Hello Everyone! Well late November is here and Christmas decorations are starting to spring up around the city. In a normal year I would complain that they were jumping the gun a little bit, but this year I welcome and embrace them. Anything that can make things a little more tolerable for everyone is something I will throw my support behind. It’s still hard to believe the end of the year is in sight, but I don’t know many people who won’t be happy to put 2020 behind them, myself included. Temperatures have continued to drop in D.C. this week, and I finally had to winterize my van as we’re expecting freezing temperatures tonight. Beyond that, a lot has happened this week, so I’m going to get right into it.
There has been more good news on the vaccine front as there are now two promising vaccines fast approaching approval for distribution. This is great news in my opinion and shows what great minds can do when they work together towards a common goal. From what I understand they will only be able to produce and distribute around 20 million doses a month (still amazing when you think about it), but with the possibility of starting in December that means that at least that ball can start rolling which will be a relief in and of itself. I’m really hoping to get mine by the middle of next year.
Sadly, the numbers of cases are continuing to soar across the U.S. as we still have no centralized plan and governors are hesitant to roll out any new restrictions. That is a huge mistake in my opinion as keeping hospitals below capacity must be the main goal everywhere. The firehouse up the street from here is now doing free Covid testing three days a week instead of one. I can see the line from here, meaning it is more than two full city blocks long. It blows my mind that we still don’t have widespread, convenient testing and that people will literally wait in freezing cold temperatures for hours to get a test. As hospitals continue to reach their capacities across the country we are starting to once again hear about PPE shortages which again is mind boggling. We knew this was coming, we’ve been talking about it for months and yet it still appears to be surprising people. While there are winter waves crashing down around the northern hemisphere, we are definitely less prepared than most. Please take care of yourselves out there.
Some of my mom’s favorite TV shows have started new seasons this week, and it’s been strange to see the characters wearing masks and discussing the virus. I’m sure I’m not the only person who sees a show or movie and thinks ‘oh, no – don’t get that close’. This year has changed the way we interact and view others interacting. I sincerely hope this is something which will soon be behind us and then begin to fade into a distant memory. Someday people will watch these episodes with fascination and questions about the masks and discussions. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – living through history isn’t always a pleasant or easy experience.
I did see some really good news this week on the work front for me. As you know, my tour guiding company permanently closed their doors over the summer due to the pandemic which brought their income to a halt. While one of the brands I’ve worked with for many years (Trek America) will be shelved for the immediate future, some of the other brands have found a new home with a small company called Incredible Adventures out of San Francisco. They will be expanding their reach this year and have taken the contracts for other companies I’ve worked for like Grand American Adventures and Exodus. Thankfully for me, their entire management team are personal friends of mine and even my last manager is now their General Manager. While I don’t know if I’ll be going back to guiding next summer, it sure is nice to hear that I might not have to start entirely from scratch when I do decide to go back. There is a lot of relief in that, but also a lot of joy in knowing that the brands I know and love will be getting back to business very soon and providing much-needed vacations for people once this is all behind us.
It was another wonderful week with 2 year-old Mason as we continue to go on adventures in Glover and Archbold Parks. While I thought fall might bring him down as so many of his favorite things are falling out of the trees, I neglected to understand that in so doing they are falling into his reach. He is loving inspecting all of the downed leaves, acorns, branches etc. and seems to particularly enjoy the red leaves. He also loves swishing through the downed leaves which I must admit I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Today we started talking about how soon mommy and daddy will bring a tree inside their house which will just be the coolest thing. He seemed pretty excited by the idea. Mason seems to have truly discovered and embraced his shadow this week as the sun is lower in the sky in the mornings and our shadows have been longer when we are out together. We’ve been running and dancing with our shadows which has been a lot of fun. What’s great about hanging out with a little kid is that they don’t get self-conscious about things like that, and if you have a kid with you nobody looks at you like you are crazy either. Yesterday we came across a construction crew tearing up an alley, which he thought was the greatest thing he’s seen in a while. We were watching the little excavator at work from the street when the supervisor came over and told us we could move all the way to the end of the cement to watch from much closer. It was really cool to see and Mason loved it. People are really good to us when we’re out and about. Sometimes there are things I have to check myself on when we are talking like when he asked if his toy truck could read him a book and I told him trucks couldn’t read despite the fact that all of his stuffed animals have read to him and he has an ongoing conversation with the stone lions and bumblebees in the neighborhood. The truck could, in fact, read him a book – and did. He continues to make me smile and be one of the true blessings of 2020 for me.
Around home, we celebrated my mother’s birthday this week. Our weekend began with our Friday night week-ending celebration. We’ve begun a journey around the world and this week brought us to Paris. I made some delicious hors d’oeuvres of a baked brie, gougères and salmon rillettes, all of which were really good. We sipped some red wine, listened to some French Bohemian music and played some dominoes. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday my stepfather made some homemade bagels for breakfast which were really good too. Then my mom and I headed northeast to discover Maryland’s Lower Susquehanna Scenic Byway. We started at the Concord Point Lighthouse and then wandered around the old lock house for the long gone Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal, both in Havre de Grace. From there we headed north to Susquehanna State Park where we checked out the historic town of Rock Run which featured an old grist mill, the fascinating Archer House and the toll house from an old bridge which once crossed the massive river. We crossed the river ourselves on the Conowingo Dam which had the second highest hydroelectric output in the country when it was built in 1928 (second to the Hoover Dam). Heading south, we stopped for a quick tailgate lunch and then cruised into the historic town of Port Deposit which we really enjoyed and will need further exploration at some point. We finished the trip in Perryville at the Principio Iron Works and then the historic Rodgers Tavern. It was an awesome little day-trip and a beautiful fall day to do it. We returned home and had a fantastic shrimp boil to finish out the day.
Sunday we stayed around home and cooked all day. I got up and got some biscuits going early which came out really well. The rest of my breakfast attempt was not great, but we can’t always be successful in the kitchen and it filled us up well enough. The afternoon was a different story though. We got together and turned on some music and cooked up a veritable feast. I had been marinating a couple of venison roasts I had gotten last week which came out really well. We also cooked up some mint and brandy glazed carrots, braised red cabbage, bacon wrapped green beans and a delicious Brussels sprouts salad. Then we watched the season premiers (as mentioned above) of NCIS Los Angeles and NCIS New Orleans.
I got back to tutoring on Monday and my stepfather cooked up a delicious meal of Greek chicken and beans with roasted potatoes and a Greek salad. Tuesday I went back to the dentist to try and get this crown finally put on. Sadly it did not fit properly, so it looks like it will be another month while they try and figure it out. So far I’m not liking the new temporary one he put in, and I hope it gets more comfortable after another day or two or I’ll have to go back yet again. I really want this tooth to be fixed and behind me before the end of the year.
And that’s about what’s been happening in my world this week. It’s had its ups and downs, but I’m still counting my blessings and trying to keep my chin up. Tonight we’re eating some leftovers and we’re going to watch the classic western Young Guns followed by a double-shot of The Amazing Race. The rest of the week will be about battening down the hatches for the winter cold and hopefully getting a few other things accomplished before I head north to spend Thanksgiving with my brother in New Hampshire. It will be good to get out of town for a few days and to have the chance to take some pictures somewhere else. Have a wonderful week out there y’all. Please take care of yourselves and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel where all of this is concerned. I have faith that 2021 is going to be a great year. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you back here next week.
-Mike