2020 and 2021 Goals

 A year ago I posted the following goals for 2020: 

• Keep moving, go to the gym at least 5 times per week, start keeping a gym / activity log (I haven't done that in close to 20 years.) 
• Take a two week trip to Ireland, Wales and London in early March.  
• Read 50 books
• Daily Blog 
• Add 5,000 photographs to the archive 
• Continue to build a life outside of the office. 

So how did I do? 

2020 was a year of unexpected changes, kind of complicated. 

• Going to the gym, and the gym activity log was kept for the first couple of months, then we went to Ireland, Wales and London for 16 days, and returned to the gyms being closed.  Hmm, I shifted directions to my nearly daily walks in the marsh along the Potomac river.  Weather permitting, I walk nearly 2-miles every morning. I did drop the log - it is here in the keyboard drawer on my desk.   
• The trip to Ireland, Wales and London in early March went off, not exactly as planned, but it was a wonderful experience. I am so glad we did what we did, when we did it, we even had dinner with John of Going Gently.  
• I finished 28 books, instead of 50.  For years my primary reading time was an hour plus, five days a week on the subway train going to and from the office, and frequent long airline flights.  I have only been on the trains once since the end of February.  I am actually pleased at having finished 28 books, considering the changes in routine. 
• Daily Blog - mission accomplished once again, I have missed one day in 6 years.  
• I added about 8,791 photos the archive this year, far exceeding the goal of 5,000 
• "Continue to build a life outside of the office." I had no idea how much of my life I would spend outside of the office this year, or is it that I am always in the office now that I am working in my bedroom? Working from home, has given me a good handle on post work life.  My daily walks - with the camera in hand, I have had three recipes published this year (I see a cooking blog in the post employment era.) I can much more easily see life after the office, most likely three years from now.  

 Goals for 2021

• Read 24 books, two a month is a healthy goal. 
• Continue 45 minutes to an hour per day of physical activity.  Restart the daily activity log, what gets measured gets done. 
• Blog daily. 
• Add another 5,000 photos to the archive. 
• Start to learn to identify birds, flowers and trees.  
• Reach out to at least one friend per week, even if just to say Hi! 
• Develop my storytelling - putting a lifetime of adventures into words. 

For the first time in years, there are no travel expectations on my list.  I would love to travel, I miss it as much as Maddie misses sex, well maybe not that much, but I long to travel, when is it safe to do so.  In the cold of winter, I think of warm Florida sunshine and seeing family and friends.  I am coming along well on figuring out life beyond the office, I have some work left to do before I stop working, but I can see the finish line.  

Do you have any plans for the coming year?  

    

The Way We Were Wednesday - Early 1960's

 In about 1960 my grandparents bought a tiny house, in the fishing village of Istachatta Florida (Google it) to spend winters in. I think this was taken in 1962 or 1963. That is my oldest brother on the porch, with my sister who is almost 2 years older than I am.  The white car was my father's, the blue car was my grandfathers.  When my grandfather replaced the blue car, my father bought the blue one, it is the car we drove to Arizona twice.  

The first little house in Florida, didn't have an indoor bathroom when they bought it, the bathroom was installed just before we visited that winter.  

Did your family have a vacation home?

Reading List 2020

Here is what I finished in 2020.  As will be explained in my next post, my normal reading time was turned on its head this year.  One other thing that has happened, is I have started reading more print books.  Food books are better in print. 

1. The Kitchen House, Kathleen Grissom 
2.  Walden, Henry David Thoreau 
3. The Truth, Michael Palin
4. Never Turn Your Back on and Angus Cow, Dr Jan Pol 
5. The Great Book of Ireland, Bill O'Neill
6. Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
7. The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer
8. The House on the Irish Hillside, Felicity, Hayes-McCoy 
9. In Foreign Fields: How Not To Move To France, Susie Kelly
10. First Time We Saw Paris, Neal Atherton
11. A Year off, Alexandria and David Brown
12. The Bluffers Guide to Philosophy, T.V. Morris
13. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
14. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo
15. More Ketchup than Salsa, Joe Cawley
16. The Reluctant Expat: Part Three, Alan Laycock 
17. Get the Picture, Dan Richards 
18. 100 Plants that almost changed the World, Chris Beardshaw 
19. Drinking French, David Lebovitz
20. Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast, Laura Cotterman, D. Waitt, A. Weakley
21. Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay, James Goodall
22. Do Not Go Gentle - Go to Paris, Gail Shilling
23. Undue Influence and Vulnerable Adults, Sandra Glazer et al (work related, very-very good.) 
24. Get Out of your Own Way, Dave Hollis 
25. How To Cook The Victorian Way with Mrs. Croncombe, Annie Gray and Andrew Hann
26. Pieometry, Lauren Ko (more design than pie)
27. Winter Warmers, by Narrowboat Chefs, Magi and Ryan Duncan 
28. Oh Cook! 60 Easy Recipes Any Idiot Can Make, James May 

YouTube Monday - The Queen's advice on wearing a crown

Perhaps there are other Queens who will offer suggestions in the comments on wearing a crown.  At least once, when you are in London, I encourage you to go to the Tower and see the crown jewels.  It is a nice little collection.  Crowns are always a thoughtful holiday gift.  

Sunday Five: 2020

 Well I have to admit, 2020 was not what any of us expected, yet there has to be something good in here.  Let me ask? 

1. What was the biggest surprise of 2020? 
2. What brought you good luck in 2020? 
3. Name one positive thing you experienced in 2020? 
4. What did you do in 2020, that you never thought you would be able to do? 
5. What made you laugh in 2020?

My answers:

1. What was the biggest surprise of 2020? My office converting to telework literally overnight. 
2. What brought you good luck in 2020?  Patience and perseverance. 
3. Name one positive thing you experienced in 2020? Renewing my love of walking in the woods. 
4. What did you do in 2020, that you never thought you would be able to do? Voted for an openly Gay man for a national office. 
5. What made you laugh in 2020? Mrs. Browns Boys on YouTube. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Fast Away The Old Year Passess,

Happy Boxing Day, to those who observe.  We did a Boxing Day Brunch several years in Lexington, got us out of the usual loop of we'd love to come to your party but we have three invitations for that evening.  

There is a line in an old Christmas carol, Fast away the old year passes, for me 2020 has flown by.  It seems like just yesterday I was setting goals for the year, planning a trip, then returning to a world that was changing rapidly.  It is like I have hardly moved since mid-March, and yet I have.  

So many changes, a year that flew by.  Soon we will be able to say, that looking back everything is in 2020 hindsight. 

Presidential Inauguration day is January 20, 2021, abbreviated in the USA, 1/20/21, the most anticipated palindrome in American history. 

I expect another year will Zoom by, filled with Zoom meetings.  

Fast year, or slow year for you?  

 

 

Merry Christmas Everyone

 Wishing each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas.  This season finds us apart, yet united in caring for one another.  For many of us, being apart, is the greatest expression of caring this year.  

This season has many meanings and traditions for many people.  Some deeply tied to faith, others steeped in winter festivities (or summer festivities in the southern hemisphere.) Practice whatever fills your heart.  Be thankful for what we have, mourn the losses of the year. Remember, just as the sun rises each morning, we are given new chance, new opportunities, the new year will be upon us in a week. 

Take care, stay safe, stay well, 

Love,

David & J & Travel 

On the Eve With Panda Claus

We are as ready for Christmas as we can be.  Panda Claus has his hat on ready to deliver to all the good little cubs and bears. He is so huggable. He does double duty as summer clause, spending the summer in the back seat of the convertible.  He likes going for slow rides with the top down.  

I will cook something special, and we'll snuggle down for a long winters nap, if there are reindeer hooves on the roof, they will be a dozen floors above us. Santa better wear a facemask in the elevator, or the neighbors will call security and complain.  

A comment I made on a blog recently brought memories of the year we went to Paris for Christmas.  The reason we went, is complicated, I was upset with my mother.  But the experience was wonderful.  The highlight was out pouting a French Maitre de, and getting seated for Christmas dinner at Altitude 95 on the Eiffel Tower for Christmas dinner, without a reservation.  He didn't say no, and I just stood there and waited until someone seated us. Memories are often the best part of the adventure, for the memories last longer than the adventure.  

Wishing all of you, a peaceful and love filled Christmas.     
 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Christmas Memories

This would have been my second christmas, my sister says the doll was mine.  My father loved the aluminum Christmas free, no lights and no needles.  My mother wanted lights, and electric lights on a metal tree were not recommended.  I have at least one of the ornaments from that tree.  When we were cleaning out Dad's house after he died, I grabbed a little santa figurine out of the glass cabinet in the dining room.  I thought it was something my mother had picked up after they retired to Florida.  Then I scanned this slide, and sitting there on the front corner of the TV, is the santa figurine.  Connections across a lifetime.   
 

Holiday Baking

When All else fails, post about food.  Here is a cranberry cake I dreamed up.  The cranberries create flavor bombs in the cake. It makes a great coffee of dessert cake. 

Cranberry Cake 

Ingredients grouped as you will add them:

4 ounces salted or unsalted butter (room temperature will work best)

1 ½ cups granulated sugar 

4 large eggs 

2 cups all purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

1 ½ teaspoons Saigon Cinnamon 

½  teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg (about ½ a nutmeg)

½ teaspoon ground cloves 

2 fluid ounces orange liquor 

12-16 ounce bag of fresh or frozen whole cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 

Process: 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Coat liberally with non-stick baking spray, a 9-inch tube or Bundt pan.   

Measure and stir together the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside. 

Cream together butter, and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (3 to 5 minutes you really can’t overdo this.)  Add the eggs and beat until light a fluffy.  Beating the mixture with the eggs incorporates air into the mixture, making the cake less dense. This will take 5 minutes or so, you will notice a significant change in color and texture.  

Stir in the dry ingredients by hand taking care to not over mix. 

Carefully by hand fold in the cranberries and nuts. 

Transfer to prepared tube pan. 

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester or wood skewer comes out clean. 

Invert on cooling rack and remove the cake from the pan.  

Could be dusted with powdered sugar or glazed if desired.  

Cool 2-3 hours before slicing. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days.  

Use fresh whole cranberries.  Cranberries freeze well. If using frozen, thaw under running water, shake dry before folding in. 

My Music Monday - Angels From The...

Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, relax and enjoy the beauty and peace of the season.

The Sunday Five - What Do You Want - What Do You Not Want

The Sunday Five - What Do You Want - What Do You Not Want me to write about.  Believe it or not, I have been blog planning for 2021.  It is that time of the year.  So let me ask:

1. Should I continue the Sunday Five? 
2. Should I continue My Music Monday?
3. Should I continue The Way We Were Wednesdays? 
4. Should I do more food and baking posts? 
5. How would you feel about a random travel photo and short memory (I have about 50,000 photos to select from at random)? 

This one is for your answers, so I will refrain from leading by example, please share your answers in the comments.  

If We Could Understand The Animals

 One morning recently I was watching a pair of bald eagles, one was perched in the top of a tree, the other one was fishing, then flew up an perched in the tree near the mate.  And the two of them proceeded to talk with one another.  Loudly, I was probably 500 feet away and I could easily hear them.  

I wonder what they were saying to one another? Was it kind? Was it affection? Was it disappointment? Or anger? I wonder if they wish they could understand us?  

A Dark and Dismal Exploration

As part of my annual evaluation at work, we are asked to set goals, one of which is a work related personal development goal.  Last year my development goal was to learn basic video editing, and I did, it has come in handy (audio editing also, audio is easier to edit.) This year I thought about what I was weak at, pulling out a calculator to check the math on a spreadsheet with messed up formulas I couldn't figure out how to fix, and I put down, complete basic training on Excel.  

I recently had a day I didn't have anything on my calendar, and frankly I didn't feel like working but I wanted to bill the hours, so I went down the dark hole that is exploring Excel. The cheerful virtual trainer chiped, "of course every formula starts with an "=" sign!" WHY, if all formulas or functions start that way, why do we need to put it in everytime? You need to be a math geek to have a clue, this is not an accounting program, it is an engineering project. The only reason anyone uses this nightmare is no one else has come up with a decent alternative, there is no other rational explanation. There I feel better for having said that. 

Oh well, I have completed module 1 of the 2 modules I set the goal of completing.  I will force myself through the other one sometime in the next ten days.  It will help me understand why finance people drink martinis at lunch (or for lunch.) 

Are you an Excel expert? 

Zoom-Zoom

Only 9 years ago, Zoom-Zoom was Mazda's sales slogan in the USA for a few months.  I bought one of the cars in the "If it is not worth driving, it is not worth building - Zoom-Zoom era."  In 2020 Zoom took on an entire new meaning, being the massively used video meeting platform.  I have been using Google video chat for over a dozen years.  When we were working 500 miles apart, we used it almost everyday to spend quality time together when we were apart.  So I took to Zoom like a duck to water.  

Zoom has a virtual background option.  My desk at home, is in the end of my bedroom, as I point out there is an unmade bed over my right shoulder, and art supplies over my left shoulder, as soon as I discovered the virtual background option I started using it.  It allows you to upload your own images.  It is a little tricky to find, on the virtual background popup, there is a "+" sign, click that and follow the prompts.  I change my background image at least once a week.  The photo above was last week.  

I use a headset for sound, the boom microphone gives a little better sound and the headphones hide my hair, that has not been cut in about 10 months.  I have a circular broadcast light, an overstock deal of the day on Amazon, that I use as needed.  The computer is connected to the WiFi box with an ethernet cable.  If I am on a platform that does not have a virtual background I have a pop-up green screen backdrop that I can open up, it is blue on the opposite side, I did two full days of training with the blue background propped up against the easel behind my chair.

With all of that, life is just zooming along.  Not a skill I expected to perfect in 2020, but 2020 was the year of the unexpected.  

Are you a Zoom user?   

The Way We Were Wednesday - My First Christmas

 I was born in August, this would have been when I was less than a year old.  I don't see a cable release, and this was before cameras with self timers, I suspect my Aunt Edith took the picture.  She was good. When my father upgraded to an Argus c3, he gave her his first 35mm camera.  I bet it is still in the house in Florida.  I have vague memories of the sofa with the square arms, there was a green one that followed it.  

Did I grow into the ears? 

Reflections

 Looking back at a couple of last week's posts, on politics and the economy, I was a bit of a Debbie-Downer. I was feeling a lot off for a few days, it has been a shitty year in some ways, and it all gets too me sometimes. I am pretty good at faking that everything is okay, until my ability to believe my own delusions reaches its limit.  The office keeps reminding us to take care of our physical and mental health.  I am fortunate that I seldom get down, and I have never been in the dark hole of clinical depression, but there are times when I have to take steps to move myself to a happier place. 

For me, an important part of that process, is admitting to myself that I am feeling off, and sharing with at least one other person that I am feeling low.  I am often able to identify what is bothering me.  This year, isolation, a loser that refuses to admit he lost, people that are sick and dying from COVID, recognizing racism is still a problem, not being able to travel - you know the same thing that is driving a lot of us to the edge.  A good laugh helps me, I spent a couple of hours watching the Graham  Norton show on YouTube one evening.  Cooking and baking helps, I just pulled a cranberry walnut tart out of the oven.  My blogging buddies help.  

Unfortunately for my dear readers, blogging goes on no matter how I feel. I have only missed one day in six years.  I can only post so far ahead when I am feeling strong, so you get a few when I am not. 

What do I want for Christmas, to see the door hit Trump and 2020 in the ass on the way out of the door.  

  

My Music Monday -Rollin Christmas

Something a little different and kind of fun this week.  And it is short, less than a minute 

The Sunday Five - How Modern Are We?

 One of the first things I do every morning, is put my watch back on. If I don't it runs down and stops.  This got me to thinking, hence this weeks Sunday five. 

1. Do you wear a watch, and if so, digital, electric, or mechanical? 
2. Do you carry a smartphone, and if so do you turn it off at night? 
3. Have you lived in a home, that didn't have electric lights when it was built? 
4. Have you owned a television that didn't have a remote control? 
5. Tell us about your first email account? 

My answers: 

1. Do you wear a watch, and if so, digital, electric, or mechanical? I wear a mechanical watch, a Seiko copy of a famous Swiss self "perpetual" movement in a slick modern case.  I love the miniature machine. 
2. Do you carry a smartphone, and if so do you turn it off at night? Yes, and I turn mine off every night, in fact I don't turn it on every day.  
3. Have you lived in a home, that didn't have electric lights when it was built? I have not, my parents did, in fact my mother didn't have electricity at home until she was a teenager.  
4. Have you owned a television that didn't have a remote control? Yes, I can remember the first TV I bought with a remote control in 1982. 
5. Tell us about your first email account? When I started Law School the University assigned me an email account, followed shortly by a personal account (fall of 1996.) 

Please share your answers in the comments.

Rambles on Housing

There has been a moratorium on evictions in the US for much of this year.  It didn't relieve people of the obligation to pay rent, it merely closed the courts to eviction proceedings.  The bills have added up, for an estimated 1,000,000 families.  The moratorium is due to end January 1st. The courts are bracing for an avalanche of filings.  

There are calls to "cancel the rent," but doing that is beyond the power of the government, unless the rent is owed to the government.  Most of it is owed to people.  I know a couple of people who are dependent on collecting the rent to pay their bills.  They have their life savings invested in rental property, the rent paid on that is their income.  Forgiving the rent, would be taking away their income.  Some of it is owed to corporations,  and partnerships, and those are funded by private capital, in other words people's life savings.  If Congress wants to deal with this, Congress needs to step up and make the landlords whole. As it is, much of the arrears will never be collected, resulting a meaningful loss of income for people who invested their life savings in owning rental property. 

Well that ramble is a bit of a downer.  I wish I had easy answers, sometimes there are no easy answers.  

How do you respond to calls to "cancel the rent" or "cancel the student loan debt"?