November Already!

Doesn’t seem right that the calendar is showing the start of November. This is the month of Thanksgiving, the start of Christmas shopping, the true beginning of Winter in the northlands, and the sobering thought that we are to be homebound for many months waiting for spring.

Ah yes! Although I dread the start of fall, the colorful leaves do entertain. And the colder weather makes be go into nest mode. I want this closeness. I want to feel the limits and walls of my nest, my home. Then, I realize we’ve been in this mode since March 15^th!

Well, it really has been OK. I’ve learned to write more often. I have broadened my library of topics to write about. I am more disciplined. My calendar is neat and trim even if the office is not. I say yes to more projects because they fill my time. I no longer drive to countless meetings but stay home instead to focus on the why the meetings are needed in the first place.

My colleagues and I are now focusing on the important things. We accomplish so much more without all the running around. And, the official meetings are fewer, and much more agenda-oriented. Shorter, too! That’s a blessing because I’m the taker of minutes for a lot of those sessions.

Nesting or not, we are here for the duration. November is but a reminder of the indoor life we’ve been living and surviving well. It is dangerous outside the domicile. Care must be foremost in mind if we are to survive the pandemic.

Rather than bemoaning the circumstance, stay home, order in, and wear a mask in the presence of others.

This pandemic is not a hoax. 225,000 dead family, friends and colleagues testify to that fact. Battling the pandemic is not the job of politicians and government officials. It is our job. Yours and mine.

Rather than blaming others for the pandemic, learn to live with it and survive. It will strengthen you. It already has for me. And I’ve not been sick a day during this whole ordeal.

Thank you for taking personal responsibility for the pandemic and how to survive it. We can do this one person at a time.

PS: At this writing my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter at college all have the virus. The high school granddaughter at home is the only one in the family so far testing negative.

November 1, 2020