When the lockdowns hit, my company told me I would be working from home, indefinitely. At first, it was a nice chance to get caught up on laundry in between work calls or get a head start on dinner while I'm waiting for a new code build. But as the days dragged on, I grew bored and depressed from the isolation.
A few nights into the lockdown, I slipped out to take some pictures of the stars. I did some of my best work yet, a shot of the Lagoon Nebula near the Milky Way Core.
While I was out though, I managed to drop my bahtinov mask. I typically shoot in the Louisiana swamps, and this particular swamp happens to have the highest concentration of American Alligators in the world. So you can imagine how I felt as I watched my bahtinov mask bounce and roll into the inky black water next to me.
Before the lockdown, I had imported dozens of Chinese manufactured bahtinov masks to the United States. I had used several different styles, but this one mask seemed better than all the others. I began selling them online to help fund my own hobby, and it was going pretty well too. People were enjoying the masks. I had picked a good quality product that people were responding to. But then came the lockdowns. China locked down before we did. Sales kept coming, and my stock dwindled, unable to be resupplied by the manufacturer. Eventually, it was gone. New orders had to wait weeks for their shipments, frustrating everyone. The manufacturer was barely back on its feet and couldn't keep up. They didn't have enough capacity to fulfill the new orders and produce a large shipment for me to import and sell in the U.S.
So I was out of luck.
But so were millions of Americans, losing their jobs, stuck in their homes, struggling to get by in one of the most devastating economic and social shocks our country has seen.
So why order from China at all, I thought. Why not buy American? Then at least I would have them here already in the country I intend to sell them in. But no bahtinov manufacturers exist in the United States. 
Why not make them myself? I knew the design, all I had to do was put it on paper. I got to work, and in just a short time I had a design for a fully functional bahtionv mask. A bit of online research led me to several American manufacturers that cut metal, plastic, and carbon fiber materials. I weighed the options. What would I want in a mask? I had a metal mask, but now the gators have it. Plastic breaks over time, plus there's enough plastic gunking up our waterways without me dropping more into them by accident.
Carbon fiber was the answer.
The turn around was quick. In just a few long, boring, isolated days I had a shipment of masks at my door, masks that I had designed, masks that were made in America, masks that supported American jobs.
My COVID project was to make something unique from the ground up, and I couldn't be more proud. I'm really excited to introduce the carbon fiber bahtinov mask. I'm excited to say it's the best, lightest mask I've used yet.
Carbon Fiber is like paper steel. It's so lightweight but so incredibly strong. These masks will hold up under any condition. I think they might even float, but I think I'll test that at home before I let another mask fall into swamp water.