2 Years a Pandemic Does Make

It is hard to believe that it has been two years since the Covid-19 situation was called a pandemic. And even though mask mandates have mostly expired and people are continuing as nothing has changed, there are still people—mostly unvaccinated—getting sick, going to the hospital and dying.

This feels like a bit of a lost time, however a lot has happened in those two years. At the beginning of the quarantine, Deborah and her cat moved in. We got married in June and she left for her fellowship in Missouri 3 weeks later. She's now been back home for nearly a year. And the cat is still here. We recently got a rescue dog to join the family.

At the beginning of the quarantine, my mom mostly stopped leaving the house due to her autoimmune conditions. Her bank account was hacked and I took over managing her finances. She started ordering groceries from Instacart, which she didn't quite understand. Her cognitive functions started declining. She was hospitalized due to a worsening blood condition, and the hospital stay triggered delirium. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and a moved to memory care facility in less than 2 months. Her Alzheimer's declined and after a fall 8 months after arriving, she moved to hospice care. She has since passed away.

And on the job front, the company I worked for was acquired several months before the start of the pandemic. We were eventually integrated into the larger company and I got a new job as a result of that. And just this past January, I was promoted into another new job.

It makes me tired just recounting all of it. And this was without any business travel, leisure travel (even though I took lots of trips to see Deborah and then my mom) or pretty much any public activities outside our home.