Old Year/New Year

 

      I managed to stay up until past midnight last night, a feat I'm seldom able to achieve these days. C and I celebrated the new year with an array of junk food and two movies "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and a 1986 version of "The Scarlet Pimpernel"

   2021 was not what I had hoped for. I had hoped that by this time I would not be wearing a mask to work. I had hoped that we would be concentrating more healing and less on making all of our collective troubles worse. I'd hoped that some of the lessons we'd learned in 2020 could be put into practice. I'd hoped that society would be a less hateful place. Sigh.

   It wasn't totally bad. C and I finally got our house sided. It looks like a new house. We got our new storm door up. The next outdoor projects are to paint the front door (It's peeling red paint right now.) and getting a new garage door. We are also going to plant a new tree in the front yard to replace the ash that died this past fall. We are considering some kind of evergreen although I'm intrigued by the thought of planting a gingko. 

   2021 was a year of loss. In February, my beloved adopted grandma Evie died. She's been in poor health for many months so it was not unexpected. Due to gathering restrictions I couldn't go to her funeral or to her burial in the nearby military cemetery. I didn't realized how hard it is to not have these things. I wanted to mourn, but had no one who knew her to mourn with. I still miss her. I miss our weekly phone calls. I miss chatting to her about anything. Most of all I miss her unconditional love and confidence in me. I miss being able to ask her for advice and cooking tips. Just a short time ago I also lost my friend Helen.

   As of this writing there have been 824,000 people who have died from Covid. According to the latest statistics from the CDC (2019) it is more than the number of people who died from heart disease or cancer. 291,557 American soldiers died in  World War II, the war with the highest number of casualties. (Wikipedia) According to the 2019 census data Minneapolis and St. Paul have a population of 724,871.

   Betty White died yesterday. Although I'm not a huge Betty White fan, I felt bad. She was 99. Her 100th birthday would have been January 17. I was so hoping that she'd make it to 100. Just a couple more weeks and she would have made it to that milestone. I felt the same way about Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He died in early April, two months before his 100th birthday. I can't imagine looking back at a life that spanned an entire century. 

   That was 2021.

   Now it's 2022. I'll be honest. I no longer believe that it is possible for the citizens of this country to put aside their feelings and work together to make things better. Too many people are profiting off the divides and hatreds. It seems that few people see benefit in trying to work with those who look or believe differently. It's profoundly discouraging to think about.

   I can't do anything about the prevailing culture, but I can make things better in my part of the world. I can also improve myself. This year, I want to do better with time management. I waste too much time doing things that aren't really important. I want to get back to practicing my instruments regularly and learning sign language. I want to vary my exercise routine. I love yoga and will keep doing it, but I need to do more cardio and also clean up my diet a little bit. This year I want C and I to ride the entire Cannon valley bike trail.

   I want to try new things. I'm going to start by knitting some socks. I've never done it before and I've always wanted to try it. I'd like for C and I to find recipes and cook them together. It's very possible that opportunities will present themselves over the year. I'm excited to see what this year will bring.

Happy New Year

       from C, Sophie and Scamp 

 

 

f