I’m not even sure what to write for May. As I recall, May was almost exactly like April.

I, like many people, was still learning how to work in a world full of precautions prescribed to prevent perpetuating the COVID pandemic (what a hell of a sentence). But those who were not learning how to Zoom or sanitize everything and anything, were probably out of work and more worried about just making a living.

In my personal world bubble, the weather was starting to get a little bit more pleasant. I saw more of my neighbors out walking. I went hiking for the first time this year in May. It was a 10 mile section of the North Country Trail in PA. The NCT is a little boring in western PA and this 10 mile stretch did not disappoint. I will admit, the stretch through McConnell’s Mill State Park is very nice and I would get out there later in the year.

I got a new drone, the DJI Mavic Mini. About a year ago I volunteered to become a licensed drone operator so that we could have an FAA registered drone pilot explore the potential of drones for bridge inspections. It may, or may not, surprise you to learn that the FAA doesn’t care if you can actually operate a drone. They just want you to know how to read maps and understand the weather. I kid, there are some other aspects of flight operations that you need to understand, but the skill of actually flying a drone is in no way a part of becoming a commercial drone pilot. So I got a Mini to practice.

Picking up the “how-to” part of flying is relatively easy, especially for someone with a reasonably sound base of experience playing video games. Getting good at flying drones, like anything in life, takes a lot more time. I started off with a few flights around a local soccer field complex. These were all vacant because youth sports leagues had been shut down, for the most part. In addition to my own personal flight time, I began logging hours with the drone that work acquired, the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom. It’s actually quite remarkable how different the two drones handle. But it’s also remarkable that these little devices even exist.

I know at one point in my youth, I became very interested in RC airplanes. Of course, I was also interested in the space program. Almost every kid that grew up in the 80’s and 90’s had some desire to go to “space camp.” I never actually got an RC airplane or went to space camp. But being able to fly a drone as part of my job is something that an 8 year old me would have thought was pretty awesome.

PPG Building at sunrise on May 16, 2020.

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The beginning of April brought a whole new list of concerns (and rules) for working during a pandemic. I began to head back out to bridge sites to conduct field inspections as a lone inspector. This was only temporary as formal guidelines were developed. Once guidelines were in place inspectors were to go out in teams of two, as we generally do, but drive separate vans. We were still conducting inspections solo, the second person was there just to be on safety watch. Additional guidelines consisted of wearing a mask, thoroughly cleaning/sanitizing the van each day (beginning and end) and only spending time out in the field to collect the information and photographs. Once notes and photos were collected we could return home to work on processing the photos and updating the inspection reports. Working on reports at home has enabled me to spend much less money on lunch than I have in the past few years. While I missed going out to different restaurants, at the time, they were only offering take-out and those that were not, were closed. These guidelines would continue to evolve over the course of the year.

While I got back to checking on bridges, the office workers of the world switched (for the most part) to a “work-from-home” model. My wife, who had been working from home 3 days a week prior to the pandemic was now working from home full time. During the month of April, we encountered such low volumes of traffic on major highways that we were able to nonchalantly walk back and forth across 4 lanes of interstate highway. That would gradually change over the months of May and June.

I don’t have all that much else to say about April because, well, nothing else really happened. Besides work, most of my free time was spent browsing the internet or sitting through various TV shows and movies on Netflix, hulu, or Amazon. We would also occasionally take walks through the neighborhood or go biking along the local river trails. I spent a fair amount of money doing my best to support local breweries. Looking back, I probably tried to shoulder a little too much of that burden myself.

Barley lounging in the yard on a nice April evening

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In late February and early March a new topic began to creep in to daily conversation, some virus spreading quickly in China and Italy. Never the less, it did not appear to be affecting those of us in the U.S. There had been a few isolated cases but they were limited to people who had traveled abroad.

On March 7th I went out to the Rex Theater enjoy the quirky jams of Dopapod. I had been listening to them a bit and was interested to see what kind of live show they put on. It wasn’t a bad show, I enjoyed it but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again. No knock to them as musicians; they are great musicians. Something in their music just didn’t really click with me. The real surprise from this show was the opening act: Paris Monster. What an utterly bizarre and amazing sound. I had never seen, or even imagined, that one person could play drums with one hand, play a synthesizer with the other hand, and sing. And be able to do it all very well. The other half of the duo was playing bass and constantly fiddling with another weird synthesizer machine. I don’t have any way of adequately describing their music, you just have to listen to them. Or better yet, see them live - someday.

March 16th is the day that pandemic pandemonium hit my city and state and, I think, most of the country. The entire state of Pennsylvania, with the exception of grocery/essential stores, nearly every business was ordered to close for 2 weeks to “bend the curve.” This time period also coincided with me being sick, which hasn’t happened for quite some time. I never really experienced any coughing or congestion and my temperature never exceeded 100.4⁰ F. I was experiencing some fatigue, aches and chills that would come and go. I would wake up in the morning feeling ok and then I would crash by lunch time. I experienced some shortness of breath but never to the point that I wasn’t able to breathe and I never had any trouble sleeping because I could not breathe. I never got tested for COVID and don’t know if what I had was purely anxiety driven or some sort of combination of a cold and anxiety, or even part seasonal allergies. I do know that my wife, who has asthma and allergies and exhibits the majority of COVID symptoms on a daily basis, never got sick. In fact, she hasn’t been sick all year, which is as atypical as me getting sick.

So as March came crawling to an end, my wife and I, like so many humans on this planet, sat in our house and watched videos of bodies being stored in refrigerated trailers, people falling over dead in the street in China, overflowing hospital wards in Italy, and reading countless news reports about this novel virus taking the planet by storm.

On September 22, after 11 years, Rex Theater announced that it would be closing its doors permanently.

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February started off with a visit to the Rex Theater to experience TAUK. I have been listening to TAUK for a couple of years and was really blown away by the live performances I had seen on YouTube. On February 7, I was able to experience them live for the first time. The videos did not lie. This band is smokin live. Since they pretty much only play instrumentals, I wasn’t always sure what song was being played but it really did not matter. The whole night was a mind tingling, ear tickling spectacle of music. An extremely unique blend of funk, jazz, rock, and hiphop. I will not miss another show when they are in town.

Later in the month, my wife and I joined some friends at another concert – Twiddle. This show was at the newly renovated Roxian Theater in Mckees Rocks. This was my first time at this venue and my second time seeing Twiddle. We had fun hanging out with our friends and the venue was beautiful. One weird aspect was the sound. We staked out a spot close to the stage but by the wall at stage left. Right off the bat the vocals sounded muffled. I walked around to a few other spots on the main floor and the problem seemed to go away. I guess I’ll have to keep that in mind for future trips. I’d like to check out a show from their balcony some time.

With these two concerts in the bag 2020 was shaping up to be a bit of a return to my concert going days of the early 2000’s. I was eyeing up a few other bands to check out: Papadosio, Eric Gales and cbdb. All of these shows were at small venues, something that I have begun to really enjoy. I had also been excited to score tickets to see Phish during their two night run at the Giant Center in Hershey, PA. All of these concerts were planned for the first half of the year, who knows what shows would have been scheduled for the second half of the year.

Other than music, February rolled on in typical winter fashion. My bowling team had fallen in to a bit of a second half slump after a stellar performance during the first half of the season found us sitting in first place. I had also begun to dive in to learning the ins and outs of my new Sony a6000, which arrived in late January. Work consisted of inspecting bridges and walls and staying warm.

TAUK @ Rex Theater February 7, 2020

Finished reading: The Last Taxi Driver by Lee Durkee 📚

Not bad. I enjoyed it. It delivered on the darkness but not overly dark, more like: This is life. It can be dark.

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The year 2020 actually started off on a pretty good foot. My wife and I took a weeklong vacation to visit my brother and his wife in San Diego, CA. This was the first time that I had ever visited California and, even though it was January, I was looking forward to getting away from the gloomy winter weather in Pittsburgh and enjoying some nice Southern California weather. My brother, who was working for Marriot at the time, was able to arrange a hotel room for us at Moxy San Diego. It was a pretty nice boutique hotel near the center of downtown, which put everything within walking distance.

We arrived in San Diego on a Wednesday and my wife and my sister-in-law had made plans to visit Disneyland on Thursday. So, I had most of the day to myself. In the afternoon, I met up with my brother at Balboa Park where we wandered around the Museum of Man – which is now the Museum of Us. After the museum, we headed back downtown for an evening of bar hopping until the wives returned.

Friday afternoon the four of us – and their pup Hazel - set out to do some exploring at JTNP. Something I hadn’t realized is that JTNP is massive! It seemed like we spent most of the day just driving around in the park. However, during our hike at Arch Rock, we did get some excitement. My wife went completely MIA for about 45 minutes. Long story short, we thought she could head one way around a rock and meet back up on the trail leading to the car. It turns out the boulders of Joshua Tree are a bit of a maze. Fortunately, she was able to find her way to the main road and get back to the parking lot, but we were both quite rattled. After the ordeal, we headed in to Twenty-Nine Palms to grab some food and plot out what to do with the rest of the day. We spent the evening driving around the park again and eventually made our way to Barker Dam just a bit before sun set. After the busy day we headed back to our Airbnb and enjoyed a steak dinner.

As our vacation wound down, we returned to San Diego to spend another day and half before returning to Southwest PA. I should point out that our weather at Joshua Tree was beautiful, but the weather in San Diego was mostly overcast and it even rained one day. Before leaving we were able to check out the USS Midway and, just because they exist, we stopped by a recreational marijuana shop. That store was pretty crazy. Overall, our trip was enjoyable but I’m not sure I’m going to be running back to California any time soon.

Sunset at Barker Dam, Joshua Tree National Park - January 2020

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My Morning Jacket - Waterfall for a snowy afternoon.

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Anyone else have such a bad case of the Mondays that you just want to coast right out of this year?

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My wife and I have been watching The Wonder Years on Hulu for the past week. It’s been fantastic. 📺

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