2020
Christmas 2020
What is there to say about 2020? Historians will find much to write about this year. But I have little.
I went to Dubai in January to visit Julianna. At the time it seemed to come too quickly after the holidays. While in UAE I saw the first news on the story which would define 2020, the coronavirus. I flew through Jeddah Saudi Arabia, thinking it might be my only change to glimpse at this country. I was surprised to meet other Americans flying home after spending a couple of weeks there. Time didn’t permit much conversation in the security line. I must say out of all the airports I have flown through, this one had the most security. I went through three security check points to enter the country and a couple to leave. Arriving back in the US in early February, nothing seemed out of place, no one took my temperature as I came off my long flight from Jeddah, although I had been subjected to this going through Tokyo during a flu season.
We went into isolation earlier than the law required, in early March and have mostly been here at 2430 since. With Tim working at a grocery store, there was little reason for us to venture out. We relaxed that slightly in early fall when Arizona’s first surge had subsided. But mostly we are home. Hugh has spent hours in the garage cleaning food and other items as they arrive. I cannot image standing over bleach solution in our 120+ garage this summer, but he never faltered. I seem to spend my days in the kitchen cooking and baking, Tim and Hugh have also taken their turns at this. I experimented with my sour dough for the second year in a row, maybe next year I’ll master this. I also got up my nerve to try baklava, and that was a success! My cooking and baking has improved but right now all I can think about is an AJ’s hamburger. I saliva at the thought of those juicy burgers. Thankfully none of us have seen the Covid- 15 pound weight gain.
After being confined to our home remodeling ideas flowed, especially for the much used kitchen. Hugh put in a pantry under the stairs for all of the overflow from the kitchen. We are in the process of adding a huge storage closet to our laundry. Next year we most likely will remodel the kitchen to make it more functional and to replace the outdated and cracking doors on the cabinets. That is a long work-in-progress. We have discussed numerous ideas over the last three months.
Hugh and I have started to take drives around Arizona to ease the boredom. We drove up to Flagstaff and across the northern part of the state early in November. It was the first time we had seen snow in years. Then we decided to be more adventurous and take a road about 20 miles north of us. We started on paved roads only to end up facing a sign that said “60 miles of rough roads”. We decided it might take us 2 hours but drove on. Four plus hours later we exited the “rough road”. i think we passed one ranch and maybe 2 cars in those 4 plus hours. It the scenery had been fabulous, it might have been worth it. But the desert in November isn’t pretty, just dead looking. But it was an adventure, one neither of us will forget or repeat!
Hopefully next year we can get back to traveling, although we have nothing planned. Our hope is to go to Portugal in the summer and the Scandinavian ones in the fall, with a backup plan to revisit Korea if that doesn’t work. We marvel at how lucky we have been to do as much traveling as we have, both of us very thankful we didn’t wait until we retired. I feel like once the world reopens, we won’t be home much. This year had many lessons, the most prominent, “don’t put off for tomorrow what you can enjoy today”. Going forward, we won’t take our freedom to travel so cavalierly.
In the most frequently used words of 2020, “stay safe”, we wish you all a very happy holiday season and a Merry Christmas and Happy Virus free New Year. May the second year in this new decade fulfill the promises unkept in 2020.