Say... There you are! Hi!
Long time no see! Wasn’t 2020 a blast?? The last thing we remember is seeing Hamilton in SF in November of 2019. Wasn’t that just last month? No? Hmm. Well, what have all of you done this year? What? Say that again? You say “nada”? Hmm, that doesn’t sound right! Well, let’s see:
We DIDN’T go to Baja in March to see the whale babies in San Ignacio lagoon
We DIDN’T go to Cornwall in May with cousins Suzy and Nick Vincent
We DIDN’T go to Perugia in October, after I studied Italian and German all year
We DIDN’T hug our grandchildren, the eldest of whom (Aidan) started shaving (WHAT!!?)
We DIDN’T eat at any neat restaurants, uh, any restaurants
We DIDN’T get our teeth cleaned (Ewww)
We DIDN’T go to the gym, though Mark created his own upstairs
We DIDN’T go to any theatre (except zoom theatre for grandkid Donovan!)
We DIDN’T get any haircuts
So, what DID we do?
VOTED!! (YES!) – after tons of anticipatory misery and continuing consternation
Lots of hand sanitizer, homemade masks and store-bought masks
Lots of sourdough and kombucha
Lots of zoom, Facetime and WhatsApp, Some Marco Polo
Lots of British murder mysteries – remind me: Never visit small English villages at festival time Lots of waving at people from a distance or across our firepit with flames raging
Anticipatory flu shots – must have worked, haven’t gotten sick yet
New truck, with nowhere to go
Lots of gardening, home grown veges and fruit
Lots of daily training for Mark (that triathlon will happen!) – for well over a year – 16 months Lots of daily Italian and German for me (top 1% of Duolingo’s 11.9 million studying Italian)
365 days on 12/28 (Anyone want to join in on one of those $1 Italian fixer-uppers?)
Lots of Birds and bird feeding in backyard
Lots of tai chi for me
Lots of trips to our cabin in Gearhart where isolation looked a (little) bit different
What WILL we do?
Get jabbed!
Paraphrasing Alexander Hamilton, we are sort of young, sort of scrappy, and we are not giving away our passports. Or, maybe, we are getting old, sappy, forgetting where our passports are; but we aren’t giving away our shot at more travel. Can’t waste all that Duolingo.
So, how has this year gone so dang fast? Really, what have you all done? Anything significant to remember it by? Hope springs eternal in the Pac NW that spring is just around the corner, the Mariners will win, and vaccines will be here soon. We can’t wait to see you all in a few months once we have all “not given away our shot.” We will all pop our heads out of the ground like spring crocus, or out of the air like lightning bolts from the spring blue. We will appear again! Well, enough said: Good riddance to and out with the old 2020, in with the new 2021. Let’s hope it is a BIG improvement. No more “nada.” We hope you and your families are all healthy mentally and physically. Take care and stay strong. See you soon!
Kathie and Mark
In order of appearance for uploaded pictures
Cooper (11) Grace (9 1⁄2) –
Jake and Rylee and Jake’s three Kale (11) Paige (to be 7 soon) and Mason (14 soon)
This Christmas was for the birds. They loved the outside tree.
Ian and Candace pre-quarantine with kids in Hawaii and then, quarantine sucks
Nya (almost 10) Donovan (12 1⁄2) and Aidan (almost 14) No age on Remy or the cat.
