The end is almost in sight. Just two more days to go and we are through this godforsaken year. It wasn’t until this year I really learned to appreciate the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” This year has been interesting but for all the wrong reasons. It all started way back in January when Kobe Bryant died in that helicopter crash along with his daughter. Everyone should have seen that for the terrible omen it was, but we didn’t. We would regret it.

I have to be honest about COVID-19. Personally, it hasn’t affected me much at all on a day to day level. Once schools got cancelled in person and moved to virtual learning, Budge stayed home from March to August and that wasn’t a problem at all. Exactly the opposite, I wasn’t lonely for the entire spring. She was about to have a nervous breakdown because of the craziness with trying to move from in class to online, but I was thrilled to have her home.

It’s not like we go on tons of vacations or fly or anything the powers that be deem high risk. We stay around the house most of the time anyway so the quarantine didn’t bother us much. At first, I was concerned with toilet paper. That was the most hilarious thing of the whole year to me. Running out of food on the shelves I get. I even understood the Lysol wipes disappearing. Toilet paper though? We may not eat and we may all contract this dread disease but at least we’ll do it with clean bottoms! We got a line on some though and managed to stay supplied through the darkest days when all butt wipe seemed lost.

We cooked at home more just because it was easier than going for take out. I may have mentioned this here before, but Budge and I eat out A LOT. It’s just the two of us and somewhere along the lines we decided cooking and cleaning up afterward was an awful lot of work just to feed two people. So, restaurants became our friend. COVID put the kibosh on that pretty hard though. We’re heading back out now and we’re fortunate that the majority of places we love weathered the storm well. We didn’t lose any of our favorite eating places, but I know everyone can’t say the same thing.

The thing that’s bothered me the most about this whole pandemic is how polarizing it’s been. Everyone has sorted into camps. Believers vs. deniers. Maskers vs. non-maskers. Now we’ve got those who are anxious to get the new vaccine vs. those who have no intention of getting it. I’ve never seen such a divide in the country. I’m not stupid; I know a lot of it broke down along political lines, but I’m so worn out from politics I try not to think about that angle.

While we’re talking about that. Election years are always a pain to me. I despise political ads and the entire political process. In all my years, no elected official has made my life measurably easier or harder. I know that may not be the case for everyone. Anyway, I always figured election years were the worst and nothing would ever top them. I was wrong. How about a hotly, bitterly contested election that some people see as a referendum on the soul of the country? Sound dire enough? Okay, now let’s put it in the middle of the worst pandemic in a hundred years. 2020, the year that keeps on giving.

COVID screwed us all over. Every holiday after Memorial Day had some kind of backlash due to the virus. July 4th was a bust even if some people did get together and cause a few spikes in places. It was a long hard summer. Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually happy times when everyone can get together and things go great. Not this year.

But now it’s on to 2021 and I’m interested in seeing what will happen. Will the vaccine take hold and things slowly get back to normal? How will I handle turning 50 in a week? How will Budge and I celebrate 25 years of marriage? Lots of questions and those are just the ones closest to home. Only time will tell.

Love y’all and keep your feet clean and Happy New Year!