I've been working from home since March and, at first, it was pleasant. But particularly since we got to that point of the year where the sun never shines, except when you are working, I have been struggling to be productive and focused (thus, here I am on TSL).

Meanwhile, my wife is teaching in one of two school districts in the Pittsburgh area that has NOT gone more or less fully remote. Her district is on a normal schedule, but with some kids attending remotely when they are exposed to the virus or sick. The teachers have lots of extra work because they have to manage those kids. And then there are the parents who want to just keep Johnny at home today because he had a big hockey tournament over the weekend and is tired, and, remote is available anyway. Or the parents who take their kids to Dallas to see the Steelers play and then are supposed to quarantine for two weeks.

Meanwhile, the authorities would not let fans in to most Steelers games, which are played outdoors in a 68,000 seat stadium. But they will allow hundreds and hundreds of people to go into a casino a block down the street. And don't even start with the changing rules for restaurants. You look around and all you see is inconsistency, and if you watch the news it sounds as if the world will come to an end in the next week or so.

It's just been rough for a lot of folks. I feel like there were two ways to handle this - either have the military keep us in our homes for two months, no exceptions, until the virus burned out (which probably wouldn't work and is not palatable in a free society), or continue with normal life and let Darwin go to work (which is politically unpalatable because no one would be "doing something about it"). Instead, we have just set up this system that is mentally debilitating for so many people and that has no end in sight. And there is no better idea coming along the next time some new virus crawls out of cave on the back of a bat somewhere.