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?  

How I Did With Doing Things In January

Since my goal for the year is to actually do things, instead of just talking about things I want to do and making plans that never happen, I thought I’d try to do a monthly post with how I did the month before.  Since February is more than halfway over it seems past time for a post on how January went.  I didn’t have a picture that really went with this post, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share this one of Howard.  I think he looks adorable. 

I don’t think it was a stellar month, but since it’s my least favorite month and it was crazy cold for a large part of it, I don’t think it’s too bad.  That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.

On the blogging front, I did ten posts in January.  Considering the fact that I  only did twenty-five posts total last year, I think ten in a month was a definite improvement. 

For going and seeing new things, we finally went to see the Poinsett Bridge.  It was something we had been talking about doing for years, so it was nice to finally go out there.  That’s the only new place we went in January, but a lot of the places we want to see are outdoors, and it was just too cold to do much outside. 

On the getting rid of clutter in the house front, we did a Pantry Challenge.  We did really well in sticking to it, so we did manage to thin things down, at least in the kitchen, a little bit.  There’s a long way to go, but it’s a start.  I think that also counts toward the goal of saving money/getting out of debt, since it meant we spent significantly less than usual on groceries.

And that’s pretty much it.  I didn’t really do anything toward any of the other goals I want to accomplish.  I’m really not sure whether to call January a success, a failure, or maybe just a neutral.  I guess it depends on how you choose to look at it. 

So how about you?  Did you set any new goals for the year, or choose a word for the year?  How did you do with that in January? 

January Is My Least Favorite Month

I’ll just go ahead and put it out there.  I don’t like January.  At all.  It seems to be the worst month out of the year.  It feels like an incredibly long month.  I know, I know, there are plenty of other months with 31 days.  January just feels longer to me.

Maybe it’s because it’s so cold here in January.  I’m not a cold weather person; I hate to be cold, I hate the snow, and it terrifies me to drive in it.  I’m much more of a spring person.  I love flowers, sunshine, and color.  There’s not much of any of those things in January.  Nothing is blooming or growing.  Everything just looks cold and barren to me.

I know that January is when most people think of new beginnings, making resolutions, starting new paths, and changing things they don’t like about their lives.  It’s hard for me to think of those things in January.  I seem to have zero motivation during the month of January.  Some days it’s hard just to do the bare minimum; work, chores at home, etc.  It’s not the time for me to be making resolutions.

I think of April or May more as the months for starting fresh.  It feels like more of a fresh start when everything is coming back to life and blooming.  I feel like spring is when I start to come alive again.  The first blooms of the season feel like much more of a renewal to me than turning the calendar over to January 1st.

I know attitude is important and deciding that I hate the month of January certainly isn’t doing anything to make it better.  I’m trying to have a good (or at least less awful) attitude about it.  I really am.  I’ve managed to come up with two positive things about January:

One, the cats get really cuddly during the cold weather.  They spend most of their time cuddled together napping.  And they look adorable.  I’m hoping a cute picture of Howard and Frankie cuddled together is enough to keep this post from being a total whine fest.  Or at least to make up for it.

Two, we have new vision insurance at work.  The new coverage started on January 1st.  It means I’m eligible for new frames now.  I wouldn’t have been eligible under the old plan until November, so I’ll be able to get new glasses a lot sooner.  I wear my glasses all of the time, so new glasses are a pretty big deal.

That’s all I’ve got.

So what about you?  Do you like January?  Is there something wonderful about the month of January that I’ve just missed?  Do you have a least favorite month?  Is it January?