As you probably know, my fantastic, lovely wife, Eva, is from Hong Kong. Hong Kong lived through SARS (v1, or, SARS-CoV-1). It was bad.
The official name for Covid-19 is literally SARS-CoV-2. As in, SARS v2. Well, Eva and I had seen this movie before, so we quarantined. HARD. Starting in January 2020. And, yes. Some people made fun of us. At first.
I also setup 5 households for quarantine, staying ahead of the shortages, mailing 200+ lbs of boxes, every week or so. We called these households our "quarantine quadrangle" for months. Now, it's called a "pod".
Then, I had a total of SIX personal catastrophes in 2020! I'm not going to talk about those for a while, so don't ask.
However, my family and our pod emerged better than average, so we all feel very, very lucky.
This pandemic is terrible. It's going to be with us for years. Yet, there are some little consolation gifts, hidden in this disaster of a year. I love every minute with my family, so a quarantine can often feel like a staycation. Our WiFi router company had to pivot, and that turned out great too. Mostly, it makes us grateful for essential workers and for our family.
We setup a structured charitable fund in 2018, and have continued our habit of informal donations since before 1998. However, it became clear that 2020 would require extreme help, that even the charitable fund couldn't accomplish. So, we've helped about a dozen households in 2020, and expect to help them through 2023 if needed. It worked out to way over $150k this year, and it's our pleasure. These people were always there for us when we needed them. We can't turn our back on our friends, especially when this disaster randomly clobbers some of their households, leaving others relatively unscathed.
Please stay safe and well,
Love,
Todd, Eva, and Vivi
The official name for Covid-19 is literally SARS-CoV-2. As in, SARS v2. Well, Eva and I had seen this movie before, so we quarantined. HARD. Starting in January 2020. And, yes. Some people made fun of us. At first.
I also setup 5 households for quarantine, staying ahead of the shortages, mailing 200+ lbs of boxes, every week or so. We called these households our "quarantine quadrangle" for months. Now, it's called a "pod".
Then, I had a total of SIX personal catastrophes in 2020! I'm not going to talk about those for a while, so don't ask.
However, my family and our pod emerged better than average, so we all feel very, very lucky.
This pandemic is terrible. It's going to be with us for years. Yet, there are some little consolation gifts, hidden in this disaster of a year. I love every minute with my family, so a quarantine can often feel like a staycation. Our WiFi router company had to pivot, and that turned out great too. Mostly, it makes us grateful for essential workers and for our family.
We setup a structured charitable fund in 2018, and have continued our habit of informal donations since before 1998. However, it became clear that 2020 would require extreme help, that even the charitable fund couldn't accomplish. So, we've helped about a dozen households in 2020, and expect to help them through 2023 if needed. It worked out to way over $150k this year, and it's our pleasure. These people were always there for us when we needed them. We can't turn our back on our friends, especially when this disaster randomly clobbers some of their households, leaving others relatively unscathed.
Please stay safe and well,
Love,
Todd, Eva, and Vivi
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