My first full year without Jett. I survived. I even had a modicum of fun. But I still miss her.
So… 2021. Another year of COVID. A trip north (TN7) and a longer trip south (TS7). A cruise (PCL2). What were the highlights and lowlights?
Highlights:
- Good health. I was healthy all year, which is pretty remarkable considering COVID-19 was raging. First vanilla COVID, the the Delta variant and, at the end of the year, the Omicron variant. Through it all I had nary a sniffle. The worst days, health-wise, were the days following my COVID vaccinations.
- No major rig problems. While I had two truck failures that required tows, neither turned out to be significant. The most expensive repair (my bathroom faucets) could be considered routine maintenance.
- Found my brother. Ron, my younger brother, had been missing for 5 years. Thanks to some terrific investigative work by Jett’s son, I found him in August in Ellsworth ME. And he was happy to be found. That made me feel really good.
- A fantastic cruise. The one-week cruise on the Sky Princess in December was a blast! It was gratifying to discover that a Jett-less cruise could still be fun.
- TS7 highlights. The 4,000-mile trip south via WI was a pleasant bit of travel. Seeing friends in Madison was wonderful and I got to finally visit the battlefield in Vicksburg MS.
- TN7 highlights. The trip north was shorter than the trip south, but included some time in VA, with Jett’s family, and Cartersville GA turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
- Headstone photographs. Taking photos of headstones and posting them in findagrave.com is always gratifying. The Silver Lake Cemetery in Athol MA proved to have many headstones without photos and it was quite hilly so I got some good exercise.
- WooSox. The move of the Boston Red Sox’s AAA minor league affiliate from Pawtucket RI to Worcester MA was an unexpected boon. I saw 3 games.
Lowlights:
- Quabbin Pines RV Resort. This new “resort” was my home for 3 months. But it wasn’t ready to open. I lived there, illegally, with electricity provided by a 20A circuit from an extension cord run from the office and no sewer for the first month. Just horrible.
- Truck damage. An exploding tire in August 2021 blew out the entire right rear quarter panel. I expected that it would be difficult to fix but have learned that repair may be impossible. This is an existential threat to the truck and, potentially, to my life “on the road”.
- Two tows. While it is true that there were no major mechanical problems with the truck or the RV in 2021, I did have to have the truck towed twice early in the TS7. Both problems turned out to be trivial to fix, but the angst resulting from those breakdowns was severe.
- TGA. While my health in 2021 was generally superb, I did have two health-related incidents. The loss of several hours from my memory in July, diagnosed as Transient Global Amnesia, was scary. But the doctor was reassuring, saying that it was usually just a “blip” and didn’t indicate a more serious condition. Rare but benign.
- EMASS softball. I played summer softball for the first time in 2 years and it didn’t go well. I performed poorly and sprained my wrist to boot. Plus I had to drive an hour each way to play poorly. A miserable summer of softball.
- Summer rain. Compounding my poor play was the poor weather. Of the 16 scheduled games, 6 were rained out. Add in the two games that I missed due to the wrist injury and my summer softball season was reduced to half a season. July had measurable rain in 28 of the 31 days. Miserable weather.
I can’t categorize these as either “highlights” or ‘lowlights” but they were significant events for me in 2021:
- Weekend of memorial services. Two of the members of my very close-knit college fraternity class of 14 died in 2021. Memorial services were arranged for consecutive weekend days in July. It was a weekend of renewed friendships and great sorrow.
- Getting the COVID vaccinations. Arranging the COVID vaccinations proved to be difficult and was a major activity in February. When I finally got the vaccinations it was more due to a scheduling error than my diligence. An error that worked in my favor. The vaccinations kicked my butt more than any other vaccination that I have ever received, but I was still very happy to have gotten them.
Bottom line: 2021 wasn’t good, but it wasn’t a disaster, either. But there is plenty of room for improvement in 2022.