the moment I’m writing this, we’ve re-entered the high community transmission level for the umpteenth time, this time thanks to the BA.5 variant, and are likely heading into another lock-down/mandate – to flatten the curve™. So I’ve been reflecting on this whole time period lately, and at one of the many “returns to work,” I was chatting with someone about how it felt like going back to school when you were a kid. Everyone asking how your summer was. And everyone having some adventure or project they did. It seemed like everyone had a Covid project – a remodel, a new hobby, etc. So here’s how my lock-down has been (so far).

Alpha – Gamma

At the start of Covid, after weeks of quarantine, I really needed to do something with myself. I decided to take an online screenwriting class, which turned out to be a great decision. It was really great to have a creative outlet, and connect with some new people online. And it was really fun to try something new that I had been wanting to do for a long time. Afterwards, I figured I should do something with a short film I wrote, so I submitted it to a competition. Guess who made the quarter finals?

Oh, and I stopped shaving.

Delta

After one or two false starts in attempting to return to the office, I decided to finally finish our never ending backyard remodel project. Vinyl fencing, terracing, retaining wall, rain gutters, artificial turf. Thanks to Covid, it’s now done.