It’s the final day of 2020 – that alone is cause for some happiness. It’s a time to reflect back on the year and then consider the year ahead.

Favorite picture of the year: That’s a tough call. I took some good pictures in 2020 – not enough, but some good ones. So I’ll pick several. The first one is from January 4th, 2020. I like it because (a) it’s my brothers, and (b) it was weirdly prophetic. The masks have nothing to do with the pandemic – in January 2020 we’d never heard the word COVID. We wore the N95 masks while we were cleaning out Dad and Phyllis’ garage, full of some nasty dust and stuff. We had no idea that those masks would become de rigeur only a couple of months ahead. Very weird coincidence.

My next favorite picture of 2020 was taken in Cabo in February. I’m including it just because it’s a damn fine picture – I love the lighting.

My final favorite picture of the year has to be this one. It captures one of my favorite moments of the year, meeting Jesse.

Favorite song of the year: Texas Sun, by Khraungbin and Leon Bridges. That song kept me driving happily during the first pandemic cross-country trip. (Now that I think about it, my favorite song of 2020 is pretty much anything by Khraungbin. Though Texas Sun was my first.)

Favorite books of the year: The Expanse, books 1-6 (still have 7 and 8 to look forward to). According to Goodreads I read 84 books in 2020, totaling 28,738 pages. Yikes!

Favorite TV show of 2020: a tie between Yellowstone season 3 and The Expanse, all seasons. I’ve been binge-watching The Expanse seasons 1-4, saving the new season 5 for some down time in 2021.

Best meal of 2020: Has to be the luxe 11-course meal K and I shared at Manta in Cabo. Every course was superb. I wrote about it here, back in February.

Favorite moments of the year: A tie between (a) waking up not-dead after surgery, and (b) meeting and holding grandson Jesse for the first time.

Least favorite moment of the year: Seeing the George Floyd murder pictures/video for the first time. A stark reminder that man’s inhumanity to man knows no bounds. Call this a tie with the night of the election when it appeared that Trump might have won a second term.

Dave Winer over at Scripting News asks a very pertinent question:

“Why are we paying taxes to the US Treasury when the government won’t protect us from a deadly virus? Why are we funding a military when we can’t get vaccine into the arms of Americans? This is a war where, if we chose to fight it, we could win in 3 weeks. What’s the purpose of such an expensive military beyond protecting Americans?”

Why indeed? Our government lost its way a long time ago. It doesn’t serve the people’s needs, it serves itself.

This was a year we’d like to forget, but it will be remembered by all. Here are some of my key memories from 2020:

• The time spent in January in KY with my brothers, moving my Dad and stepmom from their independent home (where they were doing poorly) into a wonderful new assisted living facility. It was a massive job, with some tasks still in progress.
• The Nashville trip with Kathryn and Emily at the end of January.
• The trip K and I took to Cabo in early February. We were both sick (maybe COVID; we have our suspicions), but we wanted to make the trip. We pretty much just sat on the patio and watched whales and boats go by. The world still hadn’t rung the alarm bell when we left, so we can be forgiven for traveling then. That was our last airline flight of 2020.
• The realization in late March that things were going to be bad for the entire year. And it’s been worse than I imagined.
• The birth of grandson Jessamine Memphis Monsma (that’s still quite a name for the little guy) in May. And my subsequent cross-country drive to meet him.
• Taking grandson Hudson on his first fishing trip.
• My knee replacement surgery on August 31, then a month of rehab/recovery. I’m still amazed and grateful it went so well.
• Finishing the first draft of my novel and then realizing I was going to have to rewrite the damn thing. Still working on that.
• The second cross-country drive we took in October, to see kids and grandkids. We visited some of the Dionne family too.
• Seeing the Grand Canyon again and the AZ Meteor Crater for the first time.
• The crazy Presidential election, and POTUS 45’s subsequent and ongoing meltdown.
• The tough decisions we had to make about Christmas visitors. We were supposed to host 15 people, K’s side of the family, for the first time in a decade. That didn’t happen.
• Realizing recently that UK basketball season was going to be a bad one. Worst start in 110 years for UK. It figures.
• Living through an actual worldwide crisis, the pandemic, month after month. It’s like being a character in a dystopian movie. Probably the third worst disaster ever in America, after the Civil War and the 1918 flu.
• Visiting my Dad and stepmom by talking to them through a window. Kind of heartbreaking.
• The realization last month that much of 2021 will be a loss similar to 2020. There’s some hope on the horizon, but the bad times financially, pandemic-ly and culturally are far from over.

All in all, quite a year. One I will never forget, and hope to never repeat.

I saw this online today and just had to share it. It’s perfect:

Apparently the Washington Post ran a write-in competition for the best summary of 2020, and the winner (a nine year old from the mid-west) came up with this totally accurate description:

“2020 was like taking care to look both ways before you cross the road, and then being hit by a submarine.”

Yeah, that’s about right. Hit by a submarine…

Trying hard to stay positive lately, but this little chart shows how horrific our pandemic response has been. It’s as if we tried with all our might to be the worst. And we succeeded. American exceptionalism, indeed.

Well, we have a Christmas miracle or two after all. (1) After nine long months, it’s raining here. We’ve gotten about half an inch so far. And (2) Trump signed the COVID relief bill. Millions of people will get some financial relief – not enough, but better than nothing.

More later, but I wanted to get my thanks out to the universe immediately.

It’s Christmas Day, 2020. It sure doesn’t feel like Christmas, but there it is right on the calendar: 12/25/20.

For us, it’s Christmas COVID-style. No kids or grandkids, no siblings, nieces or nephews, not even any Socal friends visiting. Just us. We have a lot to be thankful for – I never entirely lose sight of that – but the losses of time, family and special events in 2020 are hard to accept.

We did get a nice little gift this morning, though. The management at Dad’s assisted living facility sent a note saying that all the residents there will receive COVID-19 vaccine on December 30. That’s great news, obviously. One more possible tragedy averted (probably).

Last night we watched a movie that I really wanted to see, Midnight Sky. A George Clooney-produced science fiction film, with George himself in the leading role. Sounds great! But watching it on Christmas Eve in 2020 was a mistake. The movie was well-done, well-acted, beautiful, but unrelentingly sad. I mean “end of the world, nothing matters any more, how could this happen” sad. Drive you to drink sad. Probably not what anyone’s psyche needs right now. So nice job George, well done, but shitty timing. Should have held on to this one until 2021, maybe 2022.

---

Update: We ended up having a great Christmas Day. We talked and texted with family and friends. We decided to do a little project we’ve needed to do for a while – decanting and bottling our 2019-harvested olive oil. So sticking with an Italian theme (we grow Italian olive varietals), we opened up a nice bottle of locally-grown Negroamaro and filled 45 bottles with some excellent oil. Was a great, un-traditional way to celebrate an un-traditional Christmas.

Big fire in Fallbrook last night. For some reason I woke up at 4am and checked the news, and bam…there’s a wildfire five miles from the house. 750 acres burned so far, but wind is driving it west into Camp Pendleton. Not a great way to wake up on Christmas Eve.

---

Updates: The fire is larger, but still tracking away from us. And the winds have died down, so CalFire and others should be able to handle it.

Yesterday’s water main break is also now fixed. I was able to “fix” it, but used a weak sort of PVC glue and the water pressure popped the pipes again. Thankfully a pro came out this morning and fixed it, teaching me a few things in the process.

Sooooo….a flood, then a fire in less than 24 hours. Not sure what’s next – earthquake or tornado. I wouldn’t put anything past 2020.

It’s the third day of winter 2020, and things are going about as expected. Kentucky basketball is at a 100-year low point and getting worse. Trump is a madman, pardoning criminals. Socal is still dry; no rain. Coronavirus is still beating the shit out of the US and has decided to mutate into something even more infectious. Cretinous pandemic-denying congressional members are getting their vaccine ahead of everyone else. Santa Claus crashed into power lines and had to be rescued. In other words, SNAFU.

Close to home, everything about Trump’s pardon of Duncan Hunter bothers me. Quote from CNN:

“Hunter, who was sentenced earlier this year to 11 months in prison and three years of supervised release related to his misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses, was recommended for a pardon by “many members of Congress,” according to the White House release.The former California lawmaker pleaded guilty in December 2019 to one count of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds and was set to be on supervised release for three years after serving his prison sentence. He was also required to participate in a drug and alcohol treatment program. Hunter would have started his sentence in May, but it was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and he would have reported to a federal prison in West Texas in January 2021. Hunter and his wife were indicted in August 2018 for lavishly spending on “items as inconsequential as fast food, movie tickets and sneakers; as trivial as video games, Lego sets and Playdoh; as mundane as groceries, dog food, and utilities; and as self-indulgent as luxury hotels, overseas vacations, and plane tickets for themselves, their family members, and their pet rabbits Eggburt and Cadbury,” according to prosecutors. Federal prosecutors charged that Hunter had fraudulently spent more than $200,000 on expenses that included a $14,000 Italian vacation and thousands of dollars on routine items like groceries, bedding and other household items. Hunter resigned from Congress in January, after winning reelection in California’s 50th Congressional District, which encompasses much of eastern San Diego County.”

The fact that he was my congressman bothered me. I was happy when he was convicted, but now he’s dodged justice completely. Not a day in jail.

---

Update 4-5 hours later. The day’s not getting any better. Big water leak on the property that’s taking me most of the day to fix. Nothing I love more than shovel work and kneeling down to work on my knees. And, I find that my hired hand “fixed” my Gator by attaching the seat incorrectly, and stripped the bolts. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make it right.

And yes, I’ll have some cheese with this whine.

They’re living in a different reality, politically and pandemic-ly. No wonder we can’t get this disease under control.

Republican superspreader event on Friday.

As I write this the sun is going down over Camp Pendleton and the Pacific, off to my west. Today was the beginning of week 52 on my 2020 calendar (yes, the end is near!) and the day before the Winter Solstice. And it was 83 degrees F and sunny. Not very Christmasy.

I managed to work out more today than I have in a long time. Ninety minutes of structured exercise, including rowing 5 kilometers. You’d think that would set me up to have a productive day, but after that all I’ve been able to muster is some reading and naps. I planned to break out the novel and write a chapter or two, but all I’ve got is…this.

One final thought. I watched Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” last night for the first time in a long time. It’s as if it were made in 2020, not 1989. It’s a great movie, but so sad that the movie’s tragedy of a black man killed by a cop’s excessive force was a thing back then and is still a thing today. Thirty one years since then and it appears we’ve learned nothing. I can’t even imagine how Spike felt about George Floyd – his killing was so uncannily the same as Radio Raheem’s in the movie.

There were no happy endings in the movie, or maybe they were just beyond the credits. That’s my hope for 2021 – the happy ending may be just a bit farther away than we can see.

I tried hard to find something positive to write about this morning. Several recent posts have been a bit dark. Pessimistic. So I landed on this thought about the future. What are the first things you’ll do when it’s safe to do them again?

My list is simple:

1. Get on a Southwest flight and go visit the kids, grandkids and my Dad, enjoying the miracle of six hour travel time (8 hours including the drive to the airport and check-in), as opposed to 30 hours of driving.
2. Take an international trip. Not sure where first, though we do have a South America / Antarctica trip scheduled for January 2022.
3. Have a dinner party with friends.
4. Go to any/all of my favorite restaurants, enjoy the meal and be happy that the price keeps someone in business.
5. Go wine tasting in Napa, Sonoma, Temecula or Paso. Or all of them.
6. Convince some friends and family to come visit and do some of the things on the list above.

The common elements in the list are (a) do things with people and (b) travel. Pretty basic stuff. How about you – what will you do?

It’s really hard not to get incensed about the TCF’s (Trump Crime Family) behavior in this transition period. Just lately they have:

• Lied to the states about how much vaccine the states are getting and when.
• Stolen $617M (literally stolen) from the Trump re-election campaign.
• Allowed a DoD minion to unilaterally cease DoD-intelligence briefings to Biden.
• Allowed the most significant hack of our critical systems, ever. By Russia, of course.
• Allowed the pandemic to rage unchecked across the nation, with no top-down leadership, no action, no mention of 320K dead Americans.
• Done their part to keep more COVID-driven financial aid from reaching American families and businesses. (They got theirs, though. $617M and counting).
• Granted unprecedented, unnecessary new access to energy and mining companies wanted to mine and drill on public lands, including national parks.

And that’s just lately. There are 32 days left until the inauguration of POTUS 46. Question is, will there be a functioning country and economy left by then?

We’ve had about one half inch of rain in the last nine months. For perspective, Death Valley gets an average of 2.5 inches per year. There’s no rain predicted for Socal in the next 2-3 weeks, when we should be in the “rainy season”. At this rate, we’ll be a pure desert in my lifetime. Not good.

This gift looks dangerous. Awesome, but dangerous. Your very own digital bartender. No flying cars or houses on the Moon yet, but a robot drinkmaker…you betcha. The voice interface is probably just around the corner. I can see it now. I’m in my car in heavy Socal traffic, and I activate Siri. “Siri, tell Alexa to make me a Moscow Mule. Have it ready at 515. And heavy on the bourbon.” Ain’t technology great?

It’s a big day today. We get a shipment of Chip’s Cookies today, direct from Louisville. Best. Cookies. Ever.

Seventeen million cumulative COVID cases in the US today. And I still see numbskulls on social media railing against masks and saying that it’s all a hoax. We are a very stupid country at times.

Recent research from NASA and SETI puts the number of human-habitable planets in our galaxy at 300,000. I like that idea a lot, but it sure brings up the Fermi Paradox – where is everyone? I know we’re a stupid species (see pandemic note above), but are we so bad that we’ve been quarantined from the galaxy? Where do we protest this unlawful sequestration?

I wrote this in Feb 2020. It seems quaint now.

“In other fun news, the coronavirus outbreak just keeps getting worse. 200+ deaths per day now, and tens of thousands reported as infected, primarily in China. Both these figures are likely under-reported, and if infection rates keep progressing as they have the last month…it’s very bad news. My personal fear is that the virus will enter the US in a big way soon and effectively shut down air travel. Trouble with that (aside from the obvious big picture issues) is that I want need to get to KY in May to see my new grandson and family. And yes, I know that’s pathetically self-centered and parochial. But there it is.”

And this, written in May.

“The final US death toll from COVID-19 is very hard to predict, but one thing that isn’t hard to predict is the new minimum number.  We’re at about 70,000 today, and I sure don’t think we’re at a peak. IF we were at peak, we’d see about the same number of deaths coming down the curve as we saw going up. So given that and given that many states are now relaxing restrictions, I’d put the minimum 2020 death toll at 150K-250K. The minimum.”

This is one instance where I would be happy being proven wrong.

Those musings now seem quaint because the US just passed 16M infected and 300,000 people dead of COVID. The reality is much wore than we imagined. Over 200,000 new infections and 2500 deaths reported every day lately. I wrote a lot about COVID during March, April and May, and turns out I had a pretty good handle on what was coming. Even so, I feel COVID fatigue every day. There’s a temptation to say “fuck it” and just get on with life without all the constraints. But that would be a huge mistake.

We saw the International Space Station this evening, making its way rapidly across the eastern sky. Six minutes from horizon to horizon. We were able to be in place and see it on schedule due to this cool little website / service, Spot The Station. Sign up for it and you’ll get text messages every time the ISS is visible at your location. I’m always inspired watching that tiny point of light race across the sky, knowing that people from several countries are aboard it doing scientific work. And exploring.

The news tonight was just depressing. Texas suing other states for electing Biden (!?!). Election deniers protesting violently. Mask deniers protesting violently. I have to keep reminding myself, half of all Americans are below the average (median) IQ. And some large percentage of them have been captured by the Faux News bubble. They just live in a different reality, one in which facts and science don’t matter much. I don’t begrudge them their beliefs, but their tendency to act out with violence is just as unacceptable as when hard-core lefties do the same. Get some perspective, people.

I have to say, even with all my activities, COVID is wearing me down. We have nothing to complain about on our hill in Socal – we are safe, healthy, financially OK, able to take long walks and never leave our property. And yet I’m weary of the new normal. I can only imagine how it feels not to have some or any of those advantages and still be weighed down by the pandemic. That’s just 2020.

Grandson Jessamine had to go to the hospital today for a scheduled outpatient surgery. We’re EXTREMELY happy that he’s come through it just fine and is on his way home. You can’t take anything for granted in 2020, so this was a little tense for everyone.

It does. It seems that our uneasy truce with the pandemic is ending. The news is full of dire warnings about hospital capacity and new case and death records every day, both in CA and nationwide. A full lockdown is pretty much in effect starting tomorrow for Socal. More than 200K news cases in the US every day now, and more than 2K deaths each day. It’s grim.

So I may have to rethink the “rules of engagement” that have worked for me so far. For months I’ve managed to keep life mostly normal by mask-wearing in public, using hand sanitizer after shopping, avoiding any prolonged stays indoors (other than where I’m living), and figuring outdoor activities like golf and hiking are safe. But with positivity rates skyrocketing everywhere in the US…it’s time to consider some changes. Maybe it’s as simple as hunkering down even harder from now to Christmas. About the only place I come into contact with friends is on the golf course (outdoors!), so that’s pretty much the activity that would suffer.

I sure wish the US had pulled a Melbourne months ago. Thousands of people would still be alive, and we wouldn’t be in this no-win situation. But as POTUS 45 says, “it is what it is”. He’s a real philosopher, that one.

My favorite nonprofit organization, 211 San Diego, gave me a great honor this week. I was elected Chairman of the Board for 2021. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that such a great group of people would select me as their fearless (actually, not so much) leader.

I should have written about 211 more on this blog. In a nutshell, what we do is help San Diegans. We help the people who most need help. We help the homeless, the hungry (I’m not a big fan of the current phrase “food insecure”), those with mental health problems, those who are suffering from abuse, veterans with problems…you name it. One way to explain it is “If your life is in immediate danger, call 911. If you’re having trouble with life, call 211 and we’ll find help.”.

Turns out that the dial code 211 is a national number, set aside by the FCC as a help line. All cities/counties/states answer those calls, but some deliver services better than others. We think 211 San Diego is the finest service organization of its kind in the nation.

We run an organization of 200+ people, including a call center, an outreach team, medical specialists, data and analytics experts, project managers, and so on. When someone calls us for help, we scour the Earth to find community and social services that can help them, then we get them signed up for the same. And we follow up with them. Sometimes over and over, but that’s OK.

My more conservative friends may take umbrage with our organization facilitating the use of social services, many of which are funded through tax revenues (others are funded by private grants and donations). So be it. But I fall squarely on the side of “we’re the wealthiest country in history, and those of us with ability and resources have a moral obligation to help our neighbors who need help.” It’s not socialism, it’s moral and ethical common sense. One way or another we (211 San Diego) assist over half a million people per year with a problem in their lives. And that feels pretty great to me.

And…it’s now December. December 2nd to be precise. I present to you some numbers relevant to the day:

• Only 29 days left in the raging dumpster fire of a year called 2020.
• 23 days until Christmas, but only about 7 days to get your packages shipped to arrive on time.
• 49 days until the inauguration of POTUS #46. I. Can’t. Wait!
• Just over 275K US citizens now officially dead due to COVID. More than 2600 new deaths just yesterday, and more than 182,000 new cases yesterday. (COVID stats from World ‘O Meter.)
• POTUS 45 just played his 302nd round of golf while in office, at taxpayer expense. He’s on track to play golf a solid year of his 4 in office. The good news – imagine the extra harm he could have done as a 100% at work POTUS, instead of the 75%-ish we got.
• My beloved UK Wildcats just lost their 2nd game in a row. Gonna be a tough season, but I’m happy to see some UK hoops. Hope the players all stay healthy.
• I broke the ice and spent 15 minutes on the rowing machine yesterday. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
• It’s dry as a bone in Socal. We would normally have 3 inches of rain at this time of year, but we’re stuck at 0.5 inches with no rain in sight. Not good.
• According to Goodreads, I’ve now read 80 books this year. My (conservative) goal was 40, so that’s not bad. I really slowed down during the 2 months I was doing cross-country drives this year, and that’ll keep me from reaching 100. That and my proclivity for books with 500+ pages.