Beethoven In Trance - Episode 71

Year 2020 will go down US history (and world history) in important ways.

The year started normal, I was busy at work and playing table tennis every week. The life was normal and was in its own rhythm. I had an opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for a BI conference in Feb, and brought my folks with so we could share the hotel room. While I was in conference, they were touring the city sightseeing. At that time, we have heard of a virus outbreak in Wuhan China, and it was spreading. I wasn't paying too much attention at the time, actually no one was. People were still going on with their lives. The Sin City was still buzzing, and tourists were still crowding the casinos. 

We went back and went on with our lives. One month later, the news broke about a deadly virus called Covid-19 that has caused the quarantine of Wuhan and big cities like Beijing and Shanghai since December 2019. The virus has been spreading globally since then. Covid-19 has been declared as a pandemic and officially a global crisis. 

Everyone started to operate in a pandemic model. Washington was the first state in US that became the epicenter of the outbreak, followed by New York, and California. The medical system simply couldn't handle the overwhelming influx of patients. The states have since enforced stay home order and shut down public restaurants, sports events and public gathering events. The streets were all of sudden quite down and highways became empty. During the lock downs, people could only go to grocery stores for food, gas station or drug stores. Everyone is ordered to stay at home. Everyone is required to wear mask if they go outside of the home unless their medical conditions prevent so. People are required to keep social distance from each other for at least six feet. These requirements met with some stubborn resistances who disbelieve the benefit. So we often hear stories about people were kicked out of store or air plane because they refused to wear masks. 

The business got hit disproportionally. Travel and hospitality industries took a dive as there were just no traffic. Ecommerce skyrocketed because people sitting in front of PC were buying things online (aka amazon.com). Local restaurants and bars were disappearing. Gyms, clothing stores, and car rental company (Hertz) either closed down or filed for bankruptcies. Many people lost their jobs. The shut down also caused a wave of panic shopping. People were stocking up toilet paper, sanitizers, paper towel, rice, instant noodle, yeast, and flour. All stores were out of stock of those items. People lined up before the store open so that they could get their hands on a roll of toilet paper! Things did get better after couple weeks, but toilet paper was definitely the hottest buy from Costco in 2020.

MS has weathered the storm relatively well. The cloud, health care and gaming business picked up while other segments underperformed. The business overall still came out better. Everyone was working from home, and everyone is fighting with internet brand width with family members and kids. Yes, schools are shut down as well, so kids were staying at home attending classes online. Everyone had to adjust to remote working and learning. Graduation ceremonies were cancelled as well. I feel pretty bad for those kids. 

I worked from home for about a month, and it was not easy. Very busy and very easy to be distracted. Sitting at home and attending meeting marathon was not fun. I did commit to walk at least half hour every day so that I didn't end up a couch potato. Around May, the company offer an option to come to office to work as an accommodation to employees with special needs. I applied and I came to work everyday since then. 

Working in office has its benefit: a regular cadence, amenities, ample lighting and total silence in the office since I was the only one coming in. It suits me better as it provides structure to my life. Other people adapted to the working from home well. They liked the flexibility of taking care of family during the day and enjoy the saving on commute time.

Around Summer time, things were getting better even the daily Covid cases were still rising. The country has started to open back up slowly. We went to some local parks and local beach with mask on and keep social distancing from others. No vacation to anywhere else. 

Coming to the fall, aside from the pandemic, another important event also left an important mark in US history: the US 2020 election. The amount of political drama, media frenzy, and social chaos, injustice and conflicts was unprecedented. There will certainly be a flood of documentaries, books and movies on this subject for the years to come. People will not forget and forgive what happened this year.

My wife has been working from home since the outbreak, and taking care of our daughter at home as well. She was overwhelmed. Late Summer, she decided to leave the job and focus on our daughter and think about her next step in career. She quitted the job in Oct. Her decision does put pressure on me to keep my job. Fortunately, I do enjoy my work so far, and I think it's a good fit. It does influence my working relationship with colleagues however, as I am more accommodating to others so that I don't get a negative feedback that will impact my career. There is one individual in the office has been on my nerve because she often took credit of my team's work and she liked to give orders to us. I have been trying to remedy the situation. It's getting better, but I doubt if there is ever going to be an end. Maybe it's just the reality of corporate working relationship. 

My wife's decision has its ramification financially, but I anticipate no major long term impact on quality of life. We are fortunate that our savings were not impacted by the pandemic. I expect her break is temporary and I remain cautiously optimistic on our financial future. 

One alarming trend of spending I did notice in 2020, is the expense on wardrobe and kitchenware upgrade. In 2020, I sold a few chef knives and cookware through company's trading email list but quickly upgraded to higher price items. So not really a downsizing exercise. My outdoor clothing collection also exploded. I have over a hundred technical outdoor clothing today. These upgrades costing thousands of dollars. One reason as I mentioned in the last annual letter was that I was compelled not to miss a deal. Another reason, I felt the lack of opportunity to experience the tool causing me to buy more. Almost like I was trying to compensate the experience by buying the tool, but not realizing the tool will only give the experience when you use it. In 2021, I need to spend more effort experiencing rather than buying the tools.  

Speaking of experience, I bought a small belt grinder machine around Christmas. The machine turned out surprisingly effective, and more importantly, it gave me some new experience. I bought it because I needed to thin a knife that I bought earlier. The knife was too thick and I found it painfully slow to grind it thin by hand. So I did some research and ended up buying this cheap grinder. I spent couple days using it and really enjoyed it. I look forward to sharpen my friends knives. I also sent one of my Wusthof carbon knife to Carter for repair. The blade was slightly bend, but I love how the knife feel in my hand so I didn't give it up. I found a youtube video where Carter demonstrates how to fix a bent knife. I was convinced. The shipping and repair was not cheap, but he did a great job, I certainly enjoyed the knife more, and won't let it go.

My table tennis practices stopped since the pandemic, but I have been playing once a week with my dad and a friend living on the island. So I am not completely out of practice. I upgraded my paddle, which now I have grown into. I am also starting to run again and sometimes bring my daughter with me. She is doing surprisingly well. 

Our family relationship continues to hinge on our daughter. Everyone has different opinions and strong views on things. It's difficult to reconcile and align. Everybody wants to rule the world as I call it. No one is always right, but no one wants to admit it. 

Since last year, we have started to use our fire place. It was really nice. We have plenty of the wood left my the previous house owner and it took a lot of space in the storage. It will last for years at our rate of burning. I plan to use it more often this year.

Not many good movies came to mind in 2020, only "the croods new age". It's highly entertaining. We watched it with our daughter and everyone enjoyed it. Music wise, no recommendation on CDs, but really enjoyed the mix from David August for Boiler Room, Hernan Cattaneo b2b Nick Warren @ Caffee Del Mar,  DJ Tiesto Tomorrowland 2019, Tangerine Dream @ Boiler Room.