A year ago tomorrow was the last day at our offices, and the start of a long journey. The date is different, but that third Monday in March 2020 changed everything.

Over the weeks prior to that Monday, news of the pandemic was spreading. Concerns about how we should react were rampant. Some cities and countries around the world had shutdown and were dealing with tremendous rates of infection. It seemed inevitable, but still uncertain.

There have been other pandemics in the recent years, but nothing quite like this. MERS and SARS and even Ebola had been declared as such, but none of them resulted in anything but alerting news stories. This one, though, was the worst feared--an airborne respiratory infection that was spread by people who were contagious before they showed symptoms, if they ever did. And it was deadly, killing what seemed like five or ten percent of those symptomatic patients.

Our state, like others, went into "stay home, everything is closed," mode over that weekend. We were told that by the end of the week, no more shopping, restaurants, or entertainment, unless deemed critical. Our companies responded with "if you come to work on Monday, grab your stuff, and go home; we're working from home starting on Tuesday."

Much speculation, horrible direction from Trump, and just the general uncertainty made us frantic. With the rise of Sarah Cooper and others, we could take a breath and relax a little. We persisted, as this year long blog has shown. Our habits, locations, and socializing have all changed to help cope.

A year later, and we're still not back in the office. Vaccines are flowing, but not enough people have them. The wife does, but I don't yet, and none for the kids. We're still not sure what everyone being vaccinated will mean, although we're led to believe that at least the impact of exposure should be less dangerous after being vaccinated.

Still, it could be worse. We and all of our loved ones are well, and none of our immediate friends and families have been seriously impacted. Most of our extended network, too, although there have been some infected, serious illnesses, and deaths there.

Here, we'll roll into a second year of the pandemic lock-down. We're already months past the anniversary of the December discovery. Fingers crossed, there won't be a second anniversary in lock-down.

Everyone's healthy.