2021 in Review

 I used to do this most years, but got out of the habit. Niki's post reminded me and since I had time, I did it! 

1. What did you do in 2021 that you’d never done before?

got a bike as an adult

 

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

 

didn't make any

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

sister-in-law had a baby boy in September

 

4. Did anyone close to you die?

my uncle died from covid, and his daughter died three months later (not from covid)

 

Miss y'all

5. What countries did you visit?

zero

6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?

a visit to somewhere new, or somewhere I've not been in awhile

7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

September 19 - the day my uncle died

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

staying covid-free, I reckon

 

 

Pfizer #2

 

9. What was your biggest failure?

not maintaining friendships

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

nothing aside from small injuries like when I ran into a wall or the dishwasher door

11. What was the best thing you bought?

my bike

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Sophie; she was determined to learn to swim and she did

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Many politicians and their followers

14. Where did most of your money go?

bills and the dehumidifier put under the house

15. What did you get excited about?

swimming with Zach, Sophie, and my sister because in 2020, we were swimless!

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2021?

"Scars In Heaven" -- it was played during a lot of video tributes to people who died last year

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?

I'm  always sadder when I lose more family

ii. richer or poorer?

about the same

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

gone to more of the outdoor community concerts in Graham

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

worrying about the world and weather

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

We ate lunch next door with Andrew's parents, brother, his wife, and her dad. Later we went to my sister's house to hang out with my family.

Christmas 2021

21. What was your favorite TV program?

NCIS, I suppose

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don't think so

23. What was the best book you read?

I read over 200 books so it's hard to remember what all I read. I just skimmed through about five or six months of my books and remembered I liked these quite well. But there are others that were really good, too!

Radar Girls by Sara Ackerman

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

An Unlikely Spy by Rebecca Starford

The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan

24. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Our local meteorologist Christian Morgan posted this video of himself singing, and I really enjoyed it. His band is called Bantum Rooster.

25. What did you want and get?

 a bike

26. What was your favorite film of this year?

I think I watched one: Hidden Figures, and I enjoyed it! Great story!

27. What did you do on your birthday?

I looked at my calendar, and it must not have been anything out of the ordinary though my dad brought me some cheesecake or something like that.

 

28. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021? 

 

comfortable

29. What kept you sane?

prayer; family

30. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I made contact with Heather Lende after reading two of her books. I didn't especially "fancy" her, but I enjoyed her writings.

31. What political issue stirred you the most?

probably the January 6th stuff; all of the "Big Lie" talk

32. Who did you miss?

after my uncle died, I really missed seeing his comments on Facebook

33. Who was the best new person you met?

Jonathan

34. Tell a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021.

Not all who claim to be pro-life want to inconvenience themselves enough to protect vulnerable lives, and not all who are pro-choice want to "follow the science" when it comes to abortion. There's a lot of hypocrisy and room for improvement among most all of us, but this topic just stood out to me in 2021.

 

 

 

 

Tidbits

 Today is Sophie's 6th birthday! I miss hanging out with her so much, but thankfully we've chatted a few times and did these funny Messenger "effects" to make ourselves look . . . bizarre!

Sophie and Susie

When life gives you lemons, make . . . faces?

New looks

Here's one with Andrew:

Looking awesome

Also, recently I saw this Easter bunny challenge on Facebook so I decided to collect weeds in my own yard. Here is the example from Facebook:

And here's mine. I had to take the plants inside because it was a very breezy day. I was coughing afterward so I think I was allergic to a couple of those weeds.  I think the rosebud adds a nice touch, don't you?  I've become a little sad for some of my northern friends who claim they don't have grass or any flowers so far this year. I know they have beautiful snowy landscapes in winter whereas we ... usually don't, but I would rather have late falls and early springs than to live in leafless and flowerless areas for much of the year. IT'S APRIL! BRING ON THE FLOWERS AND GRASS!

The week before Easter Sunday, we'd been warned for days that there was a good possibility of very strong/severe storms that had a history of producing tornadoes. The weather folks were saying the conditions were good for a strong storm based on the "ingredients" they saw that were coming together.

My brother and I grew up watching educational videos including those on the weather, especially fascinating things like tornadoes. I recall a regular thunderstorm might pop up, and we'd hide in my mom's walk in closet with our Bibles, singing hymns as if we would be delivered from a tornado just like God got Paul and Silas out of jail with an earthquake. Only, we didn't want the walls to come down for us. We were fine with things staying as is - with our house intact and our lives spared.

Anyway...so ever since then I've been wary of tornadoes as are, I'm sure, much of the population.



I'd heard tips about wearing bicycle helmets and shoes and putting pillows, blankets, and clothes over you in case of a tornado. The timing of the storm was such that it was coming to our area anywhere between, like, 3 and 11 in the morning. Friends in Athens, Georgia, were planning to sleep in the basement.  We don't have a basement nor an interior room with no windows in this house, so I prepared a safe space for us in a place that I hoped would be ok if a tree fell on the house. I put Andrew's bike helmets there, my shoes, our go bags, along with the pillows and afghans I keep on the couch. We set our phones to received Emergency Alerts, and went to bed rather late. I was nervous so I didn't fall asleep until after midnight.


I woke around 3:00 and saw the storms were still a good ways off. Our local weather teams were keeping track and offering Facebook Lives for those too nervous to sleep. I checked in and saw where the line was, and went back to bed. Woke again around 5:30, checked the phone again and the storms were in the next county so I stayed up, keeping tabs on everything from our safe space while Andrew snoozed awhile longer. I had just walked into the bedroom to wake him up when our phones both alerted us to Tornado Warnings nearby, and Andrew was awake anyway. He said the lightning woke him.

We went into the living room, kept watching the news, and put on our protective gear. You can see I snapped this picture around 6:18. Andrew was putting on his shoes.

Andrew occasionally looked out at the storm whereas I told him to get away from the windows since we have some tall trees in the back and I didn't want one crashing down on him.  Finally we saw that our area was clear of the line of storms, but, wait....there was suddenly a Tornado Warning for southern Alamance County near Sutphin (near Saxapahaw and Snow Camp). Later it was confirmed as an EF1 and not just a radar-indicated tornado which sometimes doesn't actually get to the ground.  Thankfully no one was killed or injured that I heard, but I did see pictures of property damage. And some friends in South Carolina had a stronger tornado hit their area in Seneca. And still worse were storms in, I believe, Mississippi and Alabama. It was a great time if you like severe weather.


Between that (which actually brought down fewer limbs and sticks and we kept our electricity) and the roaring wind a few nights before (see previous post), I've picked up a lot of sticks in our yard lately. As I toss those in a trash can for the city to pick up, or in a pile somewhere, I often think about books I've read where people gather sticks for fires, so they can cook and eat, or heat water and clean. I thought of some areas where they've used all the wood they can find because they cut down their trees so there is no longer sticks that fall to the ground. I think of those people in past years (I want to say especially in parts of North Korea), and wonder about the blessings of trees. Even if you don't like picking up all those sticks strewn across the yard, trees are nice for the most part.


In one other, totally unrelated, tidbit for this post, I posted this picture for my mom last week. She didn't ask me to, but she went along with it. There was that Facebook thing which I actually loved because it was so funny seeing some of my friends' graduation pictures, and she couldn't find her yearbook, but had this 8x10 of her with most of her classmates, and I zoomed up to get mostly her in the shot. So, here's my mom in 1969 when she graduated from high school (which she loved.) I loved high school, too, but not so much my graduation picture. I don't think I ordered the ones the school did, but had some taken at Olan Mills.

2019 Meme

I did these for a few years and then stopped. But I decided to give it a go this year...

1. What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before?

hiked to Mt. LeConte in eastern Tennessee and found a new grandparent through Ancestry

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

n/a and no, I did not

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

no, but my school friend is fostering a baby whom she got as a newborn! They are hoping to adopt. She has 4 children already, ages 17 to 9, I think.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes, Joni

 

Speaking of, her husband compiled a lot of posts about Joni and the family since her death and shared this one on January 3rd, the anniversary of her death. Precious (and sad) memories.

5. What countries did you visit?

none

6. What would you like to have in 2019 that you lacked in 2020?

 
a trip to the NOC (since I didn't go to the Nantahala Outdoor Center once last year!)

7. What date from 2019 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 3rd, my online group had a toast to Joni and a couple hours later she died. I knew it was imminent, and I went to bed and found out the next morning that she had died sometime after midnight on January 4th my time. She lived in the PNW so it was January 3rd there.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

hiking to Mt. LeConte -- it wasn't a planned hike, but I did it!

9. What was your biggest failure?

complaining and being unthankful

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

 

I got the flu for the first time in memory!  Well, I didn't bother getting an official diagnosis, but Zach, Sophie, my parents, and I all got the same thing around Easter!

 

 

11. What was the best thing you bought?

a membership to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham - lots of great memories with the kids and my dad

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Andrew, I guess. He's almost always a cheery, helpful, kind fellow!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

the goofball in the White House

14. Where did most of your money go?

insurances of various types

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

 

I'm not a really x3-excited type of person, but I enjoyed the SkyBridge in Gatlinburg in the summer!

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2019?

 

nothing comes to mind

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. Happier or sadder?

ii. sadder at the moment because of Stella

iii. Thinner of fatter?

iv. fatter

v. richer or poorer?

vi. same, I guess

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

hiking

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? 

worrying and complaining

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

I spent it with my inlaws for lunch, and my family in the afternoon at my sister's house.

21. How many one-night stands?

why this question??? it's still stupid

22. What was your favorite TV program?

nothing really stands out as a favorite any more. I guess NCIS.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I really try not to hate though I strongly dislike certain people at times (see #13)

24. What was the best book you read?
This is always a tough one for me because how can I pick the best out of dozens of books?  I recently read this one recommended by Niki and liked it a lot so I'll use it
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Liquid Pleasure Band played a concert in town around Veteran's Day; I liked them

 

Also, Sophie singing the Sponge Bob Squarepants theme song with me and Andrew. Although the video is from yesterday (so 2020), we practiced in the car on previous trips. And by practiced I don't mean I learned the lyrics. I flubbed them yesterday (note to self: "Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.")

26. What did you want and get?

membership to the museum

27. What was your favorite film of this year?

I don't think I watched anything, but I like that the Mr. Rogers film came out

28. What did you do on your birthday?

helped at my work's yearly spring banquet

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019?

practical, comfortable, totally out-of-style

30. What kept you sane?

several short trips just to get away and enjoy nature; reading; prayer

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

some of those who testified in the impeachment inquiry (Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill, etc.)

32. What political issue stirred you the most?

evangelical support for Trump makes me lose my religion

33. Who did you miss?  

Joni (so much!)

34. Who was the best new person you met?

 

a lady whose daughter Sophie played with at the Durham museum back in May.  They live in Pittsburgh, but were in the area because the lady works for a group that does special events at museums throughout the country (or parts of it). The girl Sophie played with was Caroline, and her mom was Yu-ling (I had to check my phone); she was nice to talk with that day.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019.

enjoy every day moments and keep trusting God in the hard times. He is faithful.