Late January 2021 Status

We already have a couple of feet of snow and have another 6 to 8 inches this today.  We have been doing a fair amount of snowshoeing and skiing, just on our property and the neighbor’s land.  It’s nice  not having to drive to go skiing.  We have a HUGE puppy (we calls him “Clifford”) who needs exercise, and so it is best to just use our own trails.  Which are lovely, by the way.

Eric drove to school for the first time today, but fortunately was home not long after the snow started.  A huge milestone, to send the kid off in the car, and a little nerve-wracking. The school administration prefers that kids – at least seniors – not be in the building if they are not in class, and since his last class is a study hall, he just came home.  He is back doing in-person classes because of grades.  The deal was if he was not passing everything, he would return when in-person classes started up again.  He wasn’t, so he is.  He doesn’t like it and insists remote students get more attention than in-person students, but he has not raised a fuss at our insistence on living up to the deal.  Summer school may be in his future; although he may yet pull this out of the fire

They are talking about starting up high risk sports, but Eric says he isn’t going to play basketball.  He has realistically assessed that he is too far out of shape, and even if he made the team just by virtue of having been on it before, he wouldn’t get any playing time.

We got the first dose of our Covid vaccine last Sunday.  Scheduling was tough, we spent the better part of one day trying to get appointments on line.  The system often crashed (too many users) or appointments that were listed as available disappeared during the process (competition from other people).  That evening, Kathryn sat with my computer on my lap and logged in every 15 minutes when Lo! Some local appointments opened up and we nabbed them.  The vaccination sight was at the local SUNY and was extremely well organized.  We have had no reactions other than a sore arm for about 36 hours.  We go back on Valentine’s Day for our second dose.  It has been a huge relief to get the shot.  I know people who haven’t been able to get appointments, although I think things will open up soon.

Our nearest neighbor (across the street) died last week of the virus; she’d been in the hospital with it for 3 weeks.  Her husband, home alone, was very sick.  Kathryn was calling him every day because she was afraid he would get worse, and no one would know.  However, he seemed to pull out of it – two days before his wife died.  Both in their mid 70’s (which no longer seems old to me), both had some chronic health issues but nothing life-threatening.  She had broken her wrist in the autumn which required surgery and she had been in rehab for that; she was discharged and home only a couple days before she developed symptoms.  There seems no doubt she brought the virus home when she was discharged from rehab.  Though we weren’t extremely close, we’ve been neighbors since 1981 and that is a very long time to live across the street from somebody. 

The neighbor next to these folks died in the fall from pancreatic cancer.  She was Kathryn’s age and would occasionally ski together.  Kathryn said to be nice to because the wives around here don’t seem to be doing very well [a feeble attempt at humor]. 

On a more positive note, Kathryn has been swimming quite regularly at the Rome “Y”  and it makes her very happy.  She has played some pickleball there too which has been fun.

Kathryn is in the midst of the very large job of stripping off the wallpaper in the bedroom, which turns out not to have been very “strippable.”  Then to spackle, prime and re-paint/re-wallpaper.  It seems it is taking forever.

The puppy is 90 pounds and is looking quite huge (which is why Jim calls him Clifford).  Kathryn tries to get him out a couple times a day, if only for a mile or so (which is just enough to warm him up, certainly not enough to tire him out).  He is a good dog, though a bit rough with the older dog.