That was a long time ago

But yes, doing well, no more rona or Snovid21

That's good to hear. I was afraid you might have had what they call here "long covid" even people who were only mildly sick have a hard time shaking off feeling sick, or cant' taste for months after they supposedly recovered.
Same! We don't even have an office anymore

the spot my company rented since the 90s was sold (most likely will be torn down for a mid-rise like the rest of the neighborhood) and at first they gave us a price break on the rent, then decided they were going to raise it. Me and my co-workers (especially the ones that live an hour away) are hoping the boss realizes we don't need an office. I mention I can't go back to that crappy hardware anytime he brings up "when we get a new office" too.
I can't say much about the hardware. During the warmer months last year my boss bought the entire development team new lighter and more powerful laptops. He even bought an extra monitor for me since I didn't have a safe way to transfer one of the ones I have at the office to home. I'm not sure what he's thinking about when it comes to office space though. I believe our lease ends at the end of either this or next year. He's been talking about moving the company to another location in the same city but hasn't made any real plans.
That's good! Y'all vaccinated yet? I got my 1st dose of pfizer last week (I felt like crap for two days after... like a 20% case of rona), get the next one in 13 days.
My wife got her first shot of BioNTech/Pfizer about a week ago. She will probably get her second dose next weekend. Other than that I'm still only priority 3 and they haven't finished with the prio 1s yet. Our biggest problem is not getting enough Vaccine. BioNTech just opened a new factory here in Germany with bottling happening in Belgium so they expect to start producing a lot more vaccine and faster, without having to worry about exporting from the US or Great Britain. If Germany and the EU have their way, the vaccines will stay in Europe or be sent to countries where they don't have enough vaccine production, instead of exporting to the US or Great Britain.
If it wasn't for my bands I'd be going crazy... One of my band has canceled a lot during the pandemic, but I definitely have things on my calendar each week to break up the monotony. (we even played a show, I wore a mask the whole time but there weren't many other masks... was fairly low key, benefit for a friend to help with Snovid21 related costs)
That's cool. Sadly I don't have too much in the way of diversions except painting, and then the problem is with the cold weather the only place where I can paint is the same place where I spend 8 hours a day working

I had a really hard time getting motivated to do anything really. I certainly spent too much time playing video games instead as an attempt at diversion, but that can only go so far. While I've been off I took down all my office stuff and set the area up so I can paint. Since then I've spent practically two days down there tinkering on a couple of painting projects. That is certainly helping.
Turns out... I was off today... I didn't know it till about 2pm (ironically when I received a work email that said "Sorry would not ask you today but" and I had to check my calendar to see if it was Saturday...

)

I'm not sure I can say I wouldn't realize I'm off work. Then again I have a wife and kids at home to remind me

.
I think I'm FINALLY nearing the end of one of my freelance gigs (I think I say that at least once a month) but the other is still keeping me busy, so even when I'm off, I'm working (going to take the rest of the day for myself though, planning to play a video game).

I've pretty much closed out any thought of doing freelance for a while. I would rather spend my off time doing other things.
One of my bands released a few tracks this week, it's on all the streaming platforms so if you want to hear, just search "Toxic Origin" (band name), the album is titled "No Love." It's not the band that I'm a huge fan of

My other band is releasing an album soon (just waiting on the art to be finished) and that's the one I'm excited about.
Cool! I'll take a look. They are on Spotify right?
This might sound cliche, or even offensive, but do y'all listen to polka? I grew up with it and still listen on occasion. I've had a particular track stuck in my head for about a month now but I don't know the name so I can't youtube it... I'm pretty sure I have it on cassette in a box so I have it on my to do list to dig it out just to figure it out

Although I'm originally from the Midwest my parents weren't big Polka fans, mostly country and western. While I've heard a few polkas, I doubt I would recognize one from the other. Polka is also not really popular here in Germany specifically since it comes from the Czec Republic. After doing a quick search there apparently is a Polka museum in Texas
http://texaspolkamuseum.com/ 