May 2020 Recap

New music that I heard

I didn't listen to much music since I used my dish washing time to listen to podcasts. And the library was shut down so I couldn't get any more CDs for my car.  That was kind of the extent of my music listening before.  I did watch this amazing guitar solo though:



Best podcast episode that I heard

I have been listening to the podcast, The Bible for Normal People.

My favorite ones have probably been these:
Episode 125: Pete Enns - Big Ideas that Shaped Biblical Scholarship: Julius Wellhausen and the Pentateuch

Episode 123: Jared Byas - Rediscovering Jonah - Part 1

I'm doing the awkward thing where you try to balance listening to old episodes of the podcast and catching the new ones as well.

Best Photo

May 2020:
Right before our window framing was replaced



  
New movie recap
I did not watch any movies for the first time.  As a family, we did watch The Princess Bride together for the first time.  Watching with my 6 year old, it was more violent than I remembered, so it was a little more stressful as a parent.  I probably saw this movie when I was 7 years old, and remember being scared about some parts of it.  The kids liked it though.

Also, on May 30-31, we watched Star Wars IV together.  The kids were really confused about what was going on.  It's tough for a child to follow the intricacies of what is going on, in a brand new universe.


TV/Streaming Show/YouTube recap

I continued to watch airplane problem videos.   This one is one of the best I've seen so far, and it describes the flight and landing of the Gimli Glider.



I was also impressed by this squirrel obstacle course.  This one definitely is a lot more popular than plane crash videos, with 18 million views in 5 days!




Book recap
I did not read any books in May and am not working on any!  I started a few that I got bored with, and just gave up on them.  Instead, I have been studying for the new Azure Database Administrator exam, which I'll be taking on June 4.


My Music Playing
I bought a device with sliders and knobs on it, to control certain electronic keyboard sounds.  For example, I can adjust reverb by turning a knob.  I also bought a program called Sunday Keys.   It has patches all prepared for worship style of music, and also automatically is mapped to the slider and knob device!   It's pretty fun to play with, and it's also educational for how software synthesizers can be set up.

My daughter had some fun playing with it as well.




Good moments

5/1:

-Took day off from work. Courtney appreciated having some time away from being a teacher.

-Ran some errands to local stores.  I think the first time I went to stores for a whole month!

-Played a Game called Quiplash on zoom with church kids group.  It was really fun.  The Gras family won by a large margin the first game.  But the second game we got last place.

5/2:
-We finished our 19 mile walk of the Indian Creek trail!  We have done portions of this for at least 3 years, and we always choose a spot to park the car next time.  Sometimes the start/stop points are in a neighborhood, and sometimes they are in an trail parking lot.   We went from Kansas City Missouri around Holmes road to Olathe around 159th street.  To celebrate, we stopped by a QuikTrip to buy candy for each person.

Here's a picture from our final leg of the trail, in Olathe.

My younger daughter didn't like the walk too much, so I gave into her requests to set up the "Slip n' Slide" in the afternoon.  Then the kids decided after two tries that they didn't like it.   I was actually relieved they didn't like it, because that meant that I could get rid of it.   I ended up selling it on FB Marketplace for $5.  Someone saw our plastic play set in the background of the picture and wanted it. 

Long story short, we researched what price this might go for, and were happy to see that this was a rare item.  And we sold it to that person for $150.   It seemed like we could ask even more for it, but we wanted to give a fair price and make the sale.  Plus, someone gave this to us for free probably 8 years ago, and it's all faded, so we were happy to get that much out of it.

5/11:
Worked out for the first time since November, when I strained a back muscle.   I started working out again for a strange reason.  My right ear has had tinnitus for a few weeks, and exercise is a way that this improves.  This happened to me a couple years ago, and I started working out then as well.

5/18-27:
Siding project started.They really did a good job on the siding, actually possibly perfect.  And the company has been easy to work with.  So we're happy with it, even though we had to spend a lot on it.










Negative moments

5/7:
Found that I broke a part on the van that holds the spare tire, by cranking it too tight.  I was afraid of it being too loose while I drove the van to the repair place, and they ended up telling me that I had broken it.  They ended up finding a replacement part in a salvage yard and installing it for me.  I was kind of down that I caused an extra expense.  But that's one reason why I like those plane crash videos.  It really puts things in perspective.   A little mistake on a car part that holds a spare tire, is not anything compared to the people who made some catastrophic mistakes regarding plane flights, like not shutting a cargo door properly.

I also continued to be under the weather for the first half of May, with NON-covid-like symptoms.

In late May, one of our doors was sticking on the frame after it rained 3.5 inches, and after our siding was installed.  I started panicking about how many our house is settling, and we'll start seeing huge cracks.  As the day went on, I was more calm.   I am working on my psychology for not rethinking decisions that were already made, and not worrying about things that cannot change.  Also, projecting worst case scenarios is kind of a problem for me. Being a human and dealing with stress is very difficult, and does not come naturally.

Weird moments
Realized that in April, the first month ever, we did not buy gasoline for the car.  This is more of a April fact rather than May, but I realized this in May.


5/5: Went to the office to pack my things for a move to a new office.  My appearance at the new office didn't happen for another 20 days due to shelter in place.
5/13: We celebrated three birthdays at my parents' house, including my birthday about 6 weeks late.  That was the first time we went there since March.
5/25-5/29:  Worked in the new office this week and it was really sparse, since my company assigned people to phases.   The downside so far is that the commute takes at least 45 minutes away from working.  Also, eventually the office will fill up with noisy people, and it won't be that great for focusing anymore.


Cornavirus thoughts

Mask or not mask.  My thinking changed about masks. At first, I had not been to a store for about a month, so I just forgot about masks, and wasn't in the habit.  I felt kind of silly wearing one, feeling it was more fear based rather than practical.  So at first I was not a mask wearer.  After thinking about it more, I tend to want to respect workers and elderly who may be in the stores, and I generally wear the mask in store types of situations.  Plus, why would I want to increase my chances of getting COVID?

Also, the government does not seem to be making science based decisions.   The reopening dates seem arbitrary to me.  Isn't it more unsafe now, than when shelter in place was first implemented?

I would argue the government should not have shut down businesses in the first place like they did, which I think was when there almost no one in Kansas had the disease.   Instead, let people know the risks, encourage them to stay home, and many would have stayed home.  The health system has yet to be strained, actually a number of our nurses and doctors have gone to New York voluntarily to help out.

Our county has 600,000 people, however there were only 47 people max hospitalized for it in one day. You could say that was a success of the measures taken.  But that is just 0.008% of the population.  It's no wonder that I don't know anyone personally who was hospitalized for COVID-19, and only heard of one acquaintance of my wife's that had it.  Other than that, no one.

Here were the deaths by date.  I'd be curious to know how many people died of other causes.

Hopefully this all helps to explain why I'm skeptical of how controlling the government is.  Or maybe it proves the opposite, that all of the precautions are working.

Also, I want to acknowledge all that is going on with race in our country, and the mistreatment of African Americans, especially the police brutality in Minneapolis.   This blog wasn't originally meant for social commentary though, and I just started adding thoughts about coronavirus.  I will just say I am saddened by the racism, and it has been on my mind a lot. I just don't have time to flesh it all out on here, since this blog post was nearly finalized when all of this came up.