For any number of reasons, none remembered, Ben failed to post an update last year. So this year we’re putting it up based on events we remember only slightly, as time has lost meaning since the onset of the pandemic.
We dutifully got our vaccines early in the year and again later. We still hunkered down at home much of the time, doing zoom dinners with friends or on porches, etc. We did have a nice visit from our friends from San Francisco in July. We had a number of nice kayak trips on the various waters around here. Had another very relaxing visit to Highland Lake in Maine. Then in August we went off to Upstate New York to meet Ross, Hollie, and Noah in Saratoga to visit with Kathy’s mother and sister there, and then off to see my sister and enjoy “gorges” Ithaca. We also saw Kathy’s sister and her husband as they decamped their home in Virginia and moved out West (eventually settling in Washington State). They were doing a swing up the East coast to visit friends and family.
In October we went up to Ithaca again for a nice stay at the Lake House. Lots of hiking in the gorges (Ithaca is Gorges, after all). We even got out sailing in the cold, deciding that we really should have full-body wet suits the next time. But it was great! In addition to a photo gallery, here are some videos of several waterfalls in the area, spectacular after the major rainstorm that came through during the week, plus the Cornell marching band.
A large part of the year, though, Kathy and I went into duty as grandparent babysitters for Noah in Villanova, as Ross & Hollie’s day care kept blowing up in a variety of ways. Kathy was down for two months in March and April, then again in September, and then Ben went down to help out in November. The very nice side of this was having extra time with Ross, Hollie, and especially Noah.
On the sad side we lost a good friend in April to unknown causes – he was just found in his bed after a safety check was called in.
Overall, not the most exciting year, but we felt very grateful that we got through it with no major illnesses, including covid, and that we were able to get out a good deal more than in 2020! We also were happy to have Ariana in the area so we could see her much more frequently, and that all the pets came through the year without major problems. In addition, Kathy’s mother did pretty well, though she did have a few visits to the hospital.