The year 2020 didn't start half bad. I mean January and February weren't half bad.
Then came March, April, May, June, July and August. And September and October don't appear to be any better. Maybe by November we can be back to somewhat normal. But don't bet on it.
My lifetime has had a lot of bad years. The floods of 1993 were really bad. I remember a big ice storm when I was a kid. Other years weren't great either.
But 2020 when you add up everything we lost because of COVID-19 and are now dealing with because of something I had never heard of, it's been a no fun year.
Did anyone know what a derecho was before Monday? I surely didn't. It certainly did some damage. My town of Newton, Iowa, is still picking up the pieces and some of us still don't have any power.
My family and I were fortunate. Our power came back on after about 11 hours. Our street had some damage but not anything that caused the destruction of power lines. I did see a few houses down the street that had trees land on them.
I thought 11 hours was a long time. But my parents house went about five days without power. That sounds awful. I am glad they have it back and I hope others can get it back soon. Some other members of our family are still without it so that's not any fun.
My work building was without power until just last night. Then our internet and servers kicked back on tonight. So my work should get back to normal soon.
It will take some time still to get things straightened out. Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy is busting their butts to get everything back up and running. I bet a lot of those guys haven't slept much lately.
The derecho just adds to a horrific year. A year that saw us lose March Madness, the Iowa State Fair, RAGBRAI, several concerts, the Iowa Cubs season and Hawkeye football. Other sports were called off. The NBA and NHL seasons were stopped in the middle and needed "bubble" setups to work.
The MLB couldn't get its season going until mid-July. And it hasn't been perfect as the Marlins and Cardinals have had COVID-19 outbreaks. The Cardinals have played only 5 games and are still out of action.
The NFL will be able to figure it out I think. The rosters are larger but the NFL is a cash cow that just seems to go on as planned no matter what gets in its way.
My wife will go back to school here soon to start another year of teaching. But the district just announced today that damage done by the derecho will delay that to Sept. 8. Several buildings were damaged enough to push back the start date.
Our 7-year-old is starting 2nd grade this fall. And I will be her teacher for at least the first 9 weeks. It's going to be a crazy school year for her. She hasn't seen her friends much the past several months. It's not how a young girl is supposed to live but she has taken like a champ.
She wears a mask better than I do. She understands she has to wear one and hasn't complained at all. Me, the masks make me hot and my glasses fog over so it's not the best thing for me.
I got new glasses today and the mask I like to use the most now doesn't fog up them so far. That's a good sign as I will begin covering volleyball matches soon. I will be wearing a mask indoors at events I work. Something about being inside a gym with a good number of people makes me nervous.
Outside is a different story. I don't think it is that big of a deal because it's a lot easier to social distance.
We are all in challenging times. It's no one's fault. But it would be nice if we all handled this situation more like my 7-year-old and less like immature adults who don't like to follow rules because we are making them follow rules.
We are in this together. We should be anyways.
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