Hello Everyone! March has arrived and winter is quickly turning to spring here in Washington. We’ve had a couple of cold days this week, but some really nice ones as well. It got up to almost 60 today and I really enjoyed being able to spend some time outside just sitting and soaking it in. My mom got a new hip yesterday, which is definitely the biggest news of the week, but it’s been a busy week for me as well.
News on the virus front continues to be hopeful as this week President Biden announced that with the addition of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and with Merck stepping up to help with production, every American should be able to get a vaccine by the end of May. That is simply wonderful news and I really hope I can get mine going even sooner. Sadly, some states are rushing to open everything back up and “get back to normal” and while I know we are all ready for that to happen, rushing it now when we’re so close to the finish line seems absurd to me. While the news is good, we are still losing around 2,000 people a day to the virus in America. That means that we lose the equivalent of the total number of Americans lost during the Vietnam War every month. Please remain vigilant out there and know that the light at the end of the tunnel is close, but we’re not there yet.
Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown
In the political realm, something I haven’t delved into on this blog in a while, I’ve been pretty disappointed with what I’ve seen in the last few weeks. One of the things which upsets me most is voter suppression and disenfranchisement, and these are issues this country has struggled with from jump. It is my personal belief that every single American adult should have the right to vote and should have that vote counted fairly and equally. For a number of reasons, none of which have ever been good ones, this is something which has constantly been challenged from this country’s founding. If you cannot win elections when everyone has the opportunity to vote, you need to change your messaging, not try and disenfranchise thousands of people so that you can win. Every time there is an election in this country, election commissions will find a few hundred fraudulent votes, never the thousands or tens or even hundreds of thousands that people claim. For me, a few hundred fraudulent votes in a country with over 350 million people is a very small price to pay for extending the vote to as many people as possible through as many means as we can. In my opinion, voting should stretch over several days and include a weekend with long hours and many polling stations. When I see lines stretching for hours, and attempts to limit voting to business hours, it makes me sick. It’s just like the disgusting gerrymandering we see – it’s trying to game the system instead of trying to win people over with your ideas. This year has certainly shined a pretty bright light on so many things that are wrong with this country, and I sincerely hope we can find some people who are willing to try and fix them. Any attempt at voter suppression should be met with serious questions and a hard push back.
In other news, I had my annual physical this week which I’ve been trying to avoid but finally had to go and make it happen. It was hard to see in black and white the weight I’ve put on over the last year and that my blood sugar is as high as it’s ever been. It was actually a real kick in the stomach to get that information. I feel like the last couple of weeks I’ve been crawling out of a pool of winter depression, my hands getting a hold on the bottom rungs of the ladder I want to climb and slowly pulling me up. Right when I was about to swing one leg up and get a foothold, someone comes and starts stepping on my hands from above. It sucked, and I slipped down a rung or two real fast, but I kept hold of the ladder and I’m proud of myself for that. It’s been a really hard year for me (and for us all), and while I watch everything I eat and have since I was 12 and have been trying to keep my drinking in check, I have had moments of weakness in what I’ve put into my body. The fact that I haven’t been able to go to the gym in over a year hasn’t helped one bit. I try and walk 3-5 miles every day I can, but it’s just not the same and the ice and snow recently has kept me from even doing that. It really sucks sometimes when you want to be doing better, but outside forces are keeping you from doing so. On the other hand, sometimes I need the wake-up call these results have given me to get motivated and get moving again. With the spring weather and longer days I need to be getting more exercise and I plan to.
Mason and I continue to enjoy our days together, going on adventures and learning from each other. We’ve been on a quest for woodpeckers lately as they’ve been pretty active in the park these last few weeks. Whatever we are doing or talking about, we both stop immediately when we hear one rat-a-tat-tatting away on a tree. We’ve even seen a few and he should know the difference between red-headed woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers and pileated woodpeckers (hearing him say “pileated” is priceless). With the mud we’ve been seeing this week, he’s been taking getting dirty to a whole new level, but he’s enjoying it and that’s important. We’ve also been working hard on his reading, something which I started working with him on in my own quiet way and his curiosity has kept him asking for more. I’m not trying to push him on it, but if he’s curious it’s worth pursuing. This week we’ve had an ongoing disagreement on how many tusks the elephant in one of his books has. Mason believes that it only has one because you only ever see one (although you see both sides of the elephant on different pages). I’ve tried to show him that if I’m looking at him straight on, he can see both of my ears, but if he sees me in profile he only sees one, but I still have two. It’s actually a really interesting conversation because I see his point of view but also want him to understand that there is more to everything than what we can see. He definitely tests my patience sometimes, but he’s such a neat little kid and I really enjoy our time together.
Last Friday we celebrated the end of the week with a virtual trip to Sweden. I have a Swedish friend who I met in Alaska many years ago who has been asking when we would visit her fair country on a Friday night in our basement. While it was Friday, we actually celebrated their Thursday tradition of Ärtsoppa (pea soup) and pancakes with lingonberries. We listened to some traditional Swedish folk music (which was actually really good), and played some dice games as well. It was another enjoyable Friday in the basement. We’re hoping that as the weather continues to improve, we can move our celebrations outside for a while which would be even better.
The weekend was a rainy one which kept me inside most of the time. That allowed me to do a lot of things I’ve been putting off which was actually really good. I took my mom’s printer apart and fixed what was wrong with it. I got some work done on my podcast for the first time in many months and really enjoyed getting back into researching historic events and people. I did some work on my van and ordered a few things I will need when I hit the road again. I even did my taxes (I’m sure glad I got that second stimulus check, because they taxed the heck out of the unemployment I got last year which seems so absurd to me). The weather cleared on Saturday night and I went on the first date I’ve been on in almost a year as well. We went for a masked and distanced walk and didn’t really have much in common, but it was nice to do and I enjoyed her company. Dating is a skill and one you need to practice, otherwise you’re likely to flub it up when you don’t want to. All in all, it was a pretty quiet weekend though which I was very thankful for.
Yesterday we finally got my mom in for her hip replacement surgery which we are all grateful for. She scheduled it the day that her second vaccine shot hit her arm, and they got her in pretty quickly. All told, she only spent about 12 hours in the hospital and we had her back at home before it got dark out which was great. She’s a little wobbly, but she’s recovering quickly and really looking forward to walking again and getting back to her folk dancing as soon as possible. She’s a real trooper, and I’m so happy she’ll be without the pain she’s been dealing with for many months now.
That’s about what’s been happening here this week. My favorite little hidden local campground is finally open again for the season and I hope to get out there to clear my head very soon. Once Daylight Savings Time kicks off, I’m definitely planning on another weekend at the beach in Delaware as well. It will be really nice to start getting out again on the weekend, and I have some new gear I want to try out before I hit the road again. It’s definitely time for me to start getting my van and equipment ready if I want to get out of here at the end of May, which I am looking forward to more than I can express. It’s been a wonderful year with my folks and watching Mason grow, but my life is on the road and I can’t wait to get back to it. I’ve got some thoughts on how this whole project will change when I do, but I sure hope you’ll come along for the ride. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Have a great week out there, y’all. Get outside when you can, get your vaccine when it comes your way, and please be kind to each other. I’ll see you right back here, same time next week. Thanks, as always, for reading.
-Mike