Since I have been such a slacker about blogging this year, and I am up early, I figured I would take some time to write something with a bit more detail today.
Covid is still with us and seems like it will be here in some form forever. At a high level things are mostly back to normal but nearly two years later there are definitely residual effects from the pandemic.
- Supply chains are still backlogged. This is due to lots of factors, but primarily due to Covid. For example, I read that China closed the biggest shipping yard in the world for three weeks last year after 5 cases of Covid were found and closed another large port for three days after identifying a single case. Early on, numerous boats and shipping containers were used for shipping PPE rather than regular consumer goods. Around this time, many consumers ordered bulky items like gym equipment and desks in record numbers. In March 2021, a ship the size of a building, was stuck in the Suez canal for one week. This prevented all other traffic from passing and blocked almost $10 billion in trade. There are other factors as well. These are just a few examples of why consumers did their Christmas shopping early this year.
- The Great Resignation. This is what many news articles have dubbed the fact that Americans left their jobs in record numbers this year. Weird right? Two years ago with restaurants, gyms and salons closed & no one traveling, there were millions of people out-of-work. Today unemployment is at 4.2%. (When it’s under 5%, that’s usually considered very good). Again, many factors have led to people leaving their jobs, One of the biggest is that lots of companies have moved to a fully remote workforce. People just like me found that working from home was awesome and life-changing. While some employers told their employees, “It’s time to come back to the office”, many others decided to allow people to work remotely on a permanent basis. People that were part of the former group started looking for new jobs. S & I are still at home. Our company has declared that “We will be working from home for the foreseeable future”. Yay!
- The housing market is crazy. Prices have skyrocketed and inventory is low. In many cases houses have multiple offers before you even see a sign in the yard.
I’m excited for Christmas. We’ll all be heading to GG’s house for what I have been told, will be the final time. Next year I will supposedly be hosting. Because I am me, and a planner, I have all of my shopping done and just about everything wrapped. We haven’t seen the Dubs in person since summer except on video. T-dub has started pre-school and seems to be enjoying it. His best friend is CeeCee.
I have read over 80 books this year. That’s crazy. I’m not sure how I read SO many more than usual. Since discovering our little town library in the fall, I have been a frequent visitor. I have also discovered that as an Amazon Prime member, I can read a lot of books from free right from my laptop. Here are some of my recent favorites:
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett
- The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
- Faithless in Death by J.D. Robb
- The America Falls series by Scott Medbury
- Billy Summers by Stephen King
- Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Time to walk/jog. See you soon.
XOXO
