Will Life Go Back to the Way it Was?

My wife and I just got back from our evening walk and the topic of conversation was how it will be impossible to go back to how things were before COVID-19. So why will it be impossible? I'm sure our reasons are just scratching the surface and there are many more but here is what we have come up with so far.

We Can Get by with Much Less Energy
I saw a news broadcast last night talking about how the amount of energy being used in the world is significantly less than before the virus. They mentioned that it is as if the entire country of India has disappeared from global energy usage. Think about that for a moment. It is as if 1.3 billion people suddenly disappeared. Some of that usage will pick back up once we emerge from the pandemic, but we have learned to save a significant amount of energy. Personally I am seeing a huge decrease in the money I am spend on energy costs. I want that to continue and will try to keep those costs down. I imagine others will do the same. Furthermore I think we will look for even more ways to reduce energy usage. I think we are all enjoying less pollution and cleaner air.

Not Everyone Needs to be in the Office All the Time
The company I work for has a culture of requiring everyone to be in the office all the time with very few exceptions. When we all started working from home, we had to quickly modify our infrastructure to allow so many people to work from home. This involved increasing the number of virtual private network (VPN) licenses and other networking enhancements. Now that we have the ability for everyone to work from home, I see more people doing so in the future.

Several weeks ago one of my coworkers remarked about how his wife works for a large software company and they discovered that productivity has gone up. I have not heard statistics for my own company but I feel like I have been significantly more productive. Part of it is that none of us want to lose our jobs with historically high unemployment and don't want to be seen as less productive.  So we are all putting in a bit more effort than we otherwise would.

We are Discovering We Need Different Hobbies
During this evening's walk, my wife mentioned a number of her friends have discovered they don't really have any hobbies other than shopping or eating out. When you can't do those things, life gets pretty bland rather quickly. Those friends are having to re-evaluate what they do with their spare time and are coming up with more fulfilling pursuits. Some of them are replacing shopping with service and are feeling a better sense of community even with social distancing.

Personally I am looking forward to visiting restaurants when they reopen. I probably won't visit them as often as I did before the pandemic though. I also know that a number of people are taking this opportunity to learn how to cook. Rumor has it that online cooking videos are receiving significant additional views. I see that trend continuing.

We are Discovering What Really Matters
With a severely limited social calendar we are discovering what really matters in our lives. Some people are missing being able to spend time with friends and family. Others are getting tired of watching movies and playing video games all the time. I have to confess that other than using a video game for guitar practice, I haven't played a regular video game in 2 months. Why? I find it more fulfilling to spend time with my wife, something I can't always do with my busy travel schedule.

I have never really been a huge fan of professional sports. I do enjoy going to a baseball game every once and while but don't actively watch sports on television. I'm sure certain people are really missing the lack of daily sports but I know a number of people are surprised that they are not missing sports more. I will be interested to find out if they permanently cut down on the amount of sports watched, return to pre-pandemic levels, or increase.

Face Masks are the New Normal
Whenever I travel to Japan, I am amazed at how people are responsible and will wear face masks while they are sick. This was a foreign concept in the United States that is now seen as being responsible. I am glad to see this custom practiced here and hope that it keeps me from contracting a number of illnesses. I hope that the number of colds I get each year is reduced because of more people wearing face masks.

More That I Missed
I am sure there are many more things that I have missed. During the walk with my wife I talked about how character-building experiences like this have changed me simply because I have survived them. Living through experiences like this changes the participants forever. Seeing as we are all living through this, we can all be expected to changed. Hopefully we all emerge better from the experience and not worse.

Hobbies

Last night my youngest son needed to do some Christmas shopping and wanted to go to Cabela's. It isn't too far from our house and so I agreed to take him. If you have never shopped at Cabela's it is like Disneyland for those outdoor-type people. They have all sorts of stuffed animals on display. Not the stuffed animals that you sleep with, but the kind you mount on your walls or proudly display in your den after shooting them.

I also brought my youngest daughter who had never been to Cabela's before. She was amazed at the size of the store. She also enjoyed just looking at the animals, especially the aquarium.

My first stop was in the gun section. I am not a gun fanatic and don't even own one. However I do get the chance to shoot them every time I go to Scout camp. My youngest son is actually a pretty good shot and I have been thinking about getting him a .22 rifle. It probably won't happen this year but maybe sometime in the future.

I was amazed at what I saw. They had all sorts of different types of guns. Some were new but a lot more were being sold on consignment. They even had a Winchester rifle from the 1800's. Talk about an heirloom. At about $10,000 I don't think I will be buying one anytime soon.

The Winchester rifle was not the most expensive gun at Cabela's. The most expensive one I saw was a scale replica of a Civil War-era Gatling gun. It came in at about $20,000. That is way too expensive for someone who only has a passing interest in guns. Though I wonder if they would rent it to me when my youngest daughter starts dating. I think that would be more intimidating than cleaning a shotgun when the young man comes to pick her up.

Until recently I have always thought that I have some expensive hobbies (computers being one of them). Then I started expanding my horizons and realized that it doesn't matter what you choose for your hobby. It can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. There is one big difference with computers though: the older your equipment is, the less it is worth. Contrast that to the Winchester rifle from the 1800's which probably appreciated quite nicely over the past century. Somehow I don't see my computer being worth more 100 years from now.