2022 - Happy New Year!

 We are well into 2022 so Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you got it off to a good start.

I am just happy that the holidays are over. I confess to having no enthusiasm for them and pretty much just waiting them out. Even so, there were some fun moments. Maria and Mark, my relatively new (progressive) neighbors from Woodstock, NY, had a fabulous gathering on Thursday (12/16). She is a fantastic cook and he wants everyone to be happy, thus perfect hosts! There were about 30 people there – neighbors (conservatives and liberals), their conservative couple-friends, their dog park friends, etc. It was an eclectic group of people and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It was a good evening.

There is an interesting/weird story that goes with this great party. Mark had gotten to know and played golf with one of our neighbors, whom they invited to the party. After not getting a response to the invitation, Mark asked if they had received it. The neighbor replied that they did, but would not be attending. In picking up Mark for golf one day, he had been invited inside their home and noticed that  Mark and Maria had “idols” in their house!  He and his wife, therefore, could not be in the home of someone with idols!  Well, they have a few statues of saints, Buddha by the front door, etc……just as I and most of you probably do (except for the saints)! This is the neighbor I introduced myself to twice with no response, but 15 years later they decided they could acknowledge me. He also walks around with a T-shirt that says something like “Christian, and not ashamed”!  I suggested to Mark that we should get him a T-shirt that said, “Christian – should be ashamed”!!  Anyway. Mark, the kind soul that he is, told me the story and I assured him that the “Christian” neighbor had dissolved golf groups on other similarly ridiculous reasons. As an aside, this same neighbor told me a few days later about helping a homeless person in the area. I mentioned a homeless lady I would help from time to time, and he said, “Oh, yes. That must be Cindy.” He said she had gotten a job, which is why I had not seen her lately. That was a nice exchange and in a way made the idol thing seem even more bazaar!

In the midst of all that, there is a Rosie story! Rosie watched me walk across the street to the party and where her boyfriend Felix lives. She was in the same place when I walked home 3 hours later. The next day, I was in and out several times throughout the day (one of which included taking Rosie out for a nice walk). When I was ready to leave for our Pandemic Pals dinner, Rosie was sitting on the rug in from of the door to the garage giving me sad Rosie eyes! I’ve never seen her there before, and she would not move. I couldn’t coax her away. I finally had to pick her up and put her on the sofa, while comforting her and cooing over her. She was giving me a clear message – I had been away too long!

12/21/21: Well, today has made up for all of that blissful weather! It began raining lightly through the night and has continued through the day. Realizing it was raining, Rosie and I stayed in bed until almost 8:30, making the shortest day of the year even shorter! As most of you know, I have given up doing mailed Christmas cards; even so, I had been thinking of taking a day to do individualize online cards. This seemed the perfect day to do it. I was warm and cozy inside and I spent most of the day doing the cards and remembering favorite moments with each person/family, which was a great way to be reminded of how fortunate I am to have such wonderful people in my life! This seems worthy of becoming a tradition of the season! (Even so, I ran into some technical difficulties (learning curve) and some of you may have received 2 or none at all! I did discover what I was doing wrong and tried to correct it…and hope I was 100% successful!)

I did have to get dressed and organized enough to take my garbage out. Rosie wanted no part of it and never once appeared to want to go outside. Finally, I coaxed her to go out into the backyard, and she was so funny and unlike herself, who likes to sniff every blade of grass. She sniffed and peed. Then she sniffed a little more and pooped. Then she came running back into the house in record time. Up until this moment, she never seemed to know that she could poop in the backyard. I hope this will carry over to those times when we don’t have time for our full walk.

12/26/21: I’m basking in the relief of having Christmas behind us. We are back to 70-degree weather and Christmas day was so nice that Rosie and I went to Martin Family Park for our afternoon walk. Traffic was light and there were few people about so we took a long way home just to extend the moment as long as possible. We were rewarded by seeing a guy in a full Santa costume riding a red Harley! It actually made me giggle!

Today I’m starting to prep for a gathering I’m having on Wednesday. It’s just for a small group of about 15 friends and, not being a comfortable entertainer, I’ll be glad when it’s over, too! I like doing something as a thank you for their kindness and support throughout the year, but it sure can be anxiety-producing! I had planned to do this on the 27^th when I thought Eileen would be here. Once she was not able to come, I moved it to the 29^th, more centered between Christmas and New Year.

From the initial stages of planning for the party, Murphy’s Law was in overdrive. A couple of weeks before (when I was not at home), my cleaning ladies messed up my floor. I was trying to get Stanley Steemer out to correct it and that turned into a fiasco….and is still not done! So, a rug was placed in a very awkward spot to cover the most hideous damage. Murphy continued his evil work right up to the day of the party with the packing lady at Kroger stuffing the cheese tray on its side into the bag (after not having the order correct in the first place!) Yes! That’s how everything leading up to the party went! Even so, everyone seemed to really enjoy it and have a good time (or I just have really great, kind friends).

New Year’s day was celebrated by the Pan Pals at Chris’ house. We toasted in 2022 with the bubbly and had a delicious brunch, along with the usual good company and conversation.

The day before, I spent much of the morning at Dr’s Care! Once before I had swelling on the left side of my face, which was treated with an antibiotic. (and not completely resolved) Well, the swelling came back and covered more of my face. With the holiday approaching, I thought it best to have it looked at sooner rather than later. They opened at 8AM and I left home around 7:30. By the time I got there (5 minutes away!), people were lined up ¾ the way around the side of the building! They processed everyone quickly and by the time they got to me, there was a 2-hour wait to see the doctor. They told everyone to wait in their cars, but I asked if I could go home as I was only 5 minutes away. Once home, I got my black-eyed peas on (for NY day) and was preparing my fresh collards when I whacked my fingernail! Ouch! Before I could get the bleeding stopped, they call me to see the doctor. All things considered, I was lucky to already have an appointment. As I was in the lobby waiting to be called, people continue to steadily come in. The wait at that point was 4-1/2 hours! The nail was still attached to the nail bed so she put some adhesive strips to hold in in place and wrapped it well. She gave me antibiotics for the swelling with instructions to let her know if they didn’t correct the problem (it hasn’t thus far). In which case she would like a sinus scan. So, that’s where I am today. I said the only way I could look at it was that I was getting rid of all my bad luck in 2021 and starting fresh in 2022!

Christmas is now packed away in the garage with the exception of the larger tree. I got most of it done early in the week but left the tree for this weekend. I had to giggle as I moved my gifts from under the tree - do you notice a pattern??

One of my neighbors, who is fairly new to the neighborhood, surprised me with this yummy rum cake. It seems to be one of their traditions. After Penny bakes them, Randy likes to doctor them up a bit with more rum. He was warned not to this year but tried to do so in Penny's absence - BUT, got caught! So some of them were doctored and others not. I got one of the doctored ones and Randy had outdone himself!

Life is slowly getting back to normal. Yesterday, I had a nice chat with Pauline from the UK, who is visiting her son and his family in New Hampshire. She had a nice visit which included snow and an extension of her stay due to Covid. Fortunately, it was a mild case and she will fly home today. It was great to have a chance to catch up.

I and a few neighbors participated in the nationwide Indivisible event commemorating the insurrection of a year ago on January 6th. We lined Bluffton Parkway with signs that read Democracy Not Insurrection and it lasted only an hour. We probably had about 100 people show up, which was good, although we wish more would get involved. Anyway, it is what it is. 

Just Tippy and me at our favorite brunch spot. 

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Happy New Year, Y’all!