Life in the Time of COVID

So, fourteen years since I last posted here. Long time. A lot has happened, as you can imagine. Happily married, have  grown children, one who is married. I  have a granddaughter! My youngest is 13 going on 17 and an amazing actress, singer and dancer. She even has done a performance in New York. If you had asked me three months ago, how are things, I would have said I am the luckiest person alive.

Then, Covid hit.

Within three days my team moved 1000 people to Work From Home. My wife's start up did the same for 130 people. My daughter's school has moved to school from home, the Ballet school has online Zoom ballet lessons, and her latest, she  had its first online play rehearsal. This weekend is all about the virtual cocktail hours. Made a few moves coincidentally in the early part of the year, so while I am NOT looking at my stock portfolio these days, we are very well set to weather the storm. We even have toilet paper ( which we are now referring to as The Precious).

So, I really am still the luckiest man alive.

I am worried about the grown kids. The two girls are single and working in health fields. They have jobs and purpose and if they get it, 99.5% chance it will just be a week of being sick. They are both strong.

My son, daughter in law, and my grand daughter are safe, he is employed and in a location that is more remote. I worry about his job, but he  is smart and resourceful and I can help him if needed.

I worry about my mother and mother law. Both are the same age, one is near me, one far. They really need to stay isolated, and between us and my brother we are making that happen. Larder stocked for a siege, moat dug, Machine guns with rubber bullets pointed at the entry ways.  No entry.

At some point you can worry all you want. The right answer is the sailor's answer. When in a storm, batten down the hatches, set the storm sails, and ride it out. You have done all you can and now it is in God"s hands. My dad was on liberty ship crossing the pacific at the end of WWII. They hit a typhoon. I remember him telling me years later, their are no atheists in a typhoon.

I have been in the Roaring 40's, I know what he meant.

So we are locked down, staying home except for short forays to get provisions. Safe, limited, and living like Asimov's Solarians. Just no robots.

Or maybe this is what it would be like on a Musk spaceship to Mars. closed space, relying on work, exercise machines and  video/ books to pass the time. One thing for Elon, when you send those ships, make damn sure that the people are very compatible. Maybe the first people to mars should be middle aged, maybe with a few early teens.

What else do I worry about? I worry about all the small business people who are getting crushed. The big corporations will survive, or be bailed out. Those jobs will be back. Government workers, critical infrastructure, Health and groceries etc will be fine.

But all those wonderful stores and restaurants on Laurel. Gryphon Strings in Palo Alto. All those dreams, all that hard work and sweat to make it real. Gone in the week of Wuhan.

It will take  time. The carnage will be real, the resilient will rebuild. A year from now things will look much the same. But I suspect an inflection point is upon us.

It will never be the same.