I've been inactive since over a month now, for several reasons:
First, the provider of my small private VPS (which I use as main
storage for my notes) decided to switch systems, but then suffered
from a complete failure of drives with data loss. Fortunately, I'm
making regular use of git for all my important stuff, so I did not
lose any precious data. However, for some weeks, I was missing my
private "hub", and was not much motivated to use other services
than just e-mail. In the meantime, it's up again and running! ^-^
Second, COVID-19 first slowly and then faster creeped into the
country, and since several weeks now, it began to take control of
private and professional life, and finally forced us to change
priorities.
My older son was rather lucky with his sport, as he's playing
curling, and participated with his team in the Swiss championships
of the youngest ones, beginning of March. That was about the last
bigger event I was attending to, because after that, everything
was cancelled. (His team won, by the way, for the second time in
a row already. But his grandfather stayed at home although he's
the biggest fan, because it was alredy recommended elder people
should keep as much distance as possible from others.)
About three weeks ago, events with more than 1000 people were
forbidden, and smaller ones required official permission.
Some days later, only events with up to 150 participants were
permitted, and my wife suggested we buy a beamer, because we do
not have a TV, and what if the kids had to stay inside..?
Two weeks ago, ETH Zurich, the Federal Institute of Technology
where I work, decided to stop all on-premise lecturing, and
then the government declared to close all schools until April.
Planning for homeschooling, yay!
So since about ten days, my wife and I share teaching duties, and
of course we work in home office as well. From start, we followed
a strict schedule: school in the morning, free time (at least for
the kids) in the afternoon, and I'm quite happy my wife insisted
on this. It really seems to help the boys, even if they don't like
to "play school" -- and of course it helps us to keep sane! I think
we can keep that rhythm for some more weeks, even if we had to
restrict their freedom even more: initially, they could play with
the neighbours in the street, but some days ago, the government
forbade all gatherings of more than 5 people and urged everybody
(not part of the same family) to keep 2 m distance. We decided to
keep it simple, and only allow our kids to now play in the yard
and with the two girls from next door. It would seem impossible
to make sure other children (several in preschool only) stick to
the rules.. as they're even a challenge for adults!
A lot of people seem to not know what to do, now that they're
forced to stay at home. Me, on the other hand, I've got the
feeling I have even less free time, although I can't go to the
lab and only do work from home. But I take it as a good sign,
that I've been bored for the last time about twenty years ago! ^-^
