Cherry Blossoms at the Jefferson Memorial
Hello Everyone! Welcome to the last weekly installment of D.C. Chronicles as Episode 52 will bring us to a full year discussing life at home for me here in Washington D.C. in the midst of the worldwide pandemic. If you’ve been following closely, you know that this is actually a bonus week since I did do one installment of This Week on the Road in the midst of it all when we went to visit my brother in New Hampshire. It’s been a year of ups and downs, highs and lows, but we’ve gotten through it together. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to those of you who’ve stuck by me through all of this. I hope that in the next couple of months I can get back to the journey this was supposed to be all about and I sincerely hope you’ll come along for the ride.
It seems like a fitting week to end on as by this time next week I should have my second vaccine dose in my arm and be ready to turn my attention full-time to getting myself and my van ready for a June 1st departure. Most of the people in my inner circle of family and friends have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine and I know it will be available for everyone who hasn’t very soon. On the other side of things, I lost a very old friend of mine this week to complications due to Covid. He wasn’t a close friend, but someone I had worked with at summer camp over 20 years ago who I stayed in contact with via Facebook. When I got the devastating news of his death (he was only 53), I sure was happy I had made an extra effort to go to his 50th birthday party and catch up in person after many years. I hate that this happened, and so close to the finish line, but it has definitely reminded me that life is precious and to live it while we can and to make the effort to attend people’s special moments whenever possible. In the future, when I look back on this past year, it will be impossible not to remember that this pandemic took the lives of my Aunt Jayne and my old friend Mike (who we all knew as “Mud”). May all of those we lost this year rest in peace.
While I can and will mourn the lives claimed by the pandemic, I will also look back at this year with a great deal of fondness. I got to spend the year with my mom and stepdad, celebrating what we could, when we could and as often as we could. I know that Washington D.C. is not where my destiny is and it will soon be time for me to go, but we’ve made the most of it and I’ll never regret the time I’ve gotten to spend with them. I’m especially glad I was here to help them with my mom’s recovery from her recent hip replacement. I know they would have gotten through it without me, but it was still good to be able to lend a hand. My mom got me out of the house 2 months into the pandemic when I was losing my mind and we took a quick trip to Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia. That trip inspired an in-depth exploration of the eastern theater of the Civil War, a look at Washington’s oldest homes, and winding trips down Maryland’s scenic byways. We’ve always been able to go on trips together and explore and chat and have a good time and it’s been wonderful to do that as often as we have this year. I will miss our weekly adventures together. This past week we journeyed out to Point of Rocks, a small rail-town in Maryland. It has a beautiful Gothic-style train station, sits on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and saw some action during the Civil War. It was fun to walk around the area (slowly on her new hip), and have so much background knowledge to the things we saw and read.
Mason Growing Up and Throwing Rocks
Of course, as you know, the most wonderful part of the last year was spending so much time with young Mason. We’ve been together pretty much every weekday for the last 9 months, and we make quite the team. I’ve taught him a lot this year, and he’s taught me at least as much in return. He starts each day with a fresh slate and seems to live completely in each and every moment. He’s not regretful of the past or scared of the future, he lives for today. He’s insatiably curious about everything we come across in our daily adventures, and hardly ever complained as we ventured out in heat and cold and snow. He loves books and sees details on the pages that I would likely miss. He’s not afraid to ask for a hug when he needs one. I never knew how much a 2 year-old could understand and he makes me laugh every day. Today we both saw butterflies en masse for the first time in 6 months and they made us both very happy. The trees are sprouting new leaves, the spring flowers are blooming and of course the bumblebees are buzzing everywhere we go. We’ve almost come full-circle through the seasons from when we started hanging out, and it’s been a great year to spend with him. Sure, I might have gotten my book written if I had all this time on my own, but I’d rather that sit on a shelf, dusty and forgotten, than give up the time he and I have spent together. Mason will be three next month, and soon it will be time for him to go to Pre-K, so our time together would have had an end-date soon anyway. I do hope that we will always have a relationship beyond just being a friend of his parents. He will grow up and his interests will lead him where they will, and I know his parents will encourage and support him. I can only hope that somewhere in his heart he’ll always remember the mushrooms and the bumblebees and the sound of a woodpecker on a crisp spring morning.
I’m also very happy I’ve gotten to spend some time with Mason’s cousin, Nick, and help him along his educational path. I’ve known Nick and his twin brother Matt since they were young and have loved going to watch their CYO basketball games over the last few years (their uncle, Mason’s dad James, was their coach). It was always a fun neighborhood event that made me feel like I was home, taking place in the gym at the St. Ann Church gymnasium where I went to Cub Scout meetings and raced my pinewood derby cars. That’s also where (and when) I met Nick’s uncle James, although we would get to know each other better up the street at National Presbyterian’s Boy Scout Troop 1946, where we were both in the Snake Eyes patrol (and both became Eagle Scouts). Nick’s mom (James’ sister) reached out to me last fall to see if I could work with Nick on his math to try and prepare him for the High School Placement Test (HSPT). We worked together through the fall and winter, across the kitchen table, wearing masks, and it was wonderful to watch him progress. During my time as a public school teacher, I worked in schools which faced many challenges, where progress was unbelievably slow and hard-fought. It was nice to be able to work with someone one-on-one and see progress move a bit quicker. Nick continues to impress me with how well he can think through a problem. He passed his test and got into his first choice High School where he will begin classes in the fall. We continue to work together to be sure he keeps up with his schoolwork, and I’ll be here almost all the way to his 8th grade graduation. Then he’ll be off and running but maybe with a little more confidence in what he can do with his math work if he really tries. It’s been awesome to blow some of the dust off my old math books and put some of that old teaching knowledge to work. I’ll miss working with him, but I’m sure I’ll catch a basketball or lacrosse game next time I’m in town.
Of course we’ve weathered some storms here this year which have tested my patience and really brought me down at times. The fight over the pandemic, safety procedures, the devastatingly divisive election in a time where we needed cohesion more than ever before and of course the terrible invasion of the United States Capitol Building on January 6th have all been really hard for me to watch and try and comprehend. As much as I love the internet which connects me to you and will quickly tell me how long bees live and who the Generals were at The Battle of The Wilderness, I also hate it because it makes it easier to spread lies and hatred. I try very hard to not say anything online that I wouldn’t hesitate to say to someone in person, and I never engage with people I’ve never met because I can’t possibly discern who they are from a few sentences they’ve written. But that’s me and others have spent much of the last few years fighting battles they’ll never win against foes they’ll never meet. If they did, they might find they have more in common than they ever imagined possible, find common ground and then work together to find cooperative solutions and compromises. Because that’s what we’re capable of. Sadly, I fear people will just continue screaming into the darkness until the darkness eats them alive. There’s too much of that in the world, and we could be spreading love, good news and happiness instead. Going forward, I plan on focusing intently on that goal.
So speaking of going forward, what comes next for me and Miles2Go? I was happy to get out this past weekend for a couple of days alone with Shadow Catcher in the woods of Maryland. I got to make sure that everything was still working the way it should and try out some of the new things I’ve bought and installed. It’s a good van, and we’re just about ready to hit the road together again. I still have things I need to fix, install, and prepare, and she needs to pass inspection next month, but I think we’re essentially good to go.
Here in Washington, the next two months will be spent tying up all the loose ends that still need to be tied. I’ve got a doctor’s and a dentist’s appointment before I go and saw the eye doctor today. I need to clean and pack all my things so that my family won’t have to deal with too much when I go. We’ve got things left to celebrate, too, with Mason’s birthday, Nick’s birthday, Mother’s Day and Orthodox Easter (hopefully with my brother and his family traveling down to see us) all happening in May. The days will get warmer and longer and I will continue trying to shed some of this pandemic weight and bring my blood sugar down to a reasonable level. I hope to get back in the gym for a few weeks before I go once my vaccines are fully loaded.
When I do go, I will head out to West Virginia for a few days to see my dad and his partner, Judy. From there, I hope to head on to Cleveland to see my friend Mike Vasko and pay off my losing bet on last year’s Penn State/Ohio State game. And then I hope to be off to Michigan for 5-6 weeks in the Great Lakes State. Michigan is a wonderful place to be in the summer, and you’re never more than 85 miles from one of the 4 Great Lakes it touches. I plan to visit lighthouses, photograph small towns, learn some history lessons to share in my podcast, finally get to Motown, eat some local curiosities, hike a lot, run some orienteering courses and work on my suntan. I hope to have things somewhat planned out as I go, but always have time to stop if something catches my eye (and something always does). I hope to slow down my pace a little bit from what I was doing last year and make some time to read, write and do more with this blog and my social media accounts (be sure we’re connected!).
From there, I plan to dip down into Wisconsin, my dad’s home state, and spend a nice chunk of time there. I want to see some of my family I haven’t seen in many years, visit the old family cemetery, go fishing in the lakes I fished in as a kid and hopefully make it to the Wisconsin State Fair. Depending on when I’ve gotten my fill of brats and nostalgia, I may head on to Minnesota or I may head south into Indiana and Illinois, only time will tell. The same will hold true for next winter’s plans and whether I stay stateside or decide to head out of the country for a couple of months. I hope to share more about these plans in the coming weeks as I get ready to hit the road.
I definitely hope to catch up with as many of my friends and family as I can while I’m up north. Last week I got a visit from my old friend Rick and his wife Stacy here in Washington. While I think my socializing skills were definitely rusty, it was nice to see them and remember what visiting friends and having friends visit was like. I always feel some level of social anxiety when I go see people because on some level I feel like I’m rattling their routines, but then I think of how good it makes me feel that people would want to see me when they are passing through here and I hope I can bring that same feeling to others. I never regret visiting people – it’s actually usually a big highlight.
And that’s about all I have for you this week. I was planning on writing more, but my pupils got dilated at the eye-doctor and I can barely see the computer screen. You probably won’t get a newsletter from me next week, but I will be working on things behind the scenes and I’ll get back with you all as soon as I can. I’m really looking forward to getting back on the road and back to exploring the small towns, back roads and state parks that I love so much and to sharing those experiences with you here. It’s going to be a great summer, I just know it! Thank you all for your comments, emails, concern and support over the last 12 months and beyond. This weekly post and having a space to share my thoughts, stories and photos is one of the things that has helped me get through the pandemic with most of my sanity still intact. And while my time in D.C. and D.C. Chronicles are both coming to an end, this journey has only just begun. For the last year though, I know this is where I was meant to be.
I can’t thank y’all enough for being here. Stay safe out there, wherever you are and I’ll be back before you know it. Enjoy the spring weather, get outside when you can and don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers (and watch the bumblebees).
-Mike