So 2020 Was A Rough Year

 Dear Blog,

I had a bit of an uptick in posts last year, 2019. I was alone a lot, which drove a lot of verbal outpouring into a device no one reads. I actually have had plenty to write about in the last 17 months, but fairly little time to actually write it down. 

Just today, I got back to a FaceBook post, "Please brag to me about something you did in 2020 that you're proud of." I liked it, and responded: 

I participated in, produced, and edited 3 virtual choruses for my church, plus 2 for my family, none of whom can safely sing together.

I was given a two-rank promotion at work, after sweating blood into a new project for 9 months, to show what I can do.

I was elected member at large for my barbershop chorus, and proposed that we produce virtual choral work for marketing and promotion in the new year.

I moved in with my girlfriend and her children, in a house surrounded by trees and nature and bugs like I've never been. We have two Christmas trees and more lights up than ever before, because we cannot go to parties or visit family as usual.

I provided shelter to my ex and her infant in hard times.

I stopped abusing nyquil.

I voted for Joe Biden.

I biked through 8 counties of Northwest Ohio that I've not biked through before, or even driven through, as far as six are concerned.

I taught the boy how to measure distances small and large, how to cut wood, navigate towns, use Google maps, divide small integers, sum numbers over a thousand, fly a drone, destroy a drone, attempt to repair a drone...

Taught my daughter number line addition and subtraction, how to use number beads, blocks, identify shapes, tell which statements in the online school aren't quite right, regular and irregular verbs, to stop being an unfair SOB to the boy.

I held the little girl when she cried.

I learned how to wire an outlet, a ceiling fan, a nightlight. I learned how to synthesize dubstep using free software. I learned .NET Core Dependency Injection, TestServer, Rest API, Javascript, RPC protocols, rtl diagrams, machine learning. I fabricated nuts for a child's bike in a national shortage of bikes and parts. I repurposed a homemade cosleeper into a headboard and torched wood artfully for the first time. I fabricated a railing for the first time. I rebuilt a patio for the first time since I was 17 years old. I planted 8 different tree seeds with three kids in the back yard. I helped make a map of a new park and brought a precocious and inventive instrument drawing to life with the boy. I folded over 100 baskets of laundry. I put knobs back on three dresser drawers. I sanded paint off 8 different pieces of wood.

I got a paper published in mathematics magazine. Corollary: I got an Erdos number of 4.

-- End of comment. Ultimately, it's been a hard year for most everyone on the planet. I have a lot to be extremely grateful for. Especially an employer that lets me work from home and have a chance at not getting sick, a new family, a home like I've never had, and the chance to sing and bring voices together, in a time when singing together is violently irresponsible. 

I have so much hope for a slow and painfully insufficient new year, that is nonetheless better, better lead, less in sickness, less in death, stronger in community, resources, caring for those in need.