Aging Capriciously

Dear Family and Friends,

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness.”

John:  Few lines from literature could fit 2020 better than Dicken’s immortal first line from “The Tale of Two Cities.”  For many of us it will be hard to find anything good in 2020.  Nevertheless, I believe there was much wisdom and light that came out of the darkness and foolishness that bestrode this year like the Cyclops in Odysseus.  Karen made me promise not to get into politics as I wanted to talk about the greatest event that has happened for me in the past four years, so I will leave it to your imagination.

We have remained healthy (so far) and are now awaiting our queue for the vaccine.  Amazing, since we usually each get at least one cold per year.  No colds this year.  Like most of you, numerous travel plans were disrupted and many things we looked forward to doing were replaced with more quiet and downtime.  Two components of my life which I now realize were not as pervasive as they should have been.  I was substitute teaching at the high schools in Casa Grande until the middle of March.  I chose not to return when the schools opened and will forgo any classroom teaching until we have both been vaccinated.  I miss the students as they are always fun and challenging.

I am working on a book of my short stories and have continued to write my weekly blog.  I write a mixture of what I like to think is “creative non-fiction” and fiction.  Much of my non-fiction is either political or spiritual.    I decided that with the help of my friend Socorro, I will take 30 of my short fiction stories and put them into one book.  In December, last year, I published a book of my blogs dealing with the subject of time on Amazon.  I called the book “The Sigh of Time.”  Writing is my main creative outlet these days.  Creative is subject to interpretation I suppose.  Well, time to turn this missive over to Karen.

Karen:  I’ll save the places we didn’t go for another year when hopefully we can get out beyond our 4 walls.  Traveling between WI and AZ homes was uneventful and safe as we are self-contained with the travel trailer.  We also enjoyed a camping trip to Bayfield in the fall and very am grateful for the trailer as we had deluges of rain several days.  I managed to pick 11 pounds of blueberries to take back home.  I’ve missed the 2 dulcimer festivals we usually attend and the Tucson Dulcimer ensemble, singing in choir, and performing for the nursing homes and assisted living.  I have a small uke group that is fun and has been meeting outdoors, and I also did a virtual dulcimer festival online called QuaranTUNE.

My creativity takes a more practical bend.  I refinished our Arizona kitchen and bathroom cupboards; made a dress I still haven’t worn and some flannel nightshirts for John to lounge around in as well as knit a bunch of baby sweaters and a couple of shawls to donate to Pilgrim Lutheran in Frederic.  We’re enjoying raspberry jam from our wild bushes in the back yard.  The summer project was to tackle the bookcase full of photo albums.  That included albums from my parents, grandparents, great aunt, John’s albums, and everything I’ve accumulated in more than 50 years.  Many bags into the trash, and I’m down to about 10 newly created albums which I will eventually move to AZ.  Next summer I’ll start in on the travel pictures from all the places we have visited in the last 35 years.

Our extended family is doing well.  Juli came to AZ in January, staying with Megan in Chandler before the pandemic.  Kevin, Susan, and Megan are all working from home.  Kevin apparently had Covid early in the epidemic but couldn’t be tested as he wasn’t a high enough risk.  I was delighted when Kevin took a trip to WI and came to see me on my birthday.  I did my usual fun visit to Susan for the four days John is away at his annual Jesuit retreat and spent a day with Juli.  Megan and I have done our Christmas cookie baking weekend and our lefse day.  Our grandchildren are certainly not children anymore.  Garrick is back at home with Juli and Rob and is a good support for Juli.  Logan is attending college and works as a pet attendant with her beloved animals.  Zach graduated from his master’s program and has been working at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa coaching baseball.  He has now accepted a position in Worthington MN as head baseball coach at their community college.  Sam is in his senior year at Augsburg and working as a pharmacy tech part-time.

We wish you and your loved ones health and happiness in 2021.

John and Karen