Six Days to Christmas

 The good news is that we have survived quarantine and no one has gotten sick. As I wrote last time, Ben was given a clean bill of health and returned to Cookeville back on the 6th to finish out the semester. We are very glad that all his symptoms had completely disappeared by that time and that his senses of taste and small had returned.

So here we are on the back side of our quarantine and the five of us (got to count Nolan since he was exposed to Ben) have all been well. I'm not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it just seems odd to me that we have been some combination of not sick at all and/or asymptomatic. None of us went in for a COVID test, opting to just let the quarantine period expire naturally, so we don't know if we were infected. Still, it is just strange to me that it has played out that way. Of all of us I would have thought Nate would have been the most likely to have shown symptoms.

Ben is also baffled as to how he contracted it. He said that he and everyone he is around at school have been diligent to keep their distance or mask when they can't. Like us, he and his housemates have not worn masks around each other at home, but none of his housemates have shown any signs of the virus either, nor have any in their larger circle of friends. So, where Ben got it and why it has expressed itself the way it has with us is a mystery to me. I wish that everyone's experience with COVID was the same as ours.

We just wound school up for the semester around here. Jenna and Ben are both on their Christmas breaks and glad to have a few weeks off. Nate had his mid-term exams to go this week and now has one more semester of high school to go.

I've laughed about going back to work on Wednesday because it was the first time this month I had worn long pants or shoes. I may be an introvert, but it was really good to get back to work and see people.

Life around here has been about as normal as it could be. Lori introduced Vicki to Instacart which delivered a large order of groceries for us. She's thinking that service is worth every penny to stay out of the store even if there were no pandemic. She and Jenna have also been getting used to Walmart pickup. Makes me wonder what permanent changes to shopping there will be after the threat of illness is over. Will this be another nail in the coffin for smaller grocery stores and retailers while at the same time opening the door for more niche market stores that will offer a social experience to fill a void?

Speaking of filling a void, I've taken up one interesting project this fall. About 15 years ago I started digitizing all our home movies that we had on VHS and miniDV tape and burned them to DVDs. I have 38 discs on our bookshelf as evidence of my efforts. Jenna has particularly enjoyed getting these out and watching them over the years. All this came to an abrupt halt when we got a camera that recorded straight to digital and later smart phones. Still, I have been keeping all this media backed up to external hard drives all along.

This summer I got to purchase an item that has been on my wish list for some time; a network attached storage device (NAS). This box is a large external hard drive (well, four in a RAID) and is accessible to all the computers on our home network. Additionally, it has a streaming media server (Plex) on it which I have set up and begun to load our home movies on. Now we have our own private streaming media channel available here at home. So far I have loaded all our Christmas videos from 1993 through 2008, our wedding video, and the videos we shot when renovating the house back in 1995, plus a few other odds and ends. Boy, did we look young then! And funny how country we sounded then compared to now.

So, this is a huge project that I can break up into small chunks and work on for years to come. And the good thing is that this makes our memories much more accessible and easier to pass along to our kids down the road. After trying to go through my mom's pictures and things I have a new appreciation for making those memories easily accessible and consumable. For now, I'm having fun when I can snatch an evening here and there to work on this. And if you come to visit I promise I won't make you watch hours of our home movies, but if you want to see how it works I'll be glad to give you a short tour.

Jenna has been busy now that she is on break and our quarantine is over. She has built up a customer base over the years with her pies and peanut butter balls. These funded several trips to Haiti in the past. This year they are helping pay for nursing school. So far this week she has made 19 pies and 2075 peanut butter balls and still has a few more orders to go.

It seems surreal to be less than a week from Christmas now. Lot's of things are different in this abnormal year, but we are able to be together and that's what matters. Now that Jenna is engaged we know this will be her last Christmas at home. Next year will feel more like a homecoming since both boys will be in college. With Mom's passing the last of the old guard is gone for us. Even though I will miss our normal social activities this year, I am glad for the opportunity to enjoy the time with just the five of us before our family starts to grow and change. This year just seems like the time to pause, reflect, and catch our breath before moving forward and that's how I plan to celebrate this Christmas.

Joe