Skip to main content

Year and a Day

For a year and a day I have been waiting and on March 16th 2021 I received the second of the required vaccines needed to prevent covid 19. It has been a long strange journey to get here. During this time I have learned about myself and others. 
Last January Jan and I took a big trip to Hawaii. It was great we flew from Tampa to Hawaii in a big plane packed in with a bunch of people we did not know. No masks or excessive hand washing. I'm not even sure we carried any hand sanitizer. While there we ate out at  restaurants and visited sights with lots of people. 

I also just started my retirement in January and had planned to do lots of fun things. I was going to get involved with volunteering in my community. Jan and I were going to travel and see things. Then before I could even get started on March 15, 2020 everything came to a screeching halt. 
Next thing I know we are sitting at home watching Netflix and figuring how to order groceries online. I broke out the sewing machine and using fabric scraps started sewing masks. I remember thinking we could be like this for a few weeks or a month or two. Wow was I naive.
Over the past year I have perfected my mask pattern. I made spring masks, summer masks, Halloween masks, Christmas and New Year masks. I made custom masks for a baby shower and a cute little tiny mask for a stuffed bear. I've made masks for my kids, grandson and friends. I have lost count of how many I have made but I know I am well into the second pack of 100 nose wires as well and the masks I made with a spool of wire. 
Jan has been knitting and trying her hand at gardening. She has knitted several gifts. Jan has several succulents that are really growing. 
Zoom. Before covid zoom was something I did on the highway. Now we were doing it from home. For several months we got together with friends to play games and answer trivia. Jan still gets together with her sibs each week via Zoom. I'm glad I'm retired because I can't imagine teaching via Zoom.   

I keep trying to remember different things I have done this past year and it feels like there is a blank. Then I remember that I spent several months this summer undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer. The treatment filled my days from the end of May to the start of August. I guess if I had to get cancer this was the one to get. Other than the treatment taking time it was relatively easy. But it did leave a big hole in my 2020 summer. But I guess everyone'e 2020 summer was kinda shot.

Toward the end of August we took our first "Trip During Covid" to see Jessica and her family. Jan and I had been thinking about buying an RV and chose this time to try one out. Jan found a 5th wheel to rent for a few days on Airbnb.  

This was fun because the RV was located at a horse farm in Tallahassee. We got up to the sound of horses getting ready for the day. They start early! 

Generally for the entirety of this year of covid Jan and I have had variations of these adventures mixed in with days of staying home and binge watching Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO and Disney. I'm hoping that this will begin to change because of getting my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine last Tuesday. I was fortunate and my Primary Care called to ask if I wanted to get the vaccine several weeks ago during a regular checkup I already had scheduled. I said yes. Then last Tuesday I got my second shot and hopefully in a few weeks I'll be safe to resume somewhat normal activities. Got my fingers crossed!
Update, Editing by Jan Bliss.
 


 

Labels:

Comments

  1. P.A.March 18, 2021 at 1:13 PM

    I’m jealous of your Covid vaccine sticker!! I didn’t get a sticker or a lollipop!! 😳😁

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finally Hot Springs Arkansas

 Day 6 , October 15, Hot Springs. Here we stayed at an AirBnB on Lake Hamilton. It was very nice but before we got to our new residence (If you are keeping track this is the 5th place we've stayed so far on this trip) we stopped by downtown Hot Springs for a tour.  We started at the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center. This is the park headquarters and has been beautifully restored. We were able to tour the bathhouse and see how it looked in its prime.  The sculpture of the Spanish Conquistador  and the Tiffany stained glass ceiling were in the men's tub and steam room. The ladies section was not quite as well appointed.  Here is the women's dressing room . While nice and functional it was not quite up to the standards of the men's room. Down the hall from this room was the third floor sun deck where the ladies could catch some sun without any prying eyes. I'm not sure how much sun they got because the outfits displayed there were long sleeved, ankle length dresses...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alarm Clock

Now that I'm retired each morning really is a new day. In the past most days have been planned out well in advance. Get up shower, eat breakfast, go to work, repeat till the weekend. Weekend, do what I could not get to during the week. Now I got a more open schedule. I find that my mornings consist of getting up when I open my eyes. Then fixing coffee and drinking a cup. While I'm doing that I decide what I want for breakfast. Jan is not as infatuated with breakfast as I am and can get by with just a bowl of cereal. But I need something cooked and more coffee. So I start the morning with no more plan than to fix a nice breakfast and have coffee. I watch the news, read the paper, and eat breakfast. Some days I mix it up by eating out on the patio. My signal now to start my day is when I reach the bottom of my cup of coffee. As you can see I'm now at that point. Today my plan is to get out all the suitcases out and see which ones we will be taking on our upcoming trip t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Joy 3/09/22

Going out for lunch with friends and family. Something I have missed doing for the past several years. Now with the pandemic seemingly under control we all can start getting back to normal. Today we visited Hellas Greek restaurant and bakery. We started with Saganaki . I had one of my favorites, grilled octopus. For dessert it was chocolate covered baklava. Overall a great way to spend lunch.
Post a Comment
Read more