What's up, folks? I hope you so far made it safely through the pandemic and its effetcs on everything else!

After my initial spurt of interest in Feburary and March when I followed the situation closely, once everyone was taking it seriously and it became "all hands on deck", I relaxed and left it to the pros. Arm-chair opinions are usually not my thing and keeping in mind a relatively high level of uncertainty about the state of the world is something that I have become familiar with.

Just as one example, it is still open for analysis and debate, whether the Swedish way to handle COVID-19 without a strong lock-down turns out to be good or bad. There are many facets to this and things are complex enough to maintain some modesty in one's opinions and utterances.

I am among the lucky ones that have experienced very little negative impact. Working from home is something I had done weeks at a time for several years. Being isolated comes somewhat naturally to me. Plus, I made a wise decision in the spring, once it became clear that some projects were put on hiatus anyway, to take a temporary partial leave from work. Therefore I have had plenty of time this spring and summer for other things. Mostly forestry, carpentry and wood-working - more on that later! And brewing more tasty beers, of course.

Working from home is nothing new for me, I have been doing it some weeks at a time for several years. But now that more and more collegues do the same and use teleconferencing tools and apps, I got a small upgrade for my setup: A goose-neck tablet holder, so that it can become a dedicated second screen exclusively for telecons, freeing precious space on the main screen.

Decent video and audio quality are important for collaborating remotely, I believe. And a camera that is positioned such that you look up to it, rather than looking down into, makes a less imposing and awkward image, thereby contributing to a more pleasant atmosphere.