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.