2020 Can't Say I Am Sorry to See You Go

Doesn't it seem like last New Year's Day was a decade ago? I went looking for photos and it just seems like forever. 

We babysit for some of our younger grandchildren and the baby had turned six months old. We decided it was time to leave the house and went on our first Friday Field Trip.  We took the kids out to lunch (first time for the baby in a high chair), and took our strollers to an indoor Lawn and Garden Show.  Unfortunately the next week had ice on the roads, so we stayed home. 

Instead of a field trip, I made peanut butter sandwiches and stepped into my kitchen. What used to be a straight bone in my upper arm turned into a displaced spiral fracture, my first ambulance ride, five hours in Room One of the Trauma Unit (I heard them say we are running red on their little radios), six days packed in ice, a six and a half hour surgery and an unexpected hospital stay. 

First week of lockdown. I would like to thank the United States of America for forbidding anyone I know from coming to visit me. 

Me, the next three months of a global pandemic. Still grateful for no visitors and extremely grateful to my husband who dressed me, fed me and assisted me on walks to the bathroom. Due to the pandemic, the physical therapy department of our hospital was closed so I developed a frozen shoulder in addition to the slowly healing arm and could barely move. And didn't move.

Easter

Birthdays - Yes I am wearing a hat. Still could not raise a hair brush to my head. My husband is wearing one, not as a compassionate man, but as a person making fun of me. 

Homeschool because parents still have to work. 

By September I had discovered zoom tea parties and combed hair. 

And by the time the parents contracted Covid, I was able to comb my hair and host an online storytime for quarantined grandchlldren. 

Thanksgving. You can see how this is going. 

Christmas. I love this screenshot. The top couch has missing parents chasing 3 preschoolers, we have lost one screen with me, another screen with my son-in-law and grandson, a screen with the guy on the top right's parents and brother and my husband is scratching his nose. And don't the rest look thrilled. 

Our small county has now increased to 75-100 cases a day. At a neighborhood church they had more deaths in last 10 days than all of 2019 (not all Covid related - death rates are just up).  Our governor has asked schools to remain closed an additional two weeks after Christmas, but schools systems around us are going back full time or at best, hybrid for a few days a week.  I am not sure when we will ever get a handle on this.  The big news is that our county is now going to set up it's first testing center. Previously you had to contact a doctor, get a prescription for a test, make an appointment for the days that hospital does tests and then go for your appointment.  The new testing center will be open one day a week with no appointments or test orders required. So we are only 8-10 months  behind the curve.  Bah Humbug. 

Here's to a brighter 2021!