Highlights of 2020: Raleigh’s Confederate monument comes down

Raleigh’s Confederate monument comes down

The George Floyd protests were a Godsend for one particular reason: they paved the way for Raleigh’s Confederate monument to come down. A group of protestors managed to pull down some portions of the monument and Governor Cooper stepped in to do the rest, declaring the monument a safety hazard (which is absolutely was). Travis and I set up chairs across the street from the work crew as they wrestled the granite monument to the ground.

Several attempts were made before the right technique was found to disassemble the thing and cart it to some state warehouse somewhere. It was late that evening in June when the first section was successfully removed. We were tired but it was so worth it to watch this history being made.

I have long hated the monument, considering it a giant middle finger to the idea of integration and equality. Not only was it a monument to hate, it was also an architectural eyesore, out of scale for the State House Grounds where it stood. It took up half of the sidewalk that passed in front of it. One could not simply walk by and not acknowledge it.

But now it’s gone. The State quickly dug up the rest of it, planted grass in the spot, and extended the sidewalk to its original dimensions. I’m only disappointed that with my downtown office closed, I will not get the chance to smile daily as I walk past its former place of honor.

It was one of the best parts of 2020.

Good riddance, Confederate monument. Traitors deserve no place of honor.

Highlights of 2020: George Floyd protests rock Raleigh

Like many American cities, Raleigh was rocked this summer by street protests decrying the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Peaceful protesters downtown were replaced by more agitated protestors after the sun set. Raleigh Police and Wake deputies showed up in riot gear, deputies immediately sent pepper gas flying, and a fray soon commenced. Instead of engaging the public, police and deputies used an iron-fist approach to clear the streets. As a result, those supposedly there to prevent a riot essentially guaranteed a riot. It was the first time in many decades that gas was used on a crowd in Raleigh.

The next morning downtown Raleigh looked like a war zone. Broken glass was everywhere. Spray painted graffiti covered buildings. A convenience store had been set on fire. At the same time, though, Raleighites from all walks of life came downtown to help clean up. Folks who were strangers only minutes ago were teaming up to put planters back in place and sweep up. It was great to see.

Travis and I went downtown to snap photos and view the damage. As I lingered to view the damage to a shattered storefront, a Black couple was passing me on the sidewalk. The man, looking pained at the destruction, locked eyes with me and gave a quiet, somber “good morning” and I returned it. I was so happy that he had thought to reach out and I was thrilled to return the favor. It was a simple gesture but made me smile the rest of the day, in spite of all the chaos. I love my Raleigh family.
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Highlights of 2020: Working from home

When Broadcom purchased CA (after CA purchased Rally), word came down that the Raleigh office would soon be closing. Broadcom CEO Hock Tan is a big fan of putting the butts of his employees into seats in his existing offices. Thus, he closed CA’s beautiful office in Boulder, Colorado for the drab suburb of Broomfield. Raleigh’s team got moved to a drab office park in Durham, and so I parted ways with Broadcom, not wanting to add a stupid, needless commute to my life.

I landed at my current job when it seemed to check all the boxes for me. Interesting work in an interesting location, downtown Raleigh. I could’ve worked somewhere remotely but having done that in the past I soon grew tired of missing the action going on in an office.

Fast forward to 2020. The COVID pandemic hits and it is suddenly not safe to spend 8 hours at a time crammed together with colleagues in a small office. This summer, my Tennessee-based employer shuttered its Raleigh office and set us up to work 100% remotely. To avoid shipping them (and because there really wasn’t any use to shipping them) I volunteered to store the company’s computer monitors until a new office could be opened.

I have since pressed a few of those monitors into service for our home workstations. Now Kelly and Travis could never go back to just their laptop monitors.
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Highlights of 2020: Karaoke!

I’ve always loved to sing, I have moments of greatness even, and I’m known never to pass up an opportunity to crank up a karaoke machine. We spent New Years Eve 2019 at Panama City Beach, Florida, for a short few days. The bar across the street from our condominium had karaoke nights and I wasn’t going to miss another chance to perform. This is the same place I sang with my extended family a year earlier. It was raining that night and the wait was long but we got in for food and drinks and then made our way over to the karaoke area where many of us belted out tunes for mainly our own enjoyment and that of anyone else who cared to care.

Earlier in the fall of 2019, Kelly and I had made a trip to Nashville where we stopped into a karaoke bar near downtown. I performed a few songs and did okay but flubbed a few, too. It made me feel that if I was going to do this I needed to do it right. This thought began to grow in my mind.

Fast forward to January 2020 or so. I am searching Spotify for a particular song and notice that a karaoke version appeared in the search results. Suddenly I realize there is a huge library of karaoke music on Spotify: everything I need other than the lyrics. Well, lyric sites are plentiful on the Internet, so that wasn’t a problem. I had a PA speaker and microphone I could use. All of a sudden everything clicked!
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Highlights of 2020: Abbott and Tobin join the family

Abbott and Tobin play tug-of-war

Abbott and Tobin


It was hard losing our last dog, Rocket. He went downhill quickly and we beat ourselves up questioning whether we had let him suffer too long. Someone once described owning a dog as an “emotional time bomb” and I agree. You invest so much love and affection in your pet to the point where you may take it for granted. But the bomb is always ticking and when it goes off it can really hurt. It took a while to get over the pain and consider getting another critter.

In February 2020, we began to get the itch to get another dog. One neighbor friend works with rescues and brought over one pup she was trying to home. While we chatted in the backyard, this dog went tearing around the yard, following the scent of our porch cat. The dog never paid any attention to us! I could tell this wasn’t the dog for us so we politely declined.

Then Kelly mentioned a neighbor friend had two dogs she was looking to home. The neighbor runs a kennel a.k.a. “pet spa” and had acquired the dogs from another kennel where the foster group seemed to abandon them. We set up an opportunity for the neighbor to bring them over so we could decide. Once again we chatted while getting to know the dogs, only this time they were friendly and interested in us! We laughed as they went tearing around, chasing each other around our backyard.

“This is progress!” I thought. We agreed to keep them over the weekend. That was March first and they have never left.
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Highlights of 2020: COVID-19 pandemic

Ah yes, No account of 2020 would be complete without telling the story of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic of 2020.

I’ve mentioned before some of the routine we’d gotten into but as time has gone on that routine has changed a bit. I spent a lot of time in the early days of the pandemic and subsequent self-quarantine just “doomscrolling,” trying to learn as much as I could about COVID. I learned earlier than most I think that the riskiest COVID situation is an indoor gathering. I stopped wiping down our groceries and mail when science showed no evidence that anyone had ever gotten infected via touching things (i.e., fomites). I could focus more fully on my job rather than feeling obsessed with finding out the latest science on COVID.

Even so, there is no doubt that the experience has changed me. I am still healthy and virus-free but the stress of watching society nearly collapse has affected my decision-making abilities to some extent, I think. Or at least things that once seemed important, like household stuff lying around that needs to be put away, don’t seem to be as important as they used to be.

The stark reminder that we individuals may be within weeks of our deaths has forced to think more long-term about my life’s goals. If I only had weeks to live, how would I want to live it? How would I like to be remembered? It has led me to be more honest in my opinions too, I think, where I am now more likely to say what I think instead of sugarcoating something. This may be a natural progression for me as I’ve always admired the Dutch’s penchant for telling it like it is. I am far more comfortable with this now.

I wanted to document what life has been like in a pandemic so early on I began to spend a few minutes of every weekday morning with my laptop and webcam, just updating where I was (and we were) quarantine-wise. As these are some more personal musings I have kept these to myself, though perhaps some day I will be comfortable sharing them. For now they are a video time capsule into this crazy world of self-quarantining. Continue reading →

Highlights of 2020

Hi folks. I’m still alive – still thriving, really – and figure it’s time to do some blog updating to account for the infamous year known as 2020. Though I have not been doing much updating here, a lot has gone one behind the scenes and I will share some of this with you in the next several posts. Unlike some prior years, I will not limit myself to top ten events because there are too many important things to mention.

So, here goes, and best wishes to everyone reading this for a happy and safe 2021.

Overnight pulse oximeter tracks sleep apnea

Sleep apnea graph

At the start of the pandemic, I read a suggestion from a nurse that having a pulse oximeter would be a good idea. I’ve also had issues sleeping for some years including mild (and some not-so-mild) sleep apnea so I figured it might be good to document these. I bought a model which can be worn comfortably overnight and track the full night’s sleep, the Wellue/ViaTom SleepU P03.

The data it’s shown me is alarming. I have been having apnea events almost every night, some of these lasting long enough to dramatically drop my oxygen saturation. I’d been wondering why I’d suddenly find myself wide awake at 3 AM. Now I know it’s because I’d stopped breathing and my body struggled itself awake.

Though I’ve collected months of graphs showing a problem, I’ve not been successful demonstrating this during the VA sleep studies I’ve had done. I don’t do this every night but it happens with enough frequency that it makes it hard for me to feel rested in the morning. I’m hopeful that a future study will open the door to some treatment. A good night’s sleep is a fantastic gift.

Along my sleep apnea journey, I found the excellent OSCAR app, an open-source data visualization tool that gathers data from CPAP machines and pulse oximeters like mine.

Getting old is not for wusses.

COVID-19 life

It’s October 6th, day whatever of our home quarantine thanks to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus and President Trump’s utterly abysmal failure to confront it early on. We’ve been essentially holed up since March going out only for essential shopping, medical appointments, takeout or curbside food, and little else. My company shuttered its downtown Raleigh office in favor of an everyone-work-from-home model. I haven’t hugged my mom or dad in over seven months.

We do get out for exercise every weekend possible. Kelly and I have put a few hundred miles on our bikes riding the greenways. But I still won’t go into an office building or an enclosed space for any longer than necessary.

We’ve learned so much about COVID-19 since those early days. Poorly-ventilated spaces are the worst, particularly if they’re crowded. Outdoor activity is safest. Experts roll their eyes at the photos of people at beaches used to illustrate pandemic news stories, as those scenarios are among the safest.
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