2021 So Far

 I can’t believe we’re already so far into 2021.  I think even in normal times, without a pandemic, January shouldn’t really count when it comes to goals, resolutions, etc.  It just seems like the weather is always truly awful, and a lot of it is filled with trying to re-set back to normal after the holidays.  

I took this picture on January 2nd, when we were out for a walk.  It seems fairly representative of 2021; bright spots of hope against a lot of gray. 

My best/brightest news for 2021 so far is that Nick and my sister have both received both doses of the vaccine.  My sister works in healthcare, and got her second dose two weeks ago.  Nick works in the emergency services, and got his second dose last week.  They both ended up with Moderna.  There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to which vaccine people are getting.  My sister’s boss got his vaccine a few days before her, and got Pfizer.  A friend of ours got hers at the same hospital Nick did, a week after he did, and got Pfizer.  

I don’t know about other states, but NC keeps changing the groups and priorities.  I think most of the changes have been for the better, so I’m hopeful that it will keep getting better.  Initially, they weren’t going to prioritize people in the emergency services, and said they’d get the vaccine based on age/medical conditions.  That meant most of them would have been in the last group.  How many 75 year old firefighters and police officers do you know?  I was very happy when they changed that, and put them in a higher priority group.  Last time I checked, teachers will be our next group.  My job might fall under the second part of Group Three, but no one seems to know for sure.  We’re still mostly working from home for the foreseeable future.  

South Carolina has started vaccinating people 65 and older.  My dad is over 65, but my mom won’t be 65 until July.  My dad is on a waiting list, but has no idea when he’ll get it.  

In non-COVID related news, we’ve had several days of high winds with wind advisories.  We lost a tree to one of them.  Nick has to go in to work really early every other Thursday, so it was still dark when he left, so he didn’t see the tree down.  It was how I started my day because I saw it as soon as I let Duke out.  And Duke barked at it, a lot, so once he saw it there was no missing it.  

I’m not sure how much you can tell from the pictures, but we were incredibly lucky it fell the way it did.  Most importantly, Duke was safely inside when it fell.  It destroyed the hammocks, which I’m very sad about, but we think at least the stands are okay.  And if it had fallen any other direction it would have hit one of the following: our house, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the right hand side) fence, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the left hand side) fence, or our back fence.  Any of those would have been worse than the hammocks!  And at least it happened when it’s too cold to want to spend time in the hammocks anyway.  

Our neighbors have a fire pit, so we asked them if they wanted the wood, which they did.  They were also nice enough to loan us a chainsaw, and help move the wood.  So the cleanup was a lot easier than it could have been.  

We’ve also had some snow.  Definitely not as much as other places have had, but I’m still hoping we won’t get anymore.  

I got a very sweet surprise from one of my chemo buddies in the middle of January.  I checked the mail and there was a package addressed to me from a business I didn’t recognize.  I thought it was a maybe a case of something I ordered from Amazon coming from an independent seller, but I usually pay fairly close to attention to that, so I was a little surprised.  This was what I found when I opened the package.  

And this is what it looks like all assembled.

It was totally unexpected.  You’re told, over and over again, not to expect to hear back from your chemo buddy.  The program isn’t supposed to put any pressure on them, so they have no obligation to write to you, let alone send you a surprise package.  I think mine are just extra nice because I’ve heard from all three of my current buddies.  My senior buddy sent me a sweet Christmas card, and my teenage buddy sent me a sweet New Year’s card.  I’ll be honest, it totally makes my day whenever I hear from them.  

So how has 2021 started off for you?  Are you working from home?  How is the vaccine distribution going where you are?  

A Catch Up Post

I basically took a month off of blogging right after my post about keeping up with blogging in January.  That’s the way it goes, right?

It hasn’t been a terribly interesting month, and work has been insane.  Most of the time at the end of the day I just want to come home, crawl under a blanket on the couch, eat lots of junk food, and watch Netflix.  That doesn’t lead to doing much blogging, or much of anything else.

Nick and I have been passing some sort of cold back and forth for the past couple of weeks, so that has also made us much more inclined to spend a lot of time on the couch watching TV.  We’ve been taking lots of vitamins, so I’m hoping we’ll finally shake it for good this time. 

February and March seem to have traded places as far as what the weather is supposed to be like.  We had several beautiful, warm days in February.  Our daffodils and hyacinths bloomed.  It really seemed like winter was over, and spring had arrived early.  Nope.   March has been cold, rainy, and windy.  We’ve had some snow, and there’s more snow forecast for later this week.  We’re kind of at the point where it feels like winter is never going to end.  The daffodils and hyacinths are still holding on, so that’s a hopeful sign. 

We finally visited the North Carolina Arboretum on one of the nice Saturdays in February.  Nick had been before, but I hadn’t.  We had been talking about going for years, but just kept putting it off.  We finally picked a Saturday to go with our friend Alex.  We met Alex at the Farmer’s Market first, and spent some time walking around and perusing the booths there.  It’s still a little early for some things, but we bought some fresh produce and a few jams and sauces.  I absolutely love farmer’s markets and produce stands, so I always find something I just can’t live without. 

After the Farmer’s Market we had lunch and then headed to the Arboretum to walk around.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and honestly tried to keep my expectations pretty low so I wouldn’t be disappointed.  I was definitely not disappointed.  It’s huge!  There are so many different gardens, picnic areas, lots of walking paths, and more strenuous hiking trails.  We only had a few hours before dark, so we stayed off of the longer trails, and mostly stuck to the gardens and walking paths. 

Of course most things weren’t in bloom yet, but some of the trees and flowers had bloomed.  We saw some Royal Star Magnolias that were in bloom.  They were absolutely gorgeous!  I think I want to try planting one in our yard, despite my terrible track record with trees.  They’re gorgeous enough to make me want to try again.  Being there and seeing the gardens made me really want to get out in the yard and start planting things. 

I think it will be absolutely gorgeous at the Arboretum once spring is actually here and more of the flowers are in bloom.  We definitely want to go back.  I think it could be nice to take a picnic and spend the entire day there. 

I think that’s really the only interesting thing we’ve done for the past month.  Other than that it has mostly been work and just day to day chores.  I’m hoping we’ll be able to get out and do more once the weather stays nice for a while. 

So what about you?  What have you been up to for the past month?  Is it finally spring where you are?  Or is winter still holding on?