Happy(?) Holidays 2021

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

T’was the week after Christmas & all through the house,

You could hear the click-clickity of each of our’s mouse.

The stockings were empty, cookies almost all gone,

And the Christmas meal leftovers went on and on!

We entered as one does, that post-Christmas fugue state

Of vacation with no concept of time, day or date

We think back over the whole of the past year

And all we can think is oh my, good grief, oh dear!

Aaaah, 2021. It started so hopeful, with the end of the pandemic possible as vaccines rolled off planes all over the world. Yet, all too quickly it revealed what a trickster it was. 2021 was the bad sequel to 2020. We were still mostly at home, with Joe’s office still requiring work from home and many of Lynda’s activities still cancelled or held via zoom. 

And it didn’t take long for Lynda to become a walking, talking cautionary tale. She’d been lucky enough to get a new laptop for Christmas and it only took her seven weeks of ignoring her charging cord before she tripped over it and broke her kneecap on Feb. 11. Luckily, she was able to get crutches and a brace after a long wait at the urgent care and the ER. Unluckily, Texas was about to be hit by a dreadfully cold and deadly winter storm named Uri. We weren’t too concerned at first, especially since Lynda’s knee had taken up most of our mental energy, but we took a few precautions as we do whenever a hurricane is headed this direction. We had plenty of food and didn’t lose power, but it wasn’t long before we lost water. Joe made use of his winter experience and put out buckets and pots to catch the rainwater and added what snow was left so we could flush toilets. We had put up enough water to drink and wash up, and considered ourselves very lucky. The WhatsApp chat we had in the neighbourhood was a godsend too, as everyone worked to share information and tips.

The storm put a large dent in the timeline for knee surgery as many businesses and offices were shut down due to lack of power or damage from the burst pipes. It wasn’t until March 4 that Lynda was able to get the surgery to fix her knee and months of physio and recovery to get it to a good state, but it took a while before she could drive so Joe had chauffeur duties. We managed a getaway to the hill country in April, once she was more mobile and a week of restful sunny weather, blossoms everywhere and good take out was just the thing after months mostly cooped up at home.

Joe continued his work from home routine along with his hair growing hobby. By the time our anniversary rolled around (25 years!) it was beautifully long and curly and just about to drive him completely mad (surely not the fact that Lynda kept wanting to style it for him!). It’s shorter again, but the beard has stayed, albeit with increasing proportion of salt to pepper. 

Things had started opening again, Lynda’s groups started meeting in person (outside when possible) again and it was lovely to think things were improving.  We celebrated our 25th with a “staycation” in downtown Houston, complete with massages and dinner out. It was quite a treat and reminded us of travel past and made us wish to fly somewhere exotic. We certainly never imagined that the virus would still be affecting everything from border closures to Joe’s return to work as summer came in to view. We’d booked a getaway for September when we finally gave up on getting back to Canada as the border remained closed with testing requirements. Not wishing to “bring anything home” to friends and family, we made the hard decision to travel only in the US this year. It sucked but at least things were improving enough to make a trip possible, though we’d hummed and hawed before we decided to take the risk.

Lynda was delighted to get a week at the beach in Oregon, it had been more than two years since she’d seen the Pacific Ocean, something she never dreamed could happen when she was growing up in Vancouver. We let the roar of the waves lull us to sleep each night and watched the ever-changing vistas of fog and sun as we explored the area, keeping mostly outdoors and on our own. We found the ocean frigid and the sun brilliant the fog. Aaaaah, and the sea air! Fantastic!

Scrappy has the right attitude for 2021! Smoke’s 2021 attitude was to cuddle with friends

We got home in time to practice our hurricane prep for this year – we were so lucky that Hurricane Nicholas took a last minute jog to the east allowing it to skirt Houston. It is always good to keep up our skills though. Especially these days.

This year house projects continued – we finally dealt with the poorly applied paint in the kitchen which was driving Lynda nuts and then the deck let us know that it needed more attention too – as we found we had some rot we needed to fix where it attached to the house. Thankfully now it’s so sturdily affixed that the whole house could fall before anything happened to it.

Scrappy hiding from 2021

Our little fuzzy Scrappy turned 14 in August (still a crazy kitten, one year away from her Quinceañera!) and Smoke a stately yet grumpy 17 in June. They like the work-from-home routine, and Smoke made sure to add his typing to Joe’s work every now and then with a leisurely stroll across the keyboard.

Smoke and two moose toys

October brought us another get away, this time a long weekend in Chicago, a first visit for both of us. We loved it there, found the deep-dish pizza astonishing and the architecture of the city stunning. We certainly want to return as we didn’t get a chance to see the live NPR show we had hoped would be taping in person again (Covid non-surprise: it wasn’t). But we walked and explored and visited “The Bean” and ate scrumptious food (I’m looking at you, Portillo’s!) and had a grand time. Next time we check first and book a weekend that doesn’t include the CHICAGO MARATHON – not easy to get to the airport that day! 

November allowed for a short week away in the Hill country with great weather, lots of opportunities to dine outside and enjoy the fabulous countryside. Lynda worked election day this year, thankfully it was an off year so there was plenty of opportunity to get a feel for things before next spring and the primaries. She hopes to work the polls again then. There was less voter registration this year as we were keeping mostly a low profile to stay healthy. Hard to believe that we’re still battling this pandemic almost two years in, but here we are. We do very much hope that this is the year that medical advances help us all stay well (or get well quickly if infected), that travel may open up so we can cross borders without concern for getting stuck, and that we can go back to some of our favorite activities again. 

This year has been so hard for many, with unimaginable losses to friends.  While it certainly hasn’t been our best, we’re very cognizant of the fact that we’ve got more than most and our losses have been trifling. We continue to hope for a better future and hope all our friends and family have had a good season for whichever holiday you celebrate. 

 

Lynda and Joe with Christmas dinner.