Christmas 2020
Wow. What a "dumpster fire" of a year this has been. This is probably the first time I can't wait for a year to end. Our terrible pandemic will probably make life different for another year or so, and the world is going to be "outta whack" for some time. I guess we all just need to get used to it.
House in Rush, June 2020
The two houses in Rush are both rented now. Monika and I traveled several times from New Jersey to work on the "little house". We cleaned and painted everything. It is now restored to how it was when sister Sue and I lived there in the late 1960's. A new generation of small children call the place home now.
The kids are doing fine as well. All are making adjustments to working from home or whatever other restrictions they must endure. Anna is working at the Natural History Museum in London. She just finished a fantastic exhibit, which opened just in time for the museum to close it. Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature will probably be around for awhile after the pandemic ends. Eva is still at First Agency. Maria is in Rochester with Greg, working as a freelancer in graphic design. She serves as a kind of operations director for a record store. Monika is interpreting Polish for the New Jersey Courts, and I'm freelancing as a computer geek.
A family escape to the Adirondacks in October
No vacation to speak of this year. All the time went to construction projects, but we did escape to the Adirondacks for a week or so. Maria and Greg had a surprise for us.
Maria and Greg Maslyn were married via Zoom in October
"Oh, by the way, we got married via 'Zoom' teleconference last week"
We couldn't be happier for them, and hope for the day when we can have a big party to celebrate with all their friends and family.
For now, we see Eva and V occasionally and have video calls with everyone when we can.
I have taken to calling home "Camp Sunshine" where the food is good and the company is wonderful. The grounds are well maintained and the camp staff does its best to arrange healthy activities. I just didn't plan on staying at camp this long.
I'm organizing pictures and scanning and photographing the tons of weird stuff the family has kept over the years. I'll try to sell some, but most is just pretty to look at. I continue to preach a paraphrased version of a monologue scene from the film "Fight Club":
“Do not buy things that you do not need, with money you do not have, to impress people you do not like..”
Be well, and here's to the hope that 2021 will be of some relief to the events of 2020.
I have inherited a huge postcard collection, many from the early 1900's
