2021 in Pictorial Review

 

Christmas 2021

 Merry Christmas from the Deep South! 

After over a year and a half into covid, we have avoided getting it.  No doubt, this is due in large part from being double vaccinated with Moderna.  Each of us got the Moderna booster on November 4th.  This time it was much easier to make an appointment online.  Mike did not have much of a reaction, but I did.  For me, the reactions have gotten progressively worse.  This time I was actually sick.  I hate to think what might happen if a fourth shot becomes necessary!  The other thing that has worked in our favor has been avoiding large indoor gatherings, like going to church. We have occasionally eaten at restaurants – outside, weather permitting. The one “covid wild card” for us was Mike’s continuing to volunteer as an AARP Tax Aide Local Coordinator.  Fortunately, as an LC, there was almost no client contact as returns were processed online and almost all meetings took place via Zoom.

We were lucky to have had a drier and milder winter than normal. However, the time between March and October was extremely rainy.  This cut into our pool time.  Over the summer we had far fewer days at 90 degrees or above.  We didn’t see much fall color until the middle of November.  Usually, our peak fall color coincides with Halloween.   We were fortunate to be in GA and not CA with all of the wildfires or in LA because of hurricane Ida.  We have friends in each place who suffered greatly as a result of these disasters.  GA avoided the worst of Ida, but as the storm was en route to the northeast, Ida triggered two tornadoes near us.

Because of covid, we have not done any traveling outside of the US.  We don’t want to risk being stranded abroad in the event of a surprise surge. We had hoped to do a fly-drive to NM in October to re-visit Santa Fe, Taos and surrounding areas.  Mike started planning this trip in early June when the covid delta variant emerged.  That alone would not have prevented us from making the trip.  The larger problems were that the airlines had started cancelling flights at the last minute due to staffing shortages; and trying to reserve a rental car at any price was next to impossible.  So that trip is on hold for a while.

However, we have made trips to see the grandkids.  We were with Kristin, Jim and the grandgirls for Easter.  In mid-May we spent four days at the Westin on Jekyll Island.  This was the first non-family trip in almost two years.  We had perfect beach weather.  We did see something on the beach that we had not seen in 41 years of trips to the GA coast.  It was cannonball jellyfish.  Evidently, the moon phase, tides and some prolonged wind the week before tossed large numbers of them out of the ocean and onto the sand.  One fallout from covid when staying at a hotel is that rooms are not serviced during your stay.  We had to track down fresh towels each day as well as make our own bed, etc.  And it is still very expensive, even doing your own housekeeping!!  

In June we drove to Fairfax to celebrate birthdays for the boys – Mike, Alec and Ethan and Father’s Day for Mike and Eric.  I had hoped to fly there, but we had a lot for the boys that would not fit in the luggage.  It is an ideal time to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, which we did on the drive to Fairfax.  When we were in the Asheville area of the parkway we did part of the Benjamin F. Long IV Fresco Trail.  There are 14 frescoes in NC.  There are 16 more in other parts of the country.  Some have sold for over $500,000.  Frescoes are a bit of a rarity in the US.  The medium was made famous by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Fra Angelico.  Frescoing is a delicate process that entails crushing pigments and painting them into wet plaster.  They are typically mounted in churches, municipal buildings, museums and one is at Montreat College.  We were able to see four of the five frescoes near Asheville.  The timing did not work out for us to see a fifth one at the Crossnore School Chapel entitled “Suffer the Little Children”.   St. Mary’s in West Jefferson had three frescoes – “Mary Great with Child,”, “The Mystery of Faith” and “John the Baptist”.  Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Glendale Springs had “The Last Supper”.  Our time in Fairfax was wonderful – except for one thing – the Brood X Cicada Invasion.  Their noise is deafening.  We could not step outside without being pelted by them.  Fortunately, they don’t bite.  Brood X’s range went as far south as GA, but they were a problem only in three of the mountain counties that bordered NC.  We returned home along the interstates, I-95, I-85 and I-40.  I-85 in SC is a mess due to never-ending construction, so we took I-40 to Cherokee, NC instead.  Our hotel was across the street from Harrah’s.  After a nice dinner we spent the rest of the evening in the casino.  En route home we stopped at the new Harrah’s in Valley River, NC to spend a few hours in that casino.  Valley River is an easy drive to the north side of Atlanta.

At the end of October Mike and some buddies went on a bass fishing trip to Eufala, AL.  Each day they went out with guides.  A good time was had by all.    I have kept up with Silver Sneakers.  Now that the temperatures have cooled a bit, I have resumed walking.  In April I earned my Fitbit Africa Badge for walking 5000 miles since wearing a Fitbit (late 2014).  Pretty soon I should earn my Russian Railway Badge.  In other milestones, Mike and I celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary on May 11th;  “Old Faithful”, my  2000 Ford Explorer Limited, finally turned 50,000 miles on June 8th.

It took 26 years to be very happy Braves fans.  Their regular season play was so lackluster that nobody gave them a chance to make it to the postseason, much less all the way to the World Series.  We followed the NLDS, NLCS and the World Series from the first pitch to the last out with one exception.  That was in Game 5 of the World Series when a grand slam by the Braves in the first inning was wasted, which led to a Braves loss.  But in the end, they prevailed in Game 6.

We hope that you have happy and healthy holidays.  All the best in 2022.