Small business Saturday is not a new concept this year, but in a time when so many small business are either disappearing or at a huge risk due to COVID, it feels especially important to find ways to give them our help where we can. As so many larger companies continue to grow among the pandemic, it’s the smaller shops, retailers, and restaurants that are hurting the most. While it’s important to find ways to patronize these businesses more than one day a year, Small Business Saturday can be a good reminder or jumping off point to discover some of the excellent options around.

I love our kids’ school. Since the day they started as infants four years ago, we’ve loved the teachers, administrative staff, and the curriculum that has grown along with them. Even during COVID, they’ve done a good job, better than what I’ve seen elsewhere, of keeping everyone there safe and cared for. So it’s hard to say it, but we’re considering keeping our kids home from school at least for a little while after Thanksgiving.

Every year we hold Thanksgiving at our house for both my family and my wife’s. Every single year since we moved in to this house in 2010. We have an entire dining room and set of tables, chairs, and serving dishes that only come out once a year for it. Yet this year, we’re shutting the doors and shelving Thanksgiving so that everyone is actually around the table when we can hopefully do it again next year.

Coming back from parental leave and getting up to speed with a new team is harder than I expected thanks to remote work. I knew before that it couldn’t be an easy situation for people trying to learn something new and onboard while there is no one around them, but it took going through the experience myself to really understand just what a challenge it is. Without the ability to walk around and ask questions, it’s really so much harder to understand what’s going on and become productive.

Before 2020, I loved working from home. I thought I would want to do it all the time. When it was a periodic treat rather than an every day necessity, it felt fun and like a privilege. Now that I have to do it daily, it doesn’t feel so special and I’ve needed to adapt to the situation to establish a workable daily office at home so I can actually get work done.

Every single year since the first Motorola Droid came out in 2007, I’ve bought a new phone. I’m a habitual upgrader, always wanting the latest and greatest in electronics. Every year before, that’s meant grabbing the newest phone at least once a year, and even going through three last year before settling on the iPhone 11. This year, the upgrades just aren’t enough to get me to upgrade. Phones were the most exciting part of consumer tech to me for a while.

This week marks the final week of my parental leave from work. Again, I know how exceptionally privileged I am to even have the option to take paid leave as a father, but I’m already saddened that it’s ending. Like my parental leave back when the twins were born, I had grand schemes of what I would accomplish while on leave. I figured with one child instead of two, I’d actually have time this time to get some house work or personal projects done.

While I’m on parental leave, I’ve begun an experiment to see how often I can use my iPad as my primary computer. I don’t have much need for my laptop while I’m not doing work, so I found myself reaching for the iPad to do quick tasks more often. In fact, I’m even writing this on it. By doing this, I’ve found that there are many places an iPad is just as good as a dedicated computer for getting things done, a few where it’s even better, and of course some major times I have to run to grab the laptop.

I ordered my wife a Peloton Bike for her birthday and I’ve been on it pretty much every day since. I figured I would get marginal use out of it and maybe use it once or twice a week to supplement my running. However, I’ve discovered the great suite of exercise programs that come with the membership, and I’ve used it a ton already. I really didn’t think I’d buy into the religion of Peloton, but a week in and I’m hooked.

On Saturday September 12, after five and a half hours of running through the trails and roads of Sussex County Fairgrounds, the same place I first got a medal for one of my homebrewed beers, I officially became an ultramarathoner, completing my first ever 50K. While it wasn’t easy, I actually felt pretty good after, and I’m already considering how I can go longer or faster, though of course in due time so I can at least recover my weekends for a little while.