 Welcome to Longmont Voices and Vision, a project of Longmont public media. In the midst of the darkest period in our lives, when we're bombarded 24 hours a day with news of the coronavirus and the human and economic carnage it's causing in our society, we're challenged to cope with our fears and anxieties, we're remaining hopeful about what lies on the other side of this crisis. This project presents an opportunity for Longmont residents to share with others how they're adjusting to new realities of social distancing and the kind of future they hope to experience on the other side of the crisis. I'm Tim Waters, host of these conversations in a Longmont public media volunteer. In this series I'll be asking Longmont residents, many of them your friends and neighbors, three questions. What are you doing to get through this crisis? Even though we cannot be together right now, how are we staying connected to friends and families? And what's the future you are hoping to see and experience on the other side of this crisis? I hope you'll stay with this series and enjoy listening to your friends and neighbors and learn from them how they're getting through and what they're looking forward to in a new reality on the other side. Welcome to the Longmont Voices and Vision Project and thank you for your willingness to contribute to this effort that has brought voices and vision of many of your friends and neighbors into answering three questions that I'm going to ask you in just a few minutes. But before I do, it's been part of these interviews that we've had a chance to learn something about the people who are being interviewed. So tell us about you. Oh, how much time do you have? As much time as you want to take. People will be interested to know who you are. I'll give you the short version. I moved to Longmont the first time in 2008 and I moved straight from Romania. I had a cousin who lived here. Then I lived a couple of years in Niawatt and then in 2014, my husband and I got married and found a house together and we moved back to Longmont. I am a public health professional. I worked in corporate and also in state government. I used to be a policy specialist with a Medicaid program for Colorado. And now I'm turned into a semi-entrepreneur in the outdoor industry. I'm creating walking invitations through Walk to Connect's local chapter called Longmont Walks. And we connect people to others, places and self. I love spending my time in Longmont. You know, that's why we moved here because most of our friends live here and I met them. Most of my friends I met during volunteering. And the first time I volunteered was at the Longmont Theatre Company back in 2009. And that's where I met my husband as well. And a lovely community over there. And other things I'm doing. I'm in a committee with the Mothers Against Run Driving for raising funds for their yearly Walk Like Mad event. I'm also an alternate commissioner for the Planning and Zoning Commission in Longmont. And my other side is a walking advocate under the May to Walk name. And I'm also a mentor again this year for the Walking College that's managed by America Walks, these national organizations. And it's a program sponsored by the CDC. So I'm really privileged to be a mentor again this year. I think that's about it. Okay, well, that's a lot. And as you, as I thank you for your contributions to this project, let me also thank you for the many other contributions you make to this community as well. So, you know, I'm going to ask you three questions. The first of these three questions is this. In an era, unlike any we've ever experienced, none of us have had to deal with stay at home orders and now a safe at home safe at home orders. And deal with the isolation, the separation, all the unknowns and the fears that go with that in the middle of this pandemic. So with that, how have you, have you figured out how to get yourself through at least this far this phase of this pandemic. But it's been, it's been a journey. The first four weeks in the very beginning, it was really hard. As I mentioned earlier, I grew up in Romania. So, in my early childhood, I lived through the communism, and I experienced a lot of, you know, dictatorship and martial law and all other things. And some, some memories were brought back when I was going to the grocery store and I was seeing these signs of no more than two trays of meat or there was no more flour, no more sugar. So that just, you know, brought back some panic in me, you know, all that trauma, I don't know how we can want to label it as PTSD, PTSD, anxiety, you know, but definitely it affected my mental health. So it was really hard in the beginning. But I knew, I knew this was not the same thing, obviously, you know, I live in, in a peaceful country. No one is trying to brainwash me or, you know, all these conspiracy theories. I had liberties. I knew things were going to go back to normal, or, you know, will be okay. So I knew that, but just that trauma still existed in there just came up. So I think what made me pass through that period was actually understanding what I was going through and having people that were really asking me, how are you doing? People that were really, you know, friends, and it wasn't just like, hey, how are you doing? It was like, you know, how are you really doing? So that made me open up about it. And definitely I feel better now. And I can talk about it. I even wrote a little blog about it a couple of weeks ago. So just to get it all out. And that was my coping mechanism to go through that. And of course, you know, there's house projects. We're going through springtime and lots of gardening, taking care of our front yard, our backyard. I actually spoke more with my neighbors the last few months than we've spoken the last six years. So that's been good to be preoccupied with with something. Work has been different. Obviously, a lot of our outdoor programs have been canceled actually throughout the whole year. We don't know when we're going to go back up to have in-person programming. So it's been a struggle in the beginning to figure out how do we shift, how do we maintain this grassroots movement that we created and people still want and what do we have to offer right now. So it's been a lot of brainstorming and, you know, seeking funding and everything and being a cooperative. So we didn't qualify for a lot of things. So God is day innovative. And I'm lucky that my colleagues are my friends as well. And that helped me go through everything together. And we have a group text and we text each other, you know, at least once a day. And even though it's, you know, it might be business, it might be personal, but being in contact with someone, it helped go through all this. And how you kind of wrap that up really is a nice segue to the second question I'm going to ask. And that is in a period where we not only are socially distanced, we're physically separated. We're in a time where as much as we might like to be in proximity to the people we are friends and family, people we love, it's tough to do. So how are you staying connected to family and friends during this time of unprecedented isolation. Well, I was using zoom before it was cool. Before the world was using it. Yeah. So, you know, some meetings were were in zoom obviously a lot of meetings were in person but now everything just moved on zoom. But I, you know, obviously social media and the phone and my my parents are still in Romania and they like to call me and they do that they, there's an international plan they have on to get all these free minutes for international calling. I don't have, but they do. They call me and now I'm, I'm being a mother to them and telling them don't go out, please. I'm telling them not to go out now. So phones and, you know, Facebook Facebook Messenger texting. I think now is the time when you discover who your real friends are, you know, who actually needs you and who wants to be in your company. I think it's a method. Unfortunate method of discovering who your true friends are. And, you know, it's hard to not be in person with people. It's definitely hard for me. I thought I was an introvert and maybe I still am but top researchers now say that social connection is what defines as a species. And we're happier when we're around with people when we communicate when we have conversations. And I'm actually reading this book. No, no, you can see this. It's called Together, the Healing Power of Human Connection in a sometimes lonely world. It just came out. I think two weeks ago it's written by Vivek Murthy. He's the previous Surgeon General that I, you know, as a public health professional, I'm a fan of Surgeon Generals and I follow them. And it's exactly what I needed. It talks about connection and, you know, the work that I'm doing and how connection is really important for everyone, whether you're introvert or not. It just, you know, creates inside all those endorphins and oxytocin just come out and create this state of happiness. So I'm really enjoying this book right now. And yeah, I think that's, that's how I stay connected. So this is also a nice segue to the third question as you kind of wrap that up. As you talked about what creates those endorphins and a sense of well-being, whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, we're at a time where we're all, we don't know when the post pandemic era begins, right? So there's going to be one. And the third question presumes that when we come out of this and we're in the post pandemic world, whatever the new normal is, life will be different than it was before the pandemic. So, you know, one could argue with that, but that's the assumption behind the presumption behind the question. So given that presumption, third question is, what would you like to see in that future? What's your preferred future? That you're willing to help create in the post pandemic world? Yeah. I, you know, going back to the power of connection, I see people longing for a meaningful connection. You know, again, going back to who your friends are, you're going to discover who they are and you're going to spend time or with people that you care about. And I'm already seeing myself crying when I'm going to hug my family down in Pueblo for the first time and who knows how long. And then, you know, I talked about mental health, so I am hoping there will be more resources out there. I know, you know, I, what I'm preaching is for people to go out and enjoy the outdoors, enjoy our greenways for mental health, because we need that right now. But for some people, it's not enough. Like for me, it wasn't enough to go out. All that anxiety just, I didn't go out for days. So some people need more than just a walk in the park to, to get by. So all these, all those resources about mental health and talking about mental health, you know, you know, remove that stigma and create resources and maybe, you know, health insurance is they should invest more in mental health and, and it goes back to the well-being of the person. And how obviously also the individual needs to recognize if they are going through a mental health crisis and they will need help. So we need to create those tools for people to identify when they're going through something and what to do where to go. And hopefully a lot of the tools will be free, but that's, that'll be a perfect world. You know, other things are, both my husband and I are, we have chemistry degrees, so we can call ourselves environmentalists, although he actually works for the wastewater treatment plant down in Boulder. I went into a more public health arm and we own an electric vehicle. One of our two vehicles is electric. So we care about Mother Earth and how do we take care of Mother Earth going forward? We saw that the air is cleaner, we can, is fresher. Can we take some, some with us going forward? Maybe, you know, less car trips. I see a lot more people walking right now and like, oh, now you discover walking. We've been preaching this for years. And it took a pandemic for you to go out and, and enjoy in our greenways, our sidewalks. So I hope more people don't just go back to this 60 miles an hour life that we were doing before and slow down and actually do whatever you're doing during the day and enjoy those moments and just, you know, slow down and either maybe it's walking, maybe it's working from home, maybe is starting your work day later, you know, things that can, can help us personally and the environment. And the last thing I would say is, maybe not the last but, you know, as a walking advocate and seeing as many people outside right now, I would really enjoy to see, you know, very accessible sidewalks and greenways. I know we are more fortunate than other communities. That's for sure. I've seen a lot of other communities in state and other states. And we are fortunate, but you know, what are, how are you going to deal with the six feet social distance on our sidewalks since they're not that wide. And how is going, you know, a wheelchair going to pass someone they can't go on the grass or they might go in, you know, with the road traffic to, to be socially distant from someone else that's passing so we just need to think a little forward on that and when we're creating new communities. Make them connected, you know, through these pedestrian friendly and biker friendly paths for people to enjoy and connect to each other. And I do have a saying. When you build for the most in a disadvantaged, you are building for all. So, you know, thinking back to the person in the wheelchair or mobility scooter. If you're building sidewalks wide enough for two wheelchairs to pass by then, then you'll have enough distance even for people that are just walking by, and be distant from each other, in case of a pandemic. Right, which we hope to not have any time soon again but you know just again, some people have to do these things you know to walk roll, because they have no other choice. And when we build for them, we were, we will all benefit. And you've described a future that's worth moving toward, as opposed to one that we would move back to. So, thank you again for your contribution to this project. And again, for your contributions to the community. My best to you, as we as we work the way through the rest of this pandemic to keep yourself and your family safe and healthy. And, and I'll be thinking about you when you once again engage with your problem. Awesome. Yes, thank you for the opportunity and looking forward for our new future. Thank you. Thank you for your willingness to contribute to the Longmont voices and vision project. This project, you will be I think now the 64th interview, he or interview couple in in this project, and every one of these interviews has started by learning a little bit about the people being interviewed. So, I'm going to, I'm going to want you to share with listeners, something about loss and Suzanne Suzanne why don't you start tell us about you and then we'll go to us. Okay, I taught high school for 30 years on in Virginia. I taught health and PE retired in 2002, and subsequently moved to Montana and had a lot of different jobs there, moved to Colorado in 2013 and absolutely love where we live. And right now I am furloughed from the far abandoned furloughed by me until things kind of get settled down. And I love gardening and I love quilting. Awesome. So we both grew up in Virginia, I grew up in the Valley of Virginia in a little town called Stanton and Suzanne grew up on the coast at Newport News. I am in my third career. I, I went to the University of Virginia and graduated with a degree in architecture and started and ran it and firm in Charlottesville, Virginia for a long time. I spent four years directing a fundraising foundation at the University of Virginia and for the past 26 years I have done what can loosely be described as organizational development consulting professionally personally I love to play music and saying, I like to make art, and I spend a fair amount of time engaged with nonprofit activists. I'm certain Mr. Jefferson would be very proud. On that last count right or that last point about your, your activity or your efforts with nonprofits. If you want to share anything in this in this interview about what I think maybe at the top of that list of nonprofits in which you're involved, I would invite you to share anything you want to recover get that. Well, several years ago, a group of us began to think and dream about the possibility of having a recovery cafe in Longmont and almost exactly a year ago today we open the recovery cafe, which currently is located at fourth and Kim bark in the lower level of Central Presbyterian Church. And it's been really one of the most satisfying volunteer nonprofit projects that I've ever worked on. We, we know that we're, we're helping our members we're building community we have a safe place for members to be. And of course during this time it's especially challenging because our doors are closed. However, the staff and volunteers and board of the cafe are spending a good deal of time, making sure that we continue to connect with our members to fulfill their needs to the extent that we can to make sure that they know that they are cared about and loved. And of course, to make sure that folks in the community know that we're still there and that we still need to raise funds in order to operate the cafe. So, in a way it's been a blessing not to have to leave the house or to spend too much time on the road doing other things because that time has been able to be redirected. In this case to the recovery cafe and to the work that we're all doing together. Well, and listeners may know that Lisa searching for is the executive director of the cafe and has has been one of the contributors to this project so it's it's good to have multiple cafe recovery cafe voices in this project. And also, I'm aware that you've interviewed David Barker who's our board so I have all were delightful interviews, because they're delightful people. And I've been looking forward to this interview. So, you know, there are three questions I'm going to ask both of you. So, wasn't why don't you start on this one. And that is, in this period of time where with no playbook, I mean there's there's no guide to get us through from what was stay at home to now safe at home and be important to you. There's no guide to get us through we've got to figure that out as we go along. How did you figure out how have you gotten yourself through this period. Well, first of all, just before the governor decided to close things for a while. I was involved in making a decision to cancel a trip to San Diego which was really important to me. And I struggled through that decision with a good friend from Port Townsend Washington and a friend in Olympia Washington and we were back and forth and we came to this conclusion together. And it was really hard because I felt like I was letting other people down and it was something I really wanted to do. Suzanne and I also together made the decision. We're, we're committed members of the YMCA and mafia. And we both made the decision to stop going before just before the Y was closed. And so I spent time coming to the conclusion that this was serious business, and that we needed to do whatever we could do to protect ourselves. And our family and neighbors from transmitting COVID-19. So, I mentioned earlier that I started a journal on day one of quarantine, which was seven weeks ago on Sunday. And part of the way that I've worked my way through this is keeping track of the days. Making sure that I'm making some notes every day of what I've done today and what has surprised me today, what I'm grateful for today and sort of whatever comes up, which is going to be kind of just like these interviews is going to be a kind of an interesting record. Along the way, try to keep up with the news, try to find real news, as to the extent that that's possible out there. And I guess another thing I would add is at some point along the way the Governor Polis, who I think has done a fantastic job, ask all of us to wear masks when we go out. And Suzanne and I, part of the way we've maintained our sanity and our health is that we walk two to four miles every afternoon with our dog. And we started wearing our masks the day that Governor Polis asked us to do that. It's not always comfortable, but it feels to me like it's what we can do to protect other people when we're out. There, I have been surprisingly busy. There is not felt like there was any grass growing under my feet. While I'm doing this, it's just a redirection of time. Suzanne. Well, let's see if I can remember what the question is. How are you doing yourself through this unprecedented period of isolation. I consider myself a fairly independent person where I can get in the car and go do whatever needs to be done in other places, whether it's volunteering at the recovery cafe going to a quilting group, whatever. So to make up for that, I'm just so grateful that it's the spring, because we can get outside, work in the yard work in the garden. I've got for the first time in a long time. I've got my vegetable garden planted up through what needs to be planted right now. I've read it, cut the grass. Like Lawson said, we take walks. It's been interesting keeping up with some of my friends who I haven't heard from in an awfully long time and see what people are doing. I read a little bit. Not as much as Lawson would like me to. But anyway, I find myself keeping busy for the most part. I've made masks for people. I've done quilting projects downstairs. I just finished refinishing some chairs that go on the front porch. So just little things that keep my head moving in the right direction. I think in previous interviews, as I've heard people talk about what they're doing in the gardens, pretty certain lines of gardens that can look better this summer than they've ever looked, because they're getting way more attention. Yeah, I would also add that, as you know, I'm a pretty interested guy in a lot of things and a learner. During this time I have through the glory of the possibilities of internet research, I learned how to make my own sourdough starter, and I learned how to make really good sourdough bread, and also learned how to make yogurt. And so when this whole thing is over, I'm going to know how to make yogurt, know how to make bread and don't see any need to ever buy it again. Sounds like maybe post-pandemic fourth career. So, Suzanne, in your response, you made reference to friends. And we are all in a period that none of us have experienced, again, of physical separation and social distancing. In a time when we can't be with physical proximity with our friends and family, we've had to find ways to stay connected with them. Suzanne, how have you done that as we've gone through this period of isolation and social distancing? I think the two major things have been Zoom calls and FaceTime. Our daughter and son-in-law and our seven-month-old granddaughter live in California. And they were supposed to be visiting in March, and obviously they couldn't come, so we've been actually FaceTiming with the three of them every night. Just so we can see our family and our granddaughter grow up. Zoom calls with friends on the West Coast and basically all over. We even did a Zoom call with some friends in Italy to see how they were doing. And of course, I do have a Facebook account, so I can see friends on Facebook, text messages, phone calls. It's just really wonderful that we live at a time when we have the technology to do those kinds of things. Yeah, in another era, this would have been a much more burdensome experience. Boston, what about you? Well, I'm a person who is a connector anyway, and I sort of habitually keep up with people. But what I found myself doing is kind of going through my mental list of old friends that I may not have seen or talked to in a long time. Friends really all over the United States and in some other places. And I've reached out to a whole lot of people and had some back and forth. Sometimes it's just been an email exchange, but more frequently it's been a telephone call or a FaceTime or a Zoom call. Suzanne mentioned our daughter and son-in-law and granddaughter in California. This is a time when little babies grow into little people really fast. And we, of course, are disappointed, hugely disappointed that we cannot hold rainy. However, we've actually gotten to see in a nightly FaceTime call some events before our daughter and son-in-law did because they were looking away from the camera. A few weeks ago, our granddaughter's name is Rainie, and Rainie put her left foot into her mouth for the very first time. And Suzanne and I saw it live. So that was really exciting. And we're a little bit worried that she's going to think that her grandparents actually are just a flat screen. But we're connecting in that way. And I have a huge community of music friends, and this is something you can't do with people right now. You cannot play music with people. But of course, there are people still making music. Anybody who looks at Facebook knows that there are all kinds of live concerts. Every week I have a friend in Portland who we sing together, even though he's the only one you can hear. We know who else is singing. Every Saturday I'm taking a singing class, which is on Zoom, where we are interacting. What you hear in the background is the garbage truck. So the garbage is still getting picked up. And my other music friends are arranging to get together occasionally in the evenings for what we've been calling Quarantini Hour, because it's really important to connect. So I am so thankful that we have the technology that we have that we're able to do these things. And I think one of the things that we should all be willing to protect in the future is this ability to gain access to the Internet for everyone, because it is a universal connector. Well, your reference to the future really is a segue to the third and the last question in this interview. And that is, we are still, as we enter in this interview in the middle of a pandemic or somewhere in the continuum of a pandemic. We're not at the beginning, I don't know if it were at the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning, but we're still in it. And it's safe to assume, at least the premise of this third question, the assumption is that whatever we experience in a post pandemic world, the world's going to be different than it was prependent. We just don't know what that is. And I'm curious in these interviews to learn, what would people like to see what's your preferred future that you'd like to see as the new normal, both that you'd like to see and that you're willing to help create. Larson, why don't you take that from the top and then Suzanne follow it up. Well, I'm a really firm believer that we each have the opportunity to envision the future that we want to have, as opposed to letting it happen. So, and of course we've all been thinking about that a lot. The experiences we live in Nywat, we live on a street that has a cul-de-sac. And we have always been neighborly and friends with our neighbors. But it has gone to a new level where neighbors are truly looking out for each other making. We have young neighbors who've offered to shop at the grocery store and neither Suzanne and I have been grocery shopping inside of a store since this all started. So one of the things I hope for is that these neighborly things and take that to whatever dimension you want to take it, continue that we don't just go, Oh, it's over. I'm, I don't need to pay attention to that anymore. I had a conversation this morning with a friend in Culpeper, Virginia and Culpeper, Virginia is close enough to Washington DC that half the people of the county work in Washington DC. And he imagined that after this is over that a lot of those workers are going to have figured out that they can work from home a couple of days a week. And if you do that math pretty quickly, that would mean 20% less traffic 20% less gasoline use 20% less pollutants in in the air. So I'm hopeful that as we're here in Colorado we're experiencing the air getting itself cleaned up. I'm hopeful that that's going to be something that we want to continue to attend to. As we as we move into the future. We have seen through recovery cafe and through some other nonprofits that I'm involved with enormous generosity at this time when people could have a hoarding mentality. I'm hopeful that this enormous generosity and this attention that we pay for other members of our community is only going to get larger than it is now as opposed to shrink back up. And the big picture I would say is, I imagine a long month of Boulder, now what Boulder County that is sort of a kinder gentler place that may even operate at a slightly slower pace than this frenetic pace that we've all been going at for so long. I remember when I've been home for 52 days. In fact, I don't think I've ever been home for 52 days. At least it's been a long time. And with all due respect to Delta Airlines. I don't miss going to the airport and going through that hassle. It's kind of nice to be home. I also hit on one of the things that I hope for is the pace of life. It's, it's been really nice to just slow down and neighbors taking walks on sharing with each other. I have a wonderful little local grocery store that I call or send a text and she prepares my list calls says it's ready I can go pick it up. It's, it's been wonderful just the community support of sharing plants in the garden. It's just the little things that have made a big difference. I hope those things will continue. And I, I, I truly miss seeing people that I've seen on a regular basis, and I hope in the future that we'll be able to continue with those kinds of relationships. Who knows what the, you know, the long term of this pandemic is going to bring, if we're going to be able to do that. But that's a big hope of mine that we can continue with relationships that we've had. Lawson and Susan Drake, as we, as we anticipate the, the post pandemic world. Thanks for your contributions to this interview. More importantly, thanks to your many, thanks for your many contributions to the community. Longmont and I want and Boulder County. Take care of yourself, stay safe. And one of these days we hope, sooner rather than later, we'll be able to be in physical proximity to one another, and, and continue these kinds of conversations. Thank you, Tim. Tim, we used to live in Albemarle County, Virginia, which is also the home of Mary Chapin Carpenter who's a fairly famous singer. Mary Chapin has been posting those live songs from her kitchen with her cat and her dog on Facebook. And she ends each one of those songs with these words which I think are appropriate for you for all of our friends for the people who may be watching this which is stay mighty. We're going to get through this. We are indeed. Thank you. Valerie Dodd. Thank you for your willingness to contribute to the Longmont voices and vision project. Thank you as well for the many kinds of contributions you make to this community. Beyond this interview. So, I think it's important for people to know who they're hearing from and in that context, I'd like to know more about you I'd like others to know more about you and what you do for the city. And thank you so much. It's, it's a privilege to be here and I really appreciate the time, as you mentioned a Valerie Dodd. I am the executive director of next light. And for the two or three people that don't know who or what next light is, I'm hoping it's that low. Next light, of course, is the city's Longmont's fiber gigabit internet service offering. So it's an honor that I have the chance to really promote and further propagate that service offering here in Longmont. I'm originally from the south. Maybe you guessed that people often ask where are you from. And as always ask is it you know that obvious but I'm originally from Arkansas and I've spent many, many years visiting Colorado. It's a place I've loved a long time and about three and a half years ago I was able to make a reality and move to the great state of Colorado so that's who I am I've been in the telecom industry for 2530 years. And now doing truly what I love to do, and I'm super excited to be here promoting our service and making it available for everyone in the community. Well thank you for all you're doing for the community with and through next slide. And I will know that the next time I'm asked what are the great things that have come out of Arkansas. You're at the top of that list. It's not our football team lately so thank you. I'm going to ask three questions and the first of those is in this time of kind of unprecedented in our least in our lifetimes, a separation from one another. A bunch of unknowns as we're still in the middle of this pandemic. How are you and all the fears that go along with that for a lot of folks people are still figuring out how to get themselves to this without a playbook. So how are you getting yourself through this incredible. You know it's a balance between trying to take care of others and make sure that the single and lonely people around are taken care of and you know reach out to them so a lot of it is truly trying to think about others and what their needs are if it's for food and ordering food to be shipped for them because they don't know how to go online you know I have a fair number of dear loved ones in their mid 80s. So trying to make sure that they get a little care package every now and then. So that's part of it. As well as my sister I've got a lot of frozen food in the freezer some leftovers of for my cooking that I'm you know ready to deliver to her. So a lot of it is thinking about you know first how do you help other people and a number of friends that are helping by writing letters to their friends parents because again you have a lot of people nursing homes that aren't getting visits right now which is really hard. Personally for me I just try to stay busy and there's been a lot of you know projects at the house cleaning out the pantry cleaning out the garage and all of those not so fun things but it's kind of nice to actually have the time to do some of that busy work getting organized so so that's been nice. And then from a work perspective it is another kind of opportunity to take a time out step back get organized revisit some things look at a bunch of numbers do a bunch of analysis. You know because you don't quite have the interruptions that you might have when you're in a busy work environment. So I'm certainly taking the time to look back and really analyze and assess you know the performance and our performance metrics. Also making sure that I spend extra time with the team recognizing that it's sometimes hard to feel like you're contributing when you're you know isolated and at home and you think you're putting in 6, 8, 10 hours a day but sometimes you wonder if that work is valued. And so truly making the team feel valued and ensuring they've got clear direction and that they see and hear from me every couple of days has just been really important. Valerie, you've already begun to answer some of the second question as you refer to the letter writing and some of those. In a time where we are physically separated from one another now with this interview we are in the early stages of the safe at home, a phase of trying to regain or move into back out of our homes and into whatever is going to become the new normal. But there's still the challenge of staying connected with family and friends. So I'm curious, how are you doing that in this time of social distancing still in physical separation. I'm probably not doing anything too uniquely. I'm doing the frequent texting so my mom my sister cousins there's a group of us that are all on, you know, a similar text string so we text throughout the day. I have to remind my mom that I'm not going to always reply immediately that I am trying to work, but there's a lot of texting going on, a lot of calling face time zoom is certainly a popular thing and I've had, you know, a great time zooming with some of my friends from high school and college I think at one point we had 12, I'd like to say young ish ladies on the phone on the zoom at the same time. And that was quite a chatterbox. So it's fun to see everyone's faces and just connect and just look people in the eye or what you think, you know, is, you know, looking in the eye, because it's a little harder when your camera and your screen are a little bit off. But it's just important to see faces and just see people's expression and the warmth that they exude and that really came comes through a camera. So I really enjoy the zoom and then with my team, you know, we do a lot of teams meetings where we all get to see one another. I've done that and I did a fun thing where we had a photo contest. I think it was the first day of spring where we had all of that snow. So I forced everyone out into the snow and said okay, we're having a photo contest so everyone send in your pictures. And so that kind of forced people to connect with their families and their pets and go outside and do some cool photo shoots for the opportunity to win an Amazon gift card something that we all need right now. So I wanted to do fun things like that. Another thing that was kind of interesting was there's a winery in Denver that advertised doing some virtual wine tastings. So participated in that one Friday night and that was kind of fun just to see other people. It's hard for me is meeting new people. I'm very much an extrovert and I get a lot of energy from new relationships and new friendships and just interacting with people. And so it was just nice to see other people that weren't familiar to me. And you know, you would just kind of on the side say hi to each other or say, you know, your house looks beautiful. So it was just kind of fun to interact almost more with the general public because I certainly do miss that. And then one other thing that I just started this week or decided to do was a virtual book club with my mom and my sister, they both live alone. And so I worry about them being lonely at times and we're all, you know, pretty avid readers. And so I said, you know what, I'm going to get a book. So I got a big fat book as you can see, and it's pretty relevant. So it's a science fiction book about pandemics. And so we all, my whole family is kind of science oriented. So we're excited to read this but it's a little large but I think we'll unfortunately have time to get through the 700 pages before things return to normal if they do. And I think the normal will be a little bit different going forward. Because we know how the book turns out. And now you're on to share the results of your book study with everybody. Yeah, got really good ratings and so I'm excited. I think it's going to be very interesting. So, so you've already made reference to my third question, and that is, assuming that we will. In a post pandemic world that whatever is normal in the post pandemic world is going to be different than what was normal in the pre pandemic world. We just don't know what the new normal is going to be. So for you. If we think about what we'd like to see a preferred future, what's your preferred future what's the new normal you'd like to see and help create. I appreciate that question and I thought about it a fair bet and you know my mom's taught me that there's always a silver lining there's always a gift and everything. Sometimes you know gifts are just lessons and then sometimes the realizations and sometimes they come through pain and they come in many different forms but the three things that really kind of resonate with me is how important it is to be connected. I think you can read a lot of studies that say the root of all happiness is the extent to which you're connected to other people. And so to me connectedness is just vitally important and it doesn't have to be, you know, you're sitting in the same room necessarily it's truly having deep and meaningful conversations, and it's making time for each other. I get so touched when I have friends saying hey you know just been missing you we just wanted to connect and, and so I think it's super important that it makes people feel valued and worthy. And so that human element, even human touch I think is an important thing that we miss as well. Handshakes, you know, may be behind us and hugs and stuff so we're going to have to find another way to kind of physically share that energy and connection with people but I hope that we're clever about how we can do that. Because I think it truly is really important and the more interconnected we are, I think the happier we are as a society. So that's one that's pretty, you know, I guess obvious and pretty meaningful and touching to me. And another one that might sound less deep but to me it's important to and that's kind of thinking about our furry friends. I think there's a lot of people right now at home finding comfort in their animals and their animals are probably really loving their owners being at home. I think I've seen some comic strips where the cats aren't so happy about it but the dogs love it but I have two cats and I'm sure they'll be enjoying the extra feedings and belly rubs and ear scratches. So I hope that we don't forget how much our animals love us and then how much soothing and joy they can really bring us just by that touch again just the connection with a warm living, you know, little being. So that's something that I hope, you know, stays as we don't put our animals back in cages or kick them back in the yard. So I hope that connection stays real. And then the third is very, I guess, pertinent to what I do and to what Next Light does and that is making sure that everyone has access to each other to telemedicine, to schoolwork, to teachers, to family, whatever it is. And that's, you know, through the internet and I think, you know, the good news is we have provided a tremendous connection to so many people. But the scenario and situation certainly exposes the fact that the digital divide still exists. So how do we, at a national level, how do we, the state level, how do we, the community level really bridge that divide and give everyone access because no one should be left behind. And we, again, as a society are better interconnected and better with everybody, you know, on the same train going the same direction and having the same opportunities. So I will continue to do the work that I can for Next Light and making sure that we have affordable service. We build it out to every single home, no matter the income level of that household. And that we truly, truly give people an opportunity to stay connected to contribute to just experience all those things that the internet is bridging and affording for us today. Valerie, what we've experienced in this pandemic is that there are lots of divides we need to attend to and close and one of the most obvious and troublesome is the digital divide. And I know that's your mission through the city. And if we can, if we can move toward that future and cut and close that divide, then the world would be a better place than the other side of this pandemic. That's certainly open. That's why, you know, we've made free service available to select households. We're also providing disconnects, excuse me, not doing any disconnects and providing discounts for households that may have had, you know, reduced wages or where someone may have lost their job. So we're trying to ensure that no one gets disconnected. We provide the discounts and the education about how to use our services and stay connected. That's just really important to us. And that's what we're trying to do. And so I hope sooner than later, everyone will truly have a great connection and a gigabit connection into their home. Valerie, thanks for your contribution to this project. Thanks again for your contributions to the community. And we, we know that like next slide is one of the great differentiators that sets the long line apart. So thanks for all that you and your crew are doing to serve this community. Be safe, take care of yourself and when we can come back out, whether we can shake hands, hug one another or just do elbow bumps, our pals across soon, I'm sure, in the post pandemic world. Thanks. And thanks for all that you do for a long while. It is greatly appreciated. Dr. Watters. Thank you, sir.