Hello Everyone! It’s December! That means 2020 is almost over and it’s Christmas season which are both things that make me happy. It’s definitely getting dark early these days which is not my favorite thing in the world. While I love the nighttime and the dark, I really prefer my daylight to stretch until at least 6. Thankfully it’s only three weeks until the Winter Solstice and then we can start looking towards springtime. The good thing about it getting dark earlier this time of year is that it means more time to see the beautiful Christmas lights and displays in people’s yards. I do love Christmas lights and I know from how many decorations were up for Halloween that this year will be bigger than usual. If you’re still looking for some holiday gifts for friends and family, don’t forget about my beautiful Cloudland Canyon wooden jigsaw puzzle available here from Wentworth Puzzle Company. And if you have any photos of mine that you like, I’d be happy to sell you a print or a beautiful aluminum art piece. You can check out prices at my store here, and know that I can do any photo you want, not just the ones featured there – don’t hesitate to reach out and we can make it happen.
I had a big little win this week which definitely made me smile. At the very beginning of this adventure when I was trying to build a blog from the tiny fishing village I lived in in Japan, I started to look for web addresses which would suit the project. I have always loved the Robert Frost poem which inspired the name for this blog, and was trying to figure out how to make it all work. When I looked up milestogobeforeisleep.com, it was available, but for a cost of like $1500. No page would be worth that to me, so I settled on its catchy but somewhat more complicated twin, miles2gobeforeisleep.com. I’m still happy with that decision, but the “2” can make it harder for people to remember etc. I’ve kept my eye on that page for ten years now and last week whoever owned it finally gave up the ghost and I snatched it up the very next day. It’s kind of silly at this point, but like I said it was a very small victory and it made me happy.
I also had a really nice offer come in this week from my friend Kim who owns and operated Up The Keys tours in Key West. She is planning on doing some sailing for a few months this winter and wanted to know if I would come and run her business for her while she was gone. It was a wonderful offer and I was very touched and humbled that she would ask, and who wouldn’t want to spend the winter in Key West? Any other time and I would jump at this, but I’m just not comfortable with guiding tours right now, not until I get a vaccine which is hopefully just months away at this point. I think I’m here in D.C. until that happens, which I’m not unhappy about, but I will be dreaming of the Keys for the next few weeks. I know when the time is right that something great will come along. It always does for me.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving last Thursday with my brother and his family in New Hampshire. He cooked up a real feast and I was definitely impressed with his cooking ability. It was a day of food and festivity and a very relaxed one at that. My brother cooked, my mom read a ghost book, my stepfather worked on a puzzle and I watched an entire season of The Amazing Race - so we all found a happy way to relax. It was wonderful to take the whole day off and spend it with my family. I do want to note as I have before that we didn’t take traveling this Thanksgiving lightly. We drove, pushed all the way there in one day, and had long and honest discussions on any likelihood of having the virus before we went. Also it wasn’t some huge extended family affair, just my immediate family – two independent pods coming together as safely as possible.
Park Benches Meridian Hill Park
On Friday while we were up there, my mom and I went out and did a little bit of exploring in my brother’s neighborhood. We started out by heading down to the tiny town of Mason where we visited the boyhood home of Uncle Sam – yes, that Uncle Sam. Samuel Wilson supplied beef to the U.S. Army in the War of 1812 and his products were marked “U.S.” which was nicknamed “Uncle Sam” by the troops. From there, we explored the towns of Greenville and Wilton, both of which we really enjoyed. It was easy to see the manufacturing legacy of these towns when we visited and to see how the closing of their factories must have been devastating. While they are still beautiful little towns, they seemed past their prime and I hope they will be able to hang on and reinvent themselves.
As we drove through some of these old industrial towns, we came to an even clearer understanding of why people in these areas wanted so badly to “make America great again”, because their jobs and entire industries had been shipped overseas and their towns and communities had deteriorated because of it. It’s very sad to me that a country that could once build an entire war ship in a matter of days can’t produce some paper masks and gowns in a medical emergency. The promise of returning jobs and industries always reminds me of Lucy holding that football for Charlie Brown to kick to the moon. As soon as the election is over and your purpose has been served, the ball gets pulled away and you land squarely on your behind. I spent a lot of time in McDowell County in West Virginia after the last election. McDowell is one of the poorest counties in the country and has been for two generations now and it had been on the lips of every candidate during the 2016 election. The people there had so much hope that things were going to get better, but they haven’t. Not in McDowell and not in hardly any of our old industrial towns. Last week the news was touting the fact that the Dow Jones had broken a new record and all I could think about was my friends in McDowell County and whether that record was helping them in the slightest. I’m tired of hearing that the stock market shows a strong economy. Over the last four years I’ve seen more people living in tents in the cities I visit and more people begging on the street corners than maybe ever in my life. While I often choose to sleep in my van in the Walmart parking lot, there are so many people I see sleeping in their cars who aren’t there by choice. Most people wouldn’t even notice them, but I see them everywhere I go. Those are the indicators I notice when it comes to the economy. It doesn’t bring me joy to know that the wealthiest of the wealthy have gotten wealthier, but it might to know that a factory had opened in Greenville, New Hampshire or War, West Virginia to make medical masks and gowns. That would be something to celebrate. Every time I drive around just for the sake of driving, I see what’s actually happening in this country. I wish more people would get out and open their eyes, ears and hearts and try and see what struggles others are enduring. I’ve been to far poorer countries than ours which have better roads, better healthcare and lower unemployment and think that it really is a shame we can’t seem to do better. Congress keeps cutting taxes for the wealthy though – that always seems to win broad bipartisan support.
Friday night my brother and his girlfriend got into the Forget-About-It-Friday spirit and took us south of the border to Mexico for the night. We had some margaritas and tacos, listened to some lively mariachi music and played a few games of Mexican Trains. It was nice to share our weekly pandemic tradition with them.
Saturday we made the long drive home and got in before dark which was good. There wasn’t much traffic on the road and we were hoping that whoever did travel that weekend was staying on until Sunday. We spent Sunday unpacking and getting ready for the week and month ahead. Mason’s parents took Monday and Tuesday off, so I enjoyed a few extra days off myself. I missed the little guy, but I was grateful for a few days to rest and catch up on some things heading into December.
Tuesday my mom and I headed out to do a little exploring in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, which was really great. It was a beautiful day when we started although clouds rolled in as the day progressed. Washington has a wonderful network of historic walking trails throughout the city which were created and are run by Cultural Tourism D.C. They have put maps and brochures together and erected some really well-done historical markers with photos in different parts of the city. We’ve all enjoyed their Top of the Town walk here close to home in Tenleytown and I always stop and read their signs whenever I see one anywhere in the city. We did about half of the Adams Morgan walk Roads to Diversity and learned some really interesting things about our city as we went. We also took a nice long wander through Meridian Hill Park as well which we both also really enjoyed. My mom’s hip started acting up so we called it a day a little bit early and stopped off at Parkway Deli for some sandwiches on the way home.
This morning I headed back over to spend the day with Mason, and he seemed as happy to see me as I was to see him. It’s so great to open the front door in the morning and hear his little feet running towards me. Last week I had been explaining to him that maybe someday soon his mom and dad were going to be putting up a tree inside the house, and he was so happy to show me that this had become a reality. He showed me their tree and all of his favorite ornaments. Even though it was cold out, we bundled up and headed outside for the day. I couldn’t find the mittens he’s been wearing but grabbed a different pair which looked tiny to me but looked like big blue boxing gloves when I put them on his hands. He’s so tactile that I hate putting mittens on him because it means he can’t touch his mushrooms, leaves and berries, but it is getting too cold to go without. We spent some time letting him touch things, then warming his hands in mine and putting his mittens back on. It was a good compromise. It was really great to have some time off and to not have to get up before the sun, but I really missed the little guy and we had a wonderful day together.
Which brings us to today. When I’m finished with this I’m going to cook up a big pot of Japanese curry, one of my favorite things in the whole world. Then we’re going to pop in a Christmas movie because we have a lot to get through this month so we need to get started with them. After that will be another new episode of The Amazing Race. I also got Shadow Catcher into the shop today to try and fix the leak that’s worsened over the last few months. I’m guessing it’s the water pump which won’t be cheap, but if it needs to get done it needs to get done. I need my van to be in “ready to roll” condition when the time is right. And that’s about what’s been happening this week. I hope this post finds you all safe and warm out there wherever you are. I really appreciate you following along. Until next week then, thanks for reading.
-Mike