Memorable Events of 2022

2022 has been a year with more memorable events than most years.

My health. For most of the year, from the surgery at the beginning of the year until early fall, my health seemed to be sputtering; it was the longest period of my life to be uncertain that my health was good to excellent. Fortunately, it seems that I have recovered and am back to feeling as healthy as in recent years. Every other time I was concerned about my health was much shorter in duration: the month before and after pregnancy in 1989 and the month after a surgery in 2006.

Pets and family. 3 kittens…oh my! They are getting a little older now but still quite capable of causing havoc. The last time we had a kitten around was in 1985. The first baby in over 20 years has arrived in my extended family…and he adds a whole new dynamic to family gatherings. The milestone 70th anniversary of my parents adds to the list of memorable events in this category.

Home and Travel. Moving from Maryland to Missouri was a big undertaking and we’ll probably look back years from now, seeing it as a pivot point in our lives just as the move from Texas to the east coast In 1983 turned out to be. On a smaller scale, the week in London, Ontario was memorable for time spent in another country (the longest since my trip to Mexico City in 1966 when I was in elementary school) and the amount of time I was on my own in a new place.

Changes in the world. Queen Elizabeth II’s death is on my list this year because she was queen for my whole life…a constant in the world that I consciously knew would not last but that I will miss. The other change is one that reversed something that was constant for my entire adult life and increased my confidence that I would receive the care I needed when my husband and I decided to have a child (which we did successfully and without complications); when Roe v Wade was overturned, I became anxious that younger women will not have access to the same level of care that I did.

I am hoping that 2023 will be a little less memorable!

Unique Aspects of Days – September 2022

The unique aspects for September….

Queen Elizabeth II died. The event is something that will be memorable about 2022. Her coronation was in the year I was born...she was the only well-known person I can think of that was on the international stage for that long period. Closer to home – her death accompanies the older generation of my family ebbing away. I am fortunate that both my parents are still around.

Making a quick run to Walmart for coffee. My dad makes coffee every morning and had somehow forgotten to tell anyone that there was not enough left in the container to make another pot. If I had not been visiting…they just would not have had any morning coffee that day!

Murmuration of pigeons over the Walmart parking lot. Somehow lots of pigeons were on the Walmart parking lot…and they flew up in a big swirl when they were startled by something (maybe a car?) and they did the usual turning in unison….the undulating ebbs and flows in the air. It seemed like they stayed a loft longer than required to escape danger and I wondered if the birds enjoy the ‘dancing’ in the sky.  

Talking with a man hauling hay at the gas station. I stopped to buy gas at a very large gas station just off the highway and a man with a trailer full of the round bales of hay pulled up on the other side of the pump. We had a short conversation and l learned: he is getting $60/bale rather than $30 he got last year, his fields are Johnson grass and cows like that kind of hay, this haul was from the 3rd mowing.

A upside down truck on the highway. The only time I got on the highway once I was in Carrollton, there was an upside truck on the other side….traffic just beginning to back up. It wasn’t obvious how the accident occurred; the truck was against the dividing wall that kept it from crossing over to the other side of the highway. I came back an hour later and could see that the truck was still there (upside down), but a crane has been brought in….and it was rush hour. Fortunately, I was already at my exit and the backup only slowed me down for about 5 minutes.

Rats. My parents had their house treated for rats. Insulation in the attic was replaced and holes in the eaves were sealed. There is a 10-year warranty. Hopefully this is a truly unique experience.

Grilling when it was windy. We didn’t use our gas grill when it was windy at our Maryland house, but we discovered that the house does a reasonable job of blocking the wind at our Missouri house….another reason to like our new location/house.

Laundered/dried our pillows in our new appliances. We don’t launder pillows frequently…and this was the 1st with our new washer and drier. We discovered that the sensor in the drier thought they were dry when they were dry on the outside…but not on the inside. We had to manually run the drier again….but the process was still faster than with our older appliances.

Bakery bread. I have started looking at the list of ingredients for breads…and buying ones where the ingredients are about the same as for homemade bread. It seems like commercial breads have a long ingredient list. I’m finding that the bakery breads with the shorter list taste great and are easier for me to digest.

A third COVID booster. My husband and I got the 3rd COVID booster along with a flu shot (one in each arm). I had more side effects (sore arm, aches) with this 3rd shot than I did the second…but they only were bothersome for about 24 hours and were completely gone in 48.