Baseball is not really baseball without a stadium hot dog, very few high school seniors went through a graduation ceremony, my six-year-old had a “Zoom Birthday” party, locally we did not have Powwows nor the county fairs, and the SKT Annual Shareholder Meeting was conducted via teleconference. What is summer without the gatherings, events, and celebrations? The answer for each of us is going to be different so, if you let me, I will tell you what a “COVID Summer” looked like at the Cottet house.

My family normally takes a trip to Texas to melt in the sweltering heat while visiting my sister-in-law and her family, but ‘unfortunately’ we could not make that trip. So, we stayed home and had a lot of time to dedicate to our lawn and garden. The garden is easily in the best shape it has been since we put it in ten years ago. Even after COVID, I may argue that we rethink our trip to Texas… for the garden’s sake of course.

We usually spend a lot of time each summer playing and watching softball, attending county fairs and other local events in the area, but of course, those activities were canceled at the beginning of summer. In order to fill those now available days, we went fishing and camping more often. We hiked to mountain lakes and took day trips to creeks and rivers we had not explored in a long while. I am proud to report both my kids caught their first fish (without the help of mom or dad).
Before COVID, when something quit working around the house, we would throw it away and pick up a new one when we were in town (which seemed like every week). I really did not realize how ‘handy’ I was not, until I started trying to fix those things that were broken because we were staying home. In the evenings, I re-learned how to fix shelving, repair consumer electronic devices, and rediscovered the magic of duct tape and how it can fix everything from the binding of a book to a tear in a slip-n-slide.

I watch the news every night and feel for those who have lost loved ones and for those who missed significant life events due to the risks of COVID. Today, I can I look back at all the things I missed this summer, and although some were important to me and my family, I feel incredibly blessed to have created and experienced the events we did have.

I enjoyed this summer for all that it was, and wasn’t, because sooner or later my daughters may have better things to do than take fishing trips with Dad.
Stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope this summer reminds us all of what is important.

Chad Cottet
CEO, S&K Technologies, Inc.