2020 in Review

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Hi My Lot, so, this time of year I feel like I do a lot of "in review" type posts. But isn't this time of year great for it with the turn of the calendar year? 2020 in review. Well. Yeah. I don't know if I have adequate words and since MyLot doesn't allow 4 letter words.... this will be a short post. (No, I'm just kidding!) My 2020 began well enough. My dad who had been acting nothing short of insane had finally gone to live at a nursing home. So much relief. I spent most of 2019 terrified about his worsening mystery condition and how mom and I were supposed to handle him. And now it was solved. He was safe and so were we. I was playing music with a group. Dance was continuing like always. I had some things on my social schedule, the right balance of stimulating and not too much. February I had a nice turn out to my birthday party, went to a friend's party, and had trivia, which I adore and a performance as well. That's where 2020 started getting weird. A local bar burned to the ground about a half hour after I had been at the establishment next door to it. It was just strange, and surreal. Of course we continued visiting my dad in the nursing home. My mom went multiple times a week and I was there at least once a week. His condition was worsening , but of course no-one thought it was worth while enough to tell us what he actually had. Dementia. March had us in Minneapolis at the Hope Lodge for Mom's appointments. The pandemic was just starting to get going here. Momma felt safe, so we walked to our favorite Chinese place, upscale place and we got our entrees as usual along with a couple of appetizers and drinks. Normally we don't indulge that much, but this time we did. I'm happy because the day after that is when we entered shut downs, and is the last time that we've eaten inside a restaurant until currently. Of course a few times through the summer we've gone through drive throughs, eaten in parking lots or on patios. But not inside a restaurant. How I miss it. Of course, shortly thereafter we were not allowed to visit dad at the nursing home. Once on the phone he didn't understand about the pandemic and he raged at us to come anyway, how the nursing home would make special exception for him. Little did he know a could short weeks later he would be correct. On 4/2 I saw my dad for the last time. He only came around once for a few seconds but I will always be grateful for that. He passed away on 4/5. I had been angry at him, he did a lot of things that weren't right. But I went from that into sadness. A lot of sadness. He was my dad. He loved me. I loved him even if he had problems. I'm sorry he couldn't enjoy life on earth but now, at least he would be out of his physical and mental pain. We had his service on 4/8/20, 28 years to the day after his parent's service arrangement. And so the spring and summer went by in a blur. I remember the weather warming up. Doing yard chores. Cleaning out the garage (got half done), my momma and I used the charcoal grill a lot. Sometimes we took little drives. I joined some online classes, did some Tony Robbins courses, did a little canning, but in all summer and fall went by in a blur. We avoid interaction in public for the most part. Sometimes we need to go in the gas station to pay, momma has Dr. appointments, but for the most part we do not interact with anyone. Rarely we have a friend over , this friend has been on chemo, so we trust that she is fairly safe. A few times over summer we patio dined with a friend of mine. That's about it though. Dance continues thanks to Zoom meetings. It is getting difficult I admit. Its almost a year of isolation. But I would rather not risk my mom or self getting sick. We're close now what with vaccine and all. I'm thankful for technology. I'm thankful for mom and myself being well. I'm thankful for getting all the essentials. And anything else in 21 will feel like a luxury I'm sure. Here's to 2021 being kind. Photo: Pixabay user Javier Rodriguez