A Homer's Travels Look Back At 2020

2020 … What an unending shit show. A year of two pandemics: one a deadly virus and the other a narcissistic proto-Fascist.  We learned just how ignorant and selfish our fellow Americans are.  It seemed like another bad thing happened every day and the days went on forever … but not in a good way.  A year of anxiety and mental funk that can not be over soon enough.

Let's look back at the dumpster fire that was 2020, shall we:

• January: Like last year, when we started the year in Iceland, we started 2020 in a foreign county - this time Chilean Patagonia.  I announce my departure from Facebook.
• February: On the first of the month I officially deleted my Facebook account.  A quiet month with an extra Leap Day to lengthen this unending year even more.
• March: The pandemic cometh.  This was the month things started to shut down due to COVID-19.  The beginning of spring brought some hope it would not last long.  The birds returned to our backyard while toilet paper mysteriously disappeared.
• April: On the anniversary of the start of my Appalachian Trail (AT) attempt I decided not to go back to finish the last three hundred miles.  My annual exam shouted "Diabetic".  We had eight inches of late snow.
• May: Gloves and masks became more plentiful … in the roadside garbage.
• June: I recognized that while I was accounted for … I was not present in the world.  This lack of presence started when I returned from the AT and has persisted through the year.  Omaha participated in the protest of inequality and injustice.  Summer arrived and with it came a surge in COVID-19 cases.  Is there a limit to human idiocy?
• July: We celebrated our twenty-third anniversary and my fifty-seventh birthday.  2020 not being satisfied with just a pandemic, Santiago had to be put down this month as well.
• August: This month included an almost tragic bunny tale, a return of a monarch, and the positive news of a negative result.
• September: I remembered 9-11 and the changing of the seasons.  I struggled with my many AT what ifs.  I got the flu which, in the time of COVID-19 is actually good news.
• October: The Wife and I did one of the most important things of the year and voted.  The Wife had another birthday.  We ended the month with a quiet Halloween.
• November: The elections dominated this month as it has most of the fall.  Music helped get through some of it.  Thanksgiving produced yet another surge.
• December: I updated my Appalachian Trail posts.  The Christmas season started.  I forgot.  What kind of surge will Christmas bring?  The vaccine has its work cut out for it.
• Walking: I restarted walking this year with a new purpose: coping with diabetes.  I hiked 640.6 miles over 73 hikes.  It is the fourth highest mileage since I started keeping track in 2007.  I'm actually surprised how much I hiked this year.  It didn't feel like that much.
• Biking: This year I didn't ride my bike at all.  No excuse.  I just wasn't present enough to go riding.
• Books: The funk I was in wasn't conducive to reading and I only read one book this year.  Here are my Goodreads Stats for 2020.  I did read some back issues of magazines but the real replacement for my reading was either sleeping or listening to podcasts (often both at the same time).
• Concerts, Shows & Music :  COVID-19 … need I say more?  No live shows at all this year.  I did listen to a lot of music on Spotify.  Here is my Spotify 2020 Wrapped if you want to explore what I did music-wise this year.  The playlist really doesn't mean much since I mostly listened to my "Music I Like" playlist on shuffle so the 2020 recap is more a testament of what the Shuffle Random Number Generator algorithm picked for me.

• I posted 58 times this year - the lowest since I started Homer's Travels in 2006.  I posted less than I did on the Appalachian Trail.  Sad.  I just couldn't get myself motivated to write.  We didn't go on vacation this year along with almost everyone else.  I didn't want to talk about the pandemic.  I didn't want to post about politics.  There was too much of that out there and everything else was overpowered.  I didn't feel like adding to the dreary mess that we were bombarded with in 2020 so I didn't. 

There is hope on the horizon but there was hope on 2019's horizon as well.  No one saw the pandemic coming and no one knew just how unprepared we were.  But with the vaccinations finally being distributed and a change of leadership we can start dreaming of normalcy again.  How will the future unfold changed by this year's experiences?  Some things will have slowed.  Other things will be accelerated.  The future is in our hands.

Here's to a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy, and Boring New Year for all.  May all your dreams come true in 2021.

Merry Christmas To All

I hope you are all having a merry, healthy, and safe Christmas.  The Wife and I are having a quiet Christmas at home.  I will be taking a Christmas walk followed by Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas!

We were both good this year.  The Wife got two 32" televisions to compliment her 70"+ television in her She-shed.  She can now watch three games at the same time which makes her She-shed the closest thing to heaven for the Wife.

I put the balls in the tree this year.  They didn't
handle the wind we had a couple days ago very well.

I received a new Tempest weather station to replace our aging one.  The new one had no moving parts using some innovating methods to measure wind speed and rain accumulation.  I'm still working on mounting it properly to get accurate readings.

Mom have us gift cards, twizzlers (a Christmas custom), and a box of heirlooms, including a couple from Guatemala) that will decorate our house. (Thanks Mom!!!)

2020 is almost over.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Today is the winter solstice.  Today, as it is still 2020, will certainly be the longest shortest day of the year.  Winter has begun.  I was hoping for a cold, snowy winter but there is little evidence for that at the moment.  Maybe in 2021.

Also, tonight there will be a conjunction on Jupiter and Saturn.  The two planets will line up forming what looks like a bright star.  It has been suggested that a similar conjunction was the "Star of Bethlehem" that guided the Three Wise Men.

Finally the conjunction will be joined by the small Ursid meteor shower.

Let the lengthening of the day ... BEGIN!!!

Forgotten Remembrances

The last Camino marker
at Faro Fisterra 

 As I was walking today I heard "Walk on the Ocean" by Toad the Wet Sprocket.  This song always reminds me of sitting on the rocks near Faro Fisterra watching the sun set on my second Camino.  As I was brought back in time by the music I realized that I hadn't posted a second Camino anniversary post.  Not only had I forgotten but I'd missed it by nearly two months.  This bummed me out.  My two Caminos (and now, to some extent, my Appalachian Trail hike) were very important events in my life right up there with meeting the Wife and our marriage.  To forget them ... not a good thing.

This is just another symptom of where I've been since I returned from the Appalachian Trail.  As I mentioned in June, I have not been present since I've gotten back and the year since my return has done little to fix it.

I am disconnected from my life and now I am missing things important to me. I am losing connection in my life. Something needs to change soon before I'm too far gone.

It Has Finally Started

 A bit late this year but it has finally come.  The first bloom on our Christmas Cactus.  Usually it blooms earlier in December but better late than never ... especially after the year we just lived through.

The first bloom of the Christmas season.

Happy Holiday Season's Beginnings Everyone!!!

History Updated

Last September, nearly a year after I returned from the Appalachian Trail (AT), I decided to reread my posts from the time on the trail.  As I read memories flooded back along with typos and bad formatting.  I decided that it was time to do something I have never done on Homer's Travels - I edited the posts.

Over the last couple months, on and off, I have edited all my AT posts. I corrected errors, massaged the formatting, and most importantly I added stories that, for one reason or other, were omitted from the original post.  I'm sure there are some stories still missing from the record but some things only make sense if you were there.

So, if you are interested in my 2019 AT adventure, go back to April 2019 and reread the posts and learn a little more about my adventures along the way.