COVID19 Benefits

These days it feels like there is a steady stream of end-of-the-world scenarios as COVID-19 becomes more threatening to the daily life of Americans. As restaurants and schools close and social distancing becomes the norm, I’m choosing to list the positive results I’m seeing around me, starting first with some choices we are making in our family.

I’ll continue to add to this list as I can.

We bought a bidet!

Traveling the world has put us in contact with a massive variety of toilet options. I first was confused by a bidet while in Portugal in 1990 as a high schooler. Up until now, I don’t think I’ve actually used one. But with the shortage of toilet paper at the moment, it felt like the right time to 1) help conserve some trees, 2) be more environmentally friendly, 3) plan for possible t.p. shortages. I hear it takes a few days to get used to a stream of water shooting with force up at you, but this idea (warm water option included) seems more hygenic than what I’ve grown up with.

Our church just did its first livestream!

It might not seem like much, but The Well Community Church in Portland, Oregon is possibly the least tech-savvy church I’ve been associated with in the U.S. In 2020 they’ve been rolling out a plan to get us linked up through the Church Center app. We recently had a panel discussion where members could send in questions using their phones. And now a livestream through Facebook that was watched by 90 views, each of those views representing anywhere from 1-10 people?

More Baking

This past year has been a steep learning curve for me as I become the primary cook in the family. I’m at the point now where I’m starting to enjoy it and look forward to the cooking process. Lately I’ve been thinking of getting back into baking bread, a daily staple of what I did the last few years in Africa. I finally ordered a 12 quart plastic container for keeping the dough, as well as a baguette pan.

Online School

As part of a number of remote teams, I’ve been used to working with Zoom and a few other online meeting platforms for years. As schools and companies are now forced into deciding how they will best do this between teacher and students, I feel like we’re going to see a big leap ahead in tech due to necessity of systems improvement.

The Great Outdoors

We can all pretty much agree that one of the best things we can do right now is to maintain our own health. The great outdoors, especially as the weather warms, is a particularly well suited place for us to spend our social isolation hours. Hiking, biking, running… I’m looking forward to it all! Even got myself a Northwest Forest Pass and Discover Pass to take advantage of it around me.

Imperfect Produce

As I think about how I can go to the store less, it felt like the right time to jump into this grocery delivery game.

Our Cat Went to Church

Sometimes I think our cat Hermoine needs the gospel more than just about any other living creature. She is completely self-centered in every way. Even though she acted like she completely ignored the entire service, I know the worship time was seeping in there somewhere between those pointed ears and sharp claws.

Exercising the Grey Matter

It has been weeks since my in-laws have been over. They were sick, we were sick, but now we’re all doing ok but we still don’t want to pass along anything to them as they are in a higher risk category. So after an initial decline for getting together on Sunday we made a plan to have them enter through the side gate and sit around a fire for a somewhat distant coronavirus cookout.