Here we are in the summer 2021, on the day of May 14. We are at what looks to be the tail-end of the year-long COVID-19 pandemic. I got myself vaccinated April 6th with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine -- after catching a mild case of COVID back Jan 26 (and testing positive on the 27th). I was sick about a week and held online classes during my week-long period of recovery. Shawna, my wife, got vaccinated about a month before I got vaccinated (and appears to have escaped the virus, although she was sick a few days before I was). My step-daughter Emily appears to have been the one to have first caught the virus and passed it onto me. Alex, my step-son, appears to have escaped the COVID-19 entirely, despite working as a security guard at the Crestwood hospital. My daughter Lydia escaped the virus as well.
It's been a topsy-turvy 2020 and 2021 so far. In March 2020, I had to turn my classes into online courses overnight, and I held online classes the rest of 2020. In January of 2021, I started face-to-face classes again, although created as hybrid classes in order to be ready for the contingency of having to go back online -- which happened at least twice-- for my COVID recovery week and for the snow days in the week of Feb 15-19 (Feb 15 to 17 were the snow days).
We bought a new (used) red 2014 Ford Focus from CarMax in 2020, and Alex finally got his driving license in the summer of 2020. I went from having to drive him to work and picking him up (from his night shift) at the Technicolor factory to him working as a security guard and driving himself to work in my old green 2010 Ford Focus.
Alex got himself an apartment as well. Unfortunately, he wrecked the green car and had to buy another car -- a stick-shift, which he has to learn how to drive -- and he is presently getting to work by the good graces of his friends/colleagues.
Emily is nearing the end of her school year and has gone from virtual schooling to face-to-face schooling again at Challenger, as she finishes 8th grade. Yesterday, Lydia had her 4th birthday, and she is making significant progress to being potty-trained (hopefully, she will be entirely there by the end of summer, in July or maybe earlier in June).
Shawna has worked at SEA for 9 years, and I have now worked at Calhoun since fall of 2012, myself. My father passed on to heaven on April 2, peacefully at his own home and joyfully for him, though with sorrow for us left behind.
Now, on May 14, 2021, as I look behind and I look forward, despite the troubles and obstacles which are surely to be surmounted, the future appears to be bright. The COVID-19 virus may be here to stay for a while, but it is conquerable and treatable. History may be moving towards its close (and dark days are sure to be ahead), but God will overcome, and the re-beginnings of the world will come.
