Although the blog is for 2019-2020, I couldn't resist posting one of the last pictures of Weezie from Dec 2018 before she joined Jasmine in a very happy dog friendly world.
NYE 2018
No big celebration this year because tomorrow we celebrate Dave's birthday on the flight to CA. It will be our first full winter in Palm Desert. No more entries on this blog for 3 1/2 months.
Jun 2019
We ran the Hollis 5K with a bunch of Dave's friends from Oracle.
Nov 2019
We got back from Palm Desert just in time to 'work' at Gina's fundraiser for her new business venture, 'Cocktails In Hell'. Here's a link to the Cocktails in Hell Facebook Group.
Great weather for the annual Thanksgiving 5K in Ayer where we caught up with Kari before the race.
Jan 2020
2020 started with us selling the house in Massachusetts and moving to New Hampshire. Dave left to open up the condo in Palm Desert on January 19th while I stayed for the house closing and finishing up the move. On February 2nd I left to join Dave in California.
May 2020
On May 12th we flew home from Palm Desert after a crazy COVID-19 winter in California. We waited until a mandate was made to have passengers where face masks on flights. Click on the link to our blog about the 2020 California Events. We have no idea when we'll be able to safely fly back to CA. Off the jet and wearing our masks as we walked through an empty Logan Airport - what a surreal feeling.
Spring and Summer Renovation Projects
We had a tons of home improvement projects in the works so the months of May, June and most of July was spent painting, working with kitchen remodelers, plumbers, electricians, and tile and floor installers. We wanted to just get it over with as quickly as possible so we could enjoy some portion of the summer.
How it looked when we purchased the condo in December 2019.
How it looked when we returned in May 2020 from Palm Desert.
How it looked during the remodeling/renovations.
The finished product....now time to enjoy the summer.
Luckily in May, the Assisted Living Facility where my parents live began allowing in-person outdoor visits.
June
We were so psyched that our development had pickleball courts. A neighbor even manages to keep the courts in good shape. Paula and Scott joined us for our first games at the new house. We even managed to buy good quality rackets.
You can tell we're home when we have mint plants.
August
Weston & Mackenzie's Wedding
Weston and Mackenzie had planned on getting married in September at the family summer home in Heath, MA. Due to their COVID concerns of flying from Seattle to MA and then being exposed to wedding attendees, they cancelled the MA wedding and had a Zoom wedding streamed for family and friends from their backyard in Seattle. Not quite what was planned but still a beautiful ceremony with plans for a one-year anniversary party next Aug in Heath.
But the story did get picked up by the New York Times.
September
Apple picking in the COVID era.
Nashua River Rail Trail
Once we got our biked tuned up, we ventured on the Nashua River Rail Trail. The start of the trail was only 3.5 miles from the house. So if you add the 12 mile trail from Nashua to downtown Ayer you get a great 31 mile bike ride on an autumn afternoon.
This huge turtle was just lying in the middle of the trail. It's shell was at least 8-10 inches in diameter.
October
Happy 4th anniversary lunch outside at the Lobster Boat in Litchfield, NH. This was the first sit-down restaurant meal we'd had since Feb 2020.
What a difference a year makes. The last 3 years we've spend some portion of the fall in Palm Desert-Palm Springs area. New England is beautiful but we're still missing CA.
Fall 2019
Fall 2020
This happened too fast! Oct 24th on the left and Oct 31st on the right.
We celebrated a 4th generation to the family during this pandemic year. Welcome Grant!
November
We found a new way to participate in Palm Spring Pride events. We both completed the virtual PRIDE 5k road race on November 8th. Big surprise...Dave did better than me once again. He finished 8th overall while I finished 24th overall.
November 8
Really now! We do miss Southern CA but we could do without the CA-like earthquake. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a rare earthquake occurred off the coast of Massachusetts on Sunday morning, but no serious injuries or damage was reported. The magnitude 3.6 earthquake hit around 9:10 a.m. local time, a few miles off the coast of New Bedford, MA, in Buzzards Bay. Earthquakes in New England are commonly felt very far away because the rocks in this area are very contiguous, very old, so they transmit the energy very well from earthquakes.
November 9th & 16th
Finally, news the entire world has been waiting to hear since this pandemic struck.
It will be a busy 2021. National vaccine roll-outs throughout the year. Weston and Mackenzie will be back for a one year anniversary party to make up for the west coast remote wedding. Meg and Brad will be getting married a few weeks later in September. We all received the 'Save the Date' announcement.
December
After going for a walk in the neighborhood, we came back to this Barred Owl sitting in the backyard.
Finally the beginning of the end, but a lot more pain in the interim.
Dec 23
Meg received her first dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine. We are getting one step closer!
Dec 31 Thank God it's over!
A quiet NYE for us and so many other people around the globe. For almost 120 years, Times Square was the center of worldwide attention on New Year’s Eve. The ball was first dropped in 1907. Since then, it has been lowered on New Year’s Eve nearly every year, with breaks only in 1942 and 1943 because of World War II-related “dimouts” that required lights to be shut off as a protection against air attacks. On NYE 2020, the ball will drop but the entire area is closed to the public to stop the spread of COVID-19. Only select VIP guests and about 40 local frontline workers and their families were allowed. Each group watched the festivities from separate viewing areas. Among the frontline workers were an ER doctor, school teacher, grocery store worker and pizza delivery person.
On a positive note, both Dave and I met the Under Armor 2020 challenge of running, walking, or hiking 1,020 km during the calendar year. Dave finished well ahead of me in the top 3% of all participants with 1,863 km while I finished in the top 9% with 1,207 km. I mean after
all there wasn't much else to do in 2020 except exercise alone outdoors.
We can all hope that 2021 is a much better year. The bar has been set so low from 2020.
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