2020

If I haven’t talked to you this year, here’s what I’ve been up to in 2020. I was in Taiwan for the first few days of January on my winter break trip. Had a great time the beginning of the year until Covid hit. Now, it’s just rehab, exercise, work at home, do my best not to catch Covid by avoiding contact with other people. Every day is pretty much the same.

Since the shelter in place I’ve been cooking and baking at home a lot. I only go out for take out or delivery 1-3 times a month versus pre Covid of 3-5 times a week. I bought a Kitchenaid mixer and 2 food processors. I read menus from allrecipes.com and then adjust them to my taste. I started doing Hello Fresh meal prep service in November that is working out well though I can’t eat that food every day, but 3-4 times a week is fine. My latest projects is making different flavors of energy and granola bars. So easy! I’m working on perfecting the recipes now.

Unfortunately I tore my meniscus running in Sept 2020, had surgery in Oct 1, and am still doing rehab 3 months later. I hope to be playing sports again by summer. At least I can ride my bike so that’s my main form of exercise right now. I started repairing and modifying my bikes. I bought a few bikes on cl, fixed them up and sold them. I sold all my bikes and then bought 3 new ones and a used one and have been riding as much as possible. Luckily I was able to ride a bike about 6 weeks after surgery and am trying to ride 4-5 times a week. I can currently ride 10 miles but am trying to push it to 15-20 miles in January. Still not running yet. I’m actually still walking with a slight limp 😦

Work is of course all online and probably will be for another year or more. The students and professors both don’t like online classes, but it’s our only option now. Cheating is rampant and requires a lot of effort to find them. Covid has impacted colleges different. UC has removed the standardized test scores so they’re seen applications skyrocket. Community college and CSUs have seen a decrease in enrollment since many of our students are at risk, or essential workers and needed to work to survive. It’s really a mess. There will be a whole generation of students that were plunged into poverty, are a year or more behind in academics and socialization growth. I fear depression will be a common occurrence too further impacting their academic performance. I don’t think we’ll know for many years what the full impact of this pandemic was. The Trump Administration’s response to the pandemic and how that impacted its trajectory will be studied for years I suspect.

I’ve got a Covid haircut, meaning I cut it myself and it’s a bit uneven. It looks so easy on youtube, but is much more difficult in real life. I haven’t had a professional cut my hair since Jan or Feb…

Stuff I totally recommend that I started using in 2020:

1. I got a Hypervolt massage gun but then found a $100 Sharper Image massage gun at Costco that works almost as well so I’ve been using that for my rehab. I highly recommend these massage guns.
2. A heating and massaging knee sleeve!
3. A Kitchenaid mixer. OMG they make baking so much easier.
4. A Circulon cookware set from Costco. Best $130 I’ve ever spent.
5. The Amazon Echo. They are currently in the 4th generation but I really love my 3rd generation model. I also got a 2nd generation Echo Show 10″. You can see the lyrics flow by of the songs you’re playing, watch YouTube, Amazon Prime etc. so a great appliance for the kitchen. I plan to get the 3rd generation Echo Show 10″ when it’s available next year.
6. Hello Fresh meal prep service. It’s not that much more $ compared to shopping and cooking everything on your own. The directions are pretty good and the meals are diversified enough for the first month or so. The key is to order the correct number of meals for the week which isn’t always easy to predict accurately.

Plans for 2021? Well, I figure we won’t be going back to the movie theater until 2022 so I’m thinking about getting a home theater. Rehab my knee is a daily but necessary chore. I will hopefully be playing sports by June 2021. If I get vaccinated and travel is safe, I might go on another road trip, but probably nothing requiring an airplane or passport until 2022. I guess it depends on Covid.

I’m 100% optimistic about 2021. Once the vaccinations are widespread and Biden takes over things will get better. Anyways, I hope to see you in 2021.