Well... COVID claimed my mother's life about 2 years ago, and I've had multiple family members contract COVID, including at least one family member who's had it twice. So in that sense, it's been a pretty big detriment to my life. On the other hand, I've either dodged it completely, or if I've had it, it was a completely (or very nearly completely) asymptomatic case.

Certainly the ~2 years of extreme stuff with lockdowns and all the supply chain problems, and this and that were a big impact on life, emotionally, mentally, and so on. But around here, life seems to have gone back mostly to normal for a while now, and I'm back to most of my old routines as far as going out, socializing, shopping, whatever. And that makes me very happy, as I get a little stir-crazy being stuck at home all the time.

If there are any positives to take away from it, I did learn a lot while stuck at home so much, and my dayjob has maintained a "3 days at the office, 2 days at home" work schedule even after Return To Office. And I re-kindled my passion for freshwater fishing during the "peak COVID" period. I spent a LOT of time outside, bank fishing on small creeks and stuff near me. And now I've kept that alive to some extent. In fact, I just caught my first ever rainbow trout a couple of weeks ago, which was cool (freshwater trout are not indigenous to my area, but the NC WRC stock certain ponds with trout during the winter months).

I got back into a lot more bike riding as well, both mountain biking and road cycling, and also trying to focus on keeping that up even as we move to "post COVID" (if such a thing can be said to exist).