Seems like the gaps between blog posts just keep increasing. I really thought I had written something in December or something, not August of 2020!
Well, let's go through the months, shall we:
September/October:
The coronavirus was going as strong as ever during these months and the kids were doing blended learning. Nothing really happened as we stayed home most of the time. No one got sick as far as I can remember. I really can't remember that far back. I'm sure we had a couple of family gatherings wearing masks and staying outside, though. I think they did go out during Halloween, but for a short time. For the first time in a long time, we just left a bowl out for people coming by. I don't think anyone took more than their share.
Oh, almost forgot. There was a huge ice storm (record breaking, I think) that came through over a few days and man, was it something. It wasn't like the ones in the past where it iced up the trees for a day or two and have it melt the next day. This was longer than normal, so the amount of ice was crazy. I would say that 25% of all of our tree branches broke and was on the ground. Well, at lease the back yard trees. The front did better. It was like a tornado went through the back yard. We cut and cleaned up the back yard for days afterwards and piled it up on the side. I kept a lot of the usable branches to make firewood as well as collapsible castles with. It was super cold during it as well and as with most ice storms that pass through here, the power goes out when it does. And we lost power for 2-3 days, I can't remember exactly. The house hovered around 50 degrees for those days and it was cold. We did have the fireplace on a lot, but it really doesn't heat the house, just the immediate area. I set up a "hot house" with some pvc pipes and blankets which helped a little, but not much. Everything in the fridge was ruined of course. I think it was right after a grocery run, too. It really shows how much we are reliant on electricity day to day and we don't realize it until it's gone. We survived it, though. The power finally came back on and when it did, it was like, whoa, wait, the lights are on! Thankfully, though, while the power was out, the gas wasn't, so that meant our hot water heater worked fine throughout it all. I still can't figure out why, because I always thought that while the gas doesn't go out, the water heater needed electricity in some way to start and stop the warming of the water. I guess ours doesn't.
The Lemons lost power for longer, I believe almost a week longer, so they came over for a couple of days to "be normal," somewhat. I think the kids did go back to school the following Monday, too...or maybe they didn't until later that week. I can't remember. Anyway, it was during this time that the idea of having a generator came back to the front of my to-do list. I've always wanted one, but the storage, maintenance, cost, etc. wasn't worth it. Like, how many times a year do we lose power? And for how long? I think I can remember a couple of times we've lost power over the last few years and it was only for a few hours at most, except this ice storm. Anyway, the Lemons were using a neighbors generator a bit during it and I thought, well, I think this might be the next big thing to purchase. Ones that produce big power is big and expensive, but a small one isn't too bad, at around $400. It would at least power one of our fridges, if not both if we do it right and some lights + electronics. And even the electric heater so we have some kind of heat if it happens in the winter. The bigger one is about $750, I believe. There are more powerful models, but those don't provide clean power, which I would want, although in an emergency, it might not matter as much. They are much louder, relatively, as well. There's a lot of pros and cons. I would hate to lose power during the hot summer months and a small generator wouldn't power the A/C, which would sort of defeat the purpose. I need to research a bit more. Anyway, perhaps this was a foreshadowing of more cold days ahead in 2021...
November:
This month was all about the election, for sure. It was a super tight race. It was probably the first time I actually paid attention to all that was happening, mostly through CNN. Connor was super into it, too, as I pretty much had the votes tally on my other monitor the entire time. After the election was "over," it dragged on for a couple of weeks afterwards due to all the recounts they (Trump) requested, to no avail. I kept up on the news probably until early January, before I dialed it back on keeping tabs on it. I was doing it mostly to see what would happen to Trump, but of course, nothing has happened so far. I think we had Thanksgiving at Laura's parents' house...yeah, I think we did. I really can't remember far back anymore! Ah, yes, I remember now. We quarantined for 2 weeks prior to it. Ellen and Matt came as well. They were all nervous, but everything turned out fine.
December:
Probably the strangest year to have Christmas. I put up the Christmas lights on the house probably the week after Thanksgiving when the weather was just right. Everything went up easily. We put more lights up this year along the north fence. Connor likes to help, but really just to climb up onto the roof. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as December. We quarantined for 2 weeks again for Christmas and then we had our usual New Years party. I think we had it before the new year this year due to timing, but I can't remember, again.
January:
Hm, 2 months ago and I'm having trouble remembering if anything exciting happened. Well, I had a lot of appointments lined up for this month. Oh, I had a doctor's appointment in December because I wasn't feeling normal and my back was hurting me since the ice storm in October. I thought something was really wrong, so I decided to head in. He started me on physical therapy in mid-January and also had a physiatrist appointment scheduled, which got moved to Feb. I had a dermatologist appointment on the 27th I think at which I removed the mole that I was concerned about near my eye. It turned out to be a regular mole via a biopsy, but glad that it's gone now. Nothing else, really. Laid back birthday and all.
Februrary:
Another month of not much going on. Laura's birthday went good. Some cold spells here and there. This is around the time I was getting into the stock market with the big Gamestop fiasco going on. I tried to buy some Gamestop, chickened out. Bought some AMC thinking it was going to do the same thing. It didn't and lost $160 or so (out of the $250 I was using). Sold it surprisingly when it randomly came back up at a price I had set at but forgot about. Still at a loss, but was down $80. Then I bought 1 share of Gamestop when it was re-doing what it did back in January. I'm actually break even now from where I was. $10 profit, even. I bought at $100, sold at $188. Then in the next 2 days, it went even higher to like $350, but I had already sold it. Darn. I couldn't resist and bought back 1 share at $264 again and that's where I am today. They're saying in the next week or so, it's going to sky rocket. We'll see about that. All I really want to do is to make my $250 back and then have some play money leftover to play with the market slowly and who knows, maybe make that into a lot of money, ha.
March:
This weekend, we are set to head to Beaver's Bend State Park for Connor's birthday gift early, since it's going to be spring break. They have gone back to school full time since this week after I kept thinking it's probably okay now and they should be able to experience finishing off the year semi-normal.
Oh, and another big news. Laura had signed me up for Covid shots in February and I did get an e-mail saying I was eligible for phase 2, even though I personally think I wasn't. Anyway, I got my first shot a few weeks ago and my 2nd shot is next Friday. So, that's great news.
I think that's it for now. Let's hope things keep staying positive into the summer. More stimulus checks coming as well!