Last December, as part of my 2019 Year In Review report, I wrote this about my website posting pace at the time:

This is the 70th post on the blog this year, up from 41 in 2018, 35 in 2017, and 27 in 2016. A very positive trend (if not as many posts as I used to poop out annually a decade or so ago), and a good indicator that getting off of social media (a goal established in last December’s “Year in Review” post) was a good way to redirect time and energy to pursuits that I consider more rewarding. Traffic was up a solid 40% over the prior year as well, confirming once again that volume drives reads, as long as quality remains acceptable. As satisfying as that is, given my own goals for the year, I doubt that I will hit the same high post mark in 2020, as I plan to work on some projects for potential professional or commercial purposes, and don’t intend to share them until I know there’s not a market for them. But I do have a couple of new ideas for public writing for pleasure knocking around in my brain, so I may surprise myself.

WordPress now tells me that this is my 100th new post in 2020, though my prolific pace is less a function of me surprising myself than it is a function of the world surprising me, and everybody else navigating our shared mortal coil during this our anno virum. Looking back, I first publicly mentioned COVID-19 on March 14 in my Florida Man (And Woman) report, which was my 14th new post of the year, a pace which would have set me on a similar clip to my 2019 numbers. But then everything changed, for everyone. That post seems like I wrote it a long, long time ago accordingly. I have a pretty good imagination, but I certainly would not have prognosticated at the time that we’d still be in such dire circumstances five months on, locked in a perfect shit-storm of dangerous infection and poor public policy, each maddeningly reinforcing the other in a seemingly-endless feedback loop.

Under the circumstances, I’m thankful to have an established creative outlet like this to explore other imaginings and ideas, when so many other projects and plans have withered and died under the pressure of pandemic. I’m even more thankful that the virus has not resulted in health emergencies for any members of our direct family, despite the seemingly wide-spread efforts of our neighbors (and the elected and appointed officials who misinform them) to cavalierly foster infection for no logical or ethical reasons. (Do you detect a theme of annoyance here?) Here’s hoping that both of those personal statuses remain constant through the remainder of 2020 and beyond, and that your physical and mental health, and whatever endeavors you’ve adopted to manage and respond to them, remain hearty and hale.

We were staying in this little vacation home in March 2020 as the Nation’s health began going to hell in a hand-basket. Writing ramped up immediately thereafter.