Pandemic Year 1: July 2020

July started with a bang. The bar across the street decided to do their own illegal fireworks show, but with the wind the major/professional style fireworks they lit off kept drifting and going off near my roof. My dog, who has never minded fireworks in her 11 years on this earth freaked out as the booms and lights kept getting closer. At one time I felt the heat and embers hit me from the fireworks. Miraculously they didn’t burn down my condo.

Beyond that, July was pretty chill. After the whirlwind of hikes in June, I stayed mostly home in July.

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I worked on my 2nd paint by number, this time Boba Fett while listening to Scalzi’s Agent to the Stars.

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I also had a dentist appointment downtown, and so decided to grab the last of my stuff from the office. It was so weird. I was downtown around 7AM. And other than some maskless homeless people no one was around when I headed to the office around 8:30AM. I was a bit shocked to see so many shuttered and boarded up businesses. And I was annoyed when someone joined in the elevator with me. But returning to my office was bittersweet. I remember in March looking around and thinking “I’m never coming back” but didn’t want to alarm people by taking all my things home. Now I looked around the ghost town that our office had become. I could see the marketing/podcast crew was coming in, but everyone else had a fine layer of dust. Others I could tell had some point had gotten some belongings, and someone had rescued all the plants. But it was sad to pack up my things and know I likely would not be back in this office, possibly ever. I took photos of the office so I could remember how things were. I had forgotten that it was I who had named all the conference rooms after music venues in the area. I took a last look at my view from my desk, and left.