Screen time

It's been a year, guys. 

It's been a year since Tim canceled his trip to Vegas two days in advance. Almost a year since Victoria told the school kids to take an early holiday, and a late one, and then we'd figure out what to do next with this pandemic. Almost a year since the day I started working from home.

More than a year since I missed my trip to Germany. Much more than a year since we've visited family. 

Probably at least another year to go before international travel reaches us again.

***

Sometimes, a pandemic strikes and everyone is locked up inside and realizes that there is so much to do with screens and on screens. There is TV and social media and movies and video games and skype and zoom and blogs and news and online board games. 

And sometimes, a whole year of screens goes by and the headaches come and go, swimming in, swimming out, and you look around your world and decide a year is long enough for all those screens. 

Take more long walks, even though they are along the same paths over and over and over again.

Color. 

Cook. 

Play an instrument. 

Go outside. Sit on the bench in the park and watch the dogs run back and forth and back and forth. Birds. Soccer players. 

***

I live in a great place. My walks, along the same paths over and over and over again, are nice walks. This is home. I am home. Here is home, even though it is far away from extended family. 

We are doing ok. We are open. I am back to work, whenever I want to go, and home when I want to stay. There are restaurants and theaters and public transit and events, and they are all safe.

It hasn't been the year we thought it would be, but here, this year, there is much more hope in the world than here, last year.