There's certainly no doubt that Covid-19 dominated everything worldwide during Q2 of 2020, is there? It certainly had profound effects on our hobby as well.
For me, working 4 x 12 hour shifts in the Hospital for 4 days straight and then being off 4 days in a row was almost like being on vacation, at least in terms of hours worked per week (all of April and May). Nuvance Health Network, my employer, had made contingency plans for handling immense numbers of Covid-19 patients, both on our own, and then at the request of the Governor. Among them were doubling the usable bed capacity at my small hospital In New Milford (largely non Covid by intent), a Military Field Hospital tent city in the Danbury Hospital parking lot (their peak census was roughly 160 Covid or Covid suspect patients, nearly 40 of whom were on the Ventilator; last month down to 15 patients and no ventilators), and this 120 post Covid recovery ward, set up in the Field House of Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. In the event, none of these contingencies wound up having to be used... fortunately! In addition, the network increased Virtual Visits from roughly 300 in all of 2019 to 30,000 virtual visits a MONTH in the matter of a few weeks. I am very proud of the job that everyone in the network did handling a crisis of immense proportions medically (one of our seven hospitals is in Norwalk, 42 miles from New York City).
Expenses:
April 2020
Nil
May 2020
FoB3 and FoB3 Card decks $72.75
June 2020
Michaels $22.17 (large beads for base ID's, dowels for 15 mm galley mast repairs, etc. Home Depot Primer $12.50, Petco 10 lb bag basing sand $15.94 Total: $50.61
2nd Quarter Totals: $123.36
Painting:
April 2020
Macedonian Phalanx (24 figures/120 points,) Assorted French Command and characters (13 Mounted, 8 Foot, 170 points), 8 siege Mortars (80 points), 1 Hungarian Line (18 figures, 90 points)
Total: 460 points
Total: 460 points
Thracian Heavy cavalry (12/120 points), Alexander (1/10 points), 1 French Line in Bicorne (18/90 points), Macedonian Phalanx (24/120 points), Macedonian Companions (12/120 points), Austrian Artillery (8 Guns, 26 crew, 1 officer, 1 Sapper/ 220 points), Macedonian Psloi (8/40 points)
Total: 720 points
June 2020Total: 720 points
3 French Ligne in Bicorne (54/270 points)
2nd Quarter Total: 1,450 points
April - Field of Battle - Wars of the Roses extension (which I, at least, have termed, "Field of Bosworth!) playtest game 4/24 (Zoom),
May - The Engagement off Proktor Shoals (Galleys and Galleons), Wars of the Roses Zoom playtest games x 5 (Generic, Blore Heath, Sark x 2, 1st St Albans),
June - Caldiero 1805 (FoB3), WoTR Zoom x 3 (1st St Albans revisited, Irish Itinerary, Generic)
2nd Quarter Total: 11 (2 solo, 9 Zoom)
Commentary: Not surprisingly, the indirect effects of the Covid-10 pandemic lead to a dramatic surge in painting output, with no new lead acquired whatsoever. The two lengthy solo battle reports were perhaps also to be expected. The large number of Zoom games was unanticipated, and made for almost one game a week overall, which I haven't approached since High School! Of course, in person gaming was completely absent.
Glad you found hobby time in your schedule!
ReplyDeleteMuch more than usual this past Quarter!
DeleteGreat work on the painting front, Peter! Your spending, though, won't restart the economy.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on maintaining your vigil during the COVID crisis.
Probably the least I've spent on the hobby in a Quarter in a long time. With no Historicon expenses and no convention games planned for the rest of the year, I expect 2020 to be a big outlier on the low side!
DeleteI ended up purchasing more than I had planned, but suspect that it was out of boredom and frustration at the lockdown, but then I wasn't on the front line organising things like you have been Peter. Great to see they weren't required, although there's still a way to go with this.
ReplyDeleteUnderstandable; I had plenty of lead on hand so no real need to buy more yet (I do have a few items I plan to get before the end of the year, but no rush). At present, Connecticut is in perhaps the best shape of any US state. However, as you note we are far from done, and there is no guarantee that will continue. At present only about 25% of my visits are in person, still!
DeleteA steady stream of painting work.
ReplyDeleteThanks, close to a flood in April and May; then the focus switched to games.
DeleteI think the pandemic has had a lot of unexpected consequences that aren't all bad - not only painting output, but I've also been teleworking since mid-March; and it looks like it will continue for sometime. Can't complain about that!
ReplyDeleteI agree Dean. Let's hope that some of the sensible changes continue and that this 'shock' is used to implement improvements in many areas of 'human endeavour'!
DeleteCheers, James
(p.s. I hope you don't mind me chipping in my 'two penith worth' Peter?!
Super photo of what I hope will continue to be an unnecessary facility Peter! It's great to hear about sensible responses and groups working together, which I suspect was the majority, especially amongst professionals. Too much valuable oxygen has been wasted on people, supposed 'leaders', who are using an event to play personal politics.
ReplyDeleteYou are one of those fabulous frontline 'heroes' of the past months, along with the many unsung people who adjusted shifts and sleep patterns to keep education continuing, goods and services flowing, carrying out government decision-making and services under challenging conditions.
We had (and still have) a 'national cabinet' here. It has been so pleasing to see government operate like a well-functioning board, rather than opposing teams. Particularly when they are listening to evidence-based information.
Good on you and all power to you. I am sure that your community appreciates all that you and colleagues have done and continue to do.
Regards, James
Thanks, James. Our community has been very supportive. The real heroes are the nurses, ambulance crews, and even grocery store workers and the like, who literally put their lives at risk doing their jobs for the rest of us.
DeleteHere in Detroit the Beaumont hospital system, which my Wife works for, composes 7 hospitals and were almost pushed over the tipping point. Ended up not using our contingency facilities either, but that was because other Hospitals in area stepped up to take on the case overloads as they still had capacity. Though we heard rumor that there was some politics behind the scenes over it, but regardless they stepped up and got it done.
ReplyDeleteWayne county which I live in had half the number of total cases and deaths in Michigan. June saw the cases coming down and the Hospital has been able to get surgeries done on patients that had to wait.
But unfortunately cases are starting to start to rise again. God help us that a vaccine can be found that works. I think that is the only way we will see the old normal.
Being full time retired, I like you, have gotten in waaaay more gaming in (via zoom etc.) than I had been before covid. I super miss not being able to sit across the table and kabiz with my buddies. Even if it was only on a weekend, talking to them and having that face to face means something. But I will accept the now, and be glad that I have those means (internet) to still be able to reach out somehow and share my hobby with buds.
More importantly of course is that you and family are doing well during these trying times. I have two doctor friends who have told me straight out, you do not want to get this. I'm like, I believe you!
Blessing to you all, and keep your family close.
Cheers
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
DeleteI have had a number of my patients get Covid-19 over the past 3 months, most of them became quite ill (of course, the ones who don't we are much less likely to know about. 3 were hospitalized, one opn the ventilator for a while, but all survived. I have had two patients with complete loss of smell (a rather common and distinctive symptom of Covid 19), and neither has seen any improvement at all after 2-3 months. The idiots with the Covid-19 "parties" dumbfound me. No, you really don't want to get this! Sure, you may be perfectly fine, or you may wind up in the hospital, die, ior have other serious complications. Unfortunately, Corona viruses have proven ver difficult to make vaccines for in the past, and some have caused serious issues, so only time will tell on that one.
I have a good e-freind in Michigan (retired) who was HR director at the hospital in Flint for many years, so I am well aware of how bad things got in your area as well. I am glad you and your wife have safe through this. Gaming by Zoom is definitely far better than nothing, but certainly not the same as FTF. As an (over) broad generalization, we guys tend to derive a lot of our socialization and support from other guys in exactly that kind of conversation that takes place in the context of a shared activity, like our gaming.
A productive few months! I've bought one hobby magazine since the start of March and that's about it! Glad to hear you didn't end up being flat out, even if like us you're not out of it yet!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Not surprisingly, the full time hospital doctors in Danbury all looked pretty exhausted back in April when we met for weekly video conference updates. I've been off this past week for what should have been Historicon, but enjoying the summer weather. Just started painting again Friday.
DeleteHope that life starts to get back to normal again very soon for you Peter. Great to see how productive you have been on the wargaming front and the campaigns you are always running look fantastic. Always make me incredibly jealous.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Carlo, I wouldn't say I'm jealous, but I admire your own games, etc, and especially your son's involvement. Will see what I can do with my grandsons in a few years...
DeleteAgree the folks at Nuvance are super. Two scheduled checkups to Praxair Cancer Center were handled with a minimum of fuss and one live visit to Brookfield Family Medicine also no fuss. I love my doctor of 20 years Julia Auerbach but I must report the virtual visit for a respiratory ailment was totally unsatisfactory. Technology is no substitute for a live exam especially if you believe a lot of healing is dependent on the patient's confidence in the caregiver's assessment and course of treatment. Medics envied my P-95 since they can't get any. Told them my daughter specializes in infectious diseases in Oregon and ordered them for the family in February when the CDC said its just a bad flu. Her hubby travels to China for Nike a lot and he saw waiting lines stretching for blocks to get into tent hospitals and cops throwing sick people into vans when he was last there. My hat is off to you folks for what you do.
ReplyDeleteAt this point, in my particular office, we're still doing 75% virtual visits; that's in part due to the need to maintain COVID-19 safe conditions in an office that is now too crowded. Hopefully that will drop down to 50% soon. We estimate long term the percentage will be about 30%. Having done many of them ,they bear out what we already know about medical diagnosis - 70% is history, 20% exam, and 10% diagnostic testing. The video enhances communication, and allows us a piece of the exam, but of course, as I am required to point out a dozen or more times a day, we can't feel anything or listen to the heart or lungs by video! At the height of the COVID situation we simply could NOT bring people with respiratory symptoms at risk for COVID into the office (too kuch risk, not enopugh PE by a mile), and thus had to rely on increased diagnostic testing and probably more empiric antibiotics than we like to use. It is what it is, and we will have to deal with things as they are in actuality for some time, it seems, rather than a more ideal situation.
Delete