Pandemic Atlanta Lockdown - Week 36

A long walk on an abandoned FL highway

So I have lost the habit of this weekly blog post in the middle. Thoughts were getting repetitive and nothing new to report. However, I managed to start writing for this week. Perhaps, I have resumed the practice? Hard to say. We need to wait until next week to confirm that. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I had like thousands of emotions, positive and negative. I am overall a positive person anyway. But the COVID-19 leaves me with 2 emotions - sad and not sad. haha. Boring times. Although there are vaccine candidates now, there is still a long way forward before the end of the pandemic. I have witnessed 2 strangest natural disasters in my life. First, 2004 December 26th Tsunami. Although I was not directly affected by the tsunami itself, the aftermath was visible. On the other hand, the COVID19 pandemic has directly affected us all in all sorts of ways.

Atlantic Ocean from FL

While in Lisboa for my first year (2012 August - 2013 July), I managed to keep the weekly blog posts active. At latter weeks of the first year, I had posts that merged multiple weeks. However, the posts are still there. They are a nice read when I go back in time. Those memories, coupled with those posts, are like drugs. :) Once I moved to Stockholm, I had monthly posts. Upon my return to Lisboa, I lost the habit of the weekly posts eventually, although I had a "Lisbon - Week n" post and continued to post travel and life updates on Llovizna. Another reason for the lack of posts is, my use of other social media. I had an active Facebook account until end of 2015 for such frequent updates and then an active Twitter account. It is easier to post a quick Facebook or Twitter update and also receive some audience rather than a long blog post. Now that I have deactivated my Facebook, I kinda miss those updates from my previous years.

Happy Memories of Lisboa

Often life feels like a movie. Or rather, an interesting teledrama series? There were certain years that felt like the climax, such as the happy ending of a movie? Years like 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019, for example. Then I have this complete bizarre 2020 which feels like there is no end. However, to give some credits to 2020, the first 45 days went quite well. I felt very energetic for the whole of January until I realized the seriousness of the pandemic. With travel restrictions and ruined travel plans, I was still optimistic until mid-February.

What is interesting is, 2020 managed to portray a dystopian reality for the whole of 2020, excluding January and the early days of February when we were hopeful that these "outbreaks" would be contained soon. Now the normalcy bias of pre-COVID19 days is gone. What we now have is the "new normal," -- which, as of now, seems, sounds, and smells, like a "lonely normal" supported by technological advancements such as zoom and other online communication technologies. Years later, will I still remember 2020 as the most depressing and the worst year in recent memories? Or will I feel better about it when I look back? Is 2020 an exception, a cautionary tale that we will tell our next generations, or is this a trailer for the larger future disasters to come?