Looking Back: 2020

At the beginning of December, the Bay Area was placed back into Stay at Home lockdown. Although plans for this December were not as hearty as other years, I did hope to have a couple of socially distanced gift exchanges or hikes with friends. Instead, I put packages in the mail or dropped them off on people's porches. I scheduled a new round of video calls. I downloaded extra audiobooks onto my phone in preparation for solitary runs. 

There has been a lot of that this year; there have been many broken plans, many frustrations, plenty of audiobooks and a lot of time to reflect and think. There has been a lot of solitude for some and a feeling of being stuck with the same people in the same house forever for others. We have had to have patience and understanding; we have had to have flexibility. We have worried about our loved ones and been angry at them for their beliefs, just as they have been angry at ours. We have seen people in our lives sicken; we have been affected either directly or indirectly by an instance where someone has not recovered. 

January 1, 2020 - View from Mt. Tam

We adapt; we grow; we learn about ourselves and our resiliency when faced by adverse situations. I know that I am introverted; I love to read and putter around the house; I am happy on the couch with a blanket; I can measure success in small ways: reorganizing my closet for the hundredth time (success equals getting rid of even just one running shirt) or making lists and crossing things off (Yay! I went grocery shopping!). We can edit our goals; this year I read more books than I ever had in one year (success!); this year I went to a national park in California that I had not been to before (success!); this year I grew an onion in my garden (okay, it was two onions actually, but...success!); this year I did not gain weight. 

We will probably look back at this year in twenty years just like we do with 9/11 or whatever trauma we know in our lives and say, "where were you when..." or "can you believe we did...?" I lived in Istanbul for a few months, and I missed my first Thanksgiving with my family. At the time, I thought it was hard, but afterward, when looking back, even mere days after, it was not that bad. I have stories to tell about it. Did you know that I could not for the life of me find a turkey in Turkey? I had to make due with a chicken. And some of the side dishes were....creative. But it was an adventure. 

This year I missed all the holidays with all of my friends and family, but in the grand scheme of things...it is not that bad. We are all happy and healthy; we all have jobs; we all care about each other and have been there for each other even when we are not feeling motivated.  This year has been an adventure. Adventures are not always fun. The dictionary defines them as: an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity. I would say that this year qualifies. 

Look, there's hope! I can see it! (PC: MW)

So long 2020; here's hoping that our adventures in 2021 are a little less pandemic, a little more rock and roll. To all my friends and family, here's hoping that in 2021 our adventures will be done together! 

How would you sum up 2020 in one word? What adventures do you hope for in 2021? 

Looking Back: November

As I ran around the neighborhood last month, past Christmas decorations, I wondered how it could already be November going on December. Now that we are in the last month of the year, it feels as if this year has gone by in a blur, while also crawling along at times. I know this month will also go by fast, although not as fast as years past, when every weekend in December is filled with parties and lights and celebration. This year will be a quieter December but maybe it's just what is needed: a bit of reflection and a glimmer of hope for the year ahead. 

Running: I took another road trip at the beginning of November and spent some time on the California coast running in places with blue skies and views of the ocean. I also tackled a couple of the higher peaks in southern California: Mt. Baldy (San Antonio) and San Jacinto. Unfortunately due to fires, I could not conquer the third of the three saints (San Gorgonio). That's going to have to be one to go back to later! Total miles: 220. 

Reading: Not having to study coupled with no travel (aside from the first week) meant lots of time for reading last month and there were quite a few good ones! I ended up reading twenty books, which may be a record for me! Eleven were audiobooks and I gave five stars to one book and four stars to ten books. Some of my favorites were: The House in the Cerulean Sea (*****), The Vanishing Half (****), Sigh, Gone (****), Saving Ruby King (****), We are Not From Here (****) and The Girl With the Louding Voice (****). The rest can be found here. 

Travel: As stated above, the only travel I did was a California road trip. In one week I went from camping in 98 degree weather in the desert to hunkering down on a snow covered mountain with temperatures in the high teens or low 20s. It was quite an adventure! 

From the beach....(Big Sur)

...to the snow covered mountains (Trinity Alps)

Misc. & Etc.: Other than the above, my big excitement for the month has been mostly yard related. I have spent a lot of time raking and picking up leaves every week. The Maple tree is beautiful but it also causes about 6 months of work; I am either raking or picking up leaves or am picking up the balls (seeds) that fall on the ground after that as they can cause a bad accident or will grow new trees if not picked up (and once that is done, usually it is spring and then the weeding begins). I finally ripped out the garden and got rid of the hornets/yellow jackets using diaphanous earth. I pruned all of the fruit trees for the winter. Isn't that exciting? 

I have also been eating no sugar and have been experimenting with recipes. One of my favorite snacks is chocolate pudding. I make it with chia or gelatin depending on my mood, but usually it consists of the following: Blend one banana, one can of coconut milk and three heaping tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa and then heat to boil in a small pot, stirring a few times as you go. Turn it down to a simmer. For gelatin, in a separate bowl, put a half a cup of cold unsweetened almond milk and a package of gelatin (or one tbsp). Let the gelatin bloom (get fizzy) for a minute or two, then add to the warm chocolate, stirring while adding. For chia, add half a cup of almond milk to original mixture. Once that has all been brought to a boil, add 3-4 tbsp chia to the warm chocolate, stirring while adding. Pour into containers and refrigerate for a few hours. If you wanted you could also add monkfruit sweetener or some alternative sweetener (honey, maple syrup etc.) 

Tell me something exciting that you did in November! What was your favorite book that you read? Did you do any traveling? 

Looking Back: October

October in the Bay Area this year was very hot. We usually have a month in the spring and one in the fall (generally May and September) where there is a week of high temps and then the summers are generally mild. This year we had high heat and winds and lots of it. It's like Zeus is up there maniacally laughing while he throws heat and lightning and blustering wind our way. 

I was supposed to take a week off in September and was going to go hiking in the Sierras, but the fires had other plans for me and the national forests were closed and they stopped issuing permits for overnight stays in the California backcountry. So I had to improvise; more on that later! 

Running: Between running and hiking, I clocked about 295 miles. I have been getting back into running pretty regularly three days a week; it is very nice to have a routine, even if it is in a different place than normal in an effort to stay away from the crowds. Also, I am not doing a group run each week like I was last year, as I am still trying to keep my bubble as small as possible. 

Reading: I read a lot in October, although most were audiobooks. I would say that approximately 3/4 of my reading is now done via audiobook. This is mostly due to the fact that I drive to work now, but also I have been listening a lot while gardening or working in the house as well as when I run by myself. I also listen at 1.4x speed, so I can get a lot more reading done this way! My favorite was Rodham, which is the story of what Hillary's life would have been like if she hadn't married Bill, and at times I forgot that it was fiction as it flows so nicely. The only weird thing was that it was very crude at times and I didn't really want to think of Bill and Hillary in that way! 

Travel: Since my state basically was closed down due to COVID and/or fires, I ended up taking a road trip to Idaho to do some hiking. I brought a cooler and was self sufficient, except for gas and potty breaks. Of course, even though it was hot in California, it snowed on me and was probably in the 20s in the Sawtooths. However, I had some fabulous social distancing (I did not see a person at all for two of the days) and got some great photos of the snowy landscape! I will have to go back there another time for sure! I also met up with my parents once for a socially distanced hike and dinner, which was very fun! 

Hiking in the snow is fun! 

Misc.: Due to being gone a lot in October, the yard and garden has been severely neglected! I also have a family (with a lot of cousins!) of hornets/wasps/yellowjackets (?) in a hole in one of my raised beds and it has kept me from that area, so the weeds are taking over! My November goal is to get that all cleaned up, although my Maple tree in my front yard keeps sending leaves down every time I clean up, so it feels a bit fruitless at times! 

Do you know how to get rid of ground dwelling hornets/wasps/yellowjackets? What good book did you read in October? Have you traveled at all since COVID? 

Silver Linings

This year, at times it has been hard to find the good amidst all of the things going on. However, there have been some! I have heard many a parent or grandparent say that without this situation, they would have never been able to spend so much quality time with their kids/grandkids. My friend's mom is teaching her daughter to cook, which my friend never would have done. There are some silver linings here! 

Here are a few good things that have come out of the last six months.

A newfound love of riding the bike: At the beginning of the quarantine, due to the fact that it was hard to go running without encountering people who would (a) not give you space (b) not wear a mask, I decided that it was easier to keep my distance from people while cycling. In the first three months, I ended up going on 16 bike rides, totalling about 300 miles. I really enjoyed these rides, and got to know the island of Alameda pretty well over the three month period. I even named my bike, which is probably older than me and weighs about a ton, but she is a good old bird! Bertha is her name and she and I spent some quality time together! As people started following the rules more and I found running routes that were less crowded, I have to admit to ditching Bertha and sticking to my own two feet. However, the times we spent together were priceless! 

Hiking in CA: Since we cannot travel internationally, nor would I want to at this point, finding things to do during our vacation has been a bit more challenging. My company has a use it or lose it vacation policy (yes, even this year. No exceptions!) and so I took a week off here and there and had to be a little more creative. This means many hikes and backpacking trips in my "own backyard" which have been fun and of course I love the Sierras, so I am happy to spend time in my favorite mountains. 

Trying new recipes: This year since I am not spending money on travel, I bought a dehydrator and Ninja and have been trying out backpacking recipes. When backpacking, especially for longer periods, it is a fine balance between getting enough calories vs. carrying a lot of weight and the calorie/oz ratio should be as high as possible. To do this, I have been experimenting with fats like coconut oil (or powder), nuts, seeds, hemp, flax etc... I made a pretty good dehydrated chicken curry and am still perfecting the perfect protein bar. 

Reading: Although I am now back in study mode, which does not bode well for reading regular books (although I do find time to treat myself!) I have been reading a lot during these stay at home days. This is twofold; one is the fact that I am now driving to work, which I never did before. I used to study on the bus or the train but while driving I cannot, so I have been listening to a lot of audiobooks. I also used to generally run with other people but this quarantine has kept me running solo more often, which also translates to, you guessed it, more audiobooks! Lastly, when you are stuck inside due to fires or pandemics, I tend to turn to reading! So all of these factors have bumped up my reading stats for this year significantly! 

What good things have come out of the last six months in your world? 

Looking Back: September

Oh September, you devil you. Normally you are one of my favorite months, one full of vacations and adventures and great weather and friends. This year, you are not at the top of my list. September was a rough month for California. It was one of many wildfires; I read somewhere that there was a fire in almost every county (we have 59 of them). Also, on September 28th, this website posted the following information: "Since the beginning of 2020, over 3.7 million acres in California have burned from over 8,100 wildfires." According to Google, California is about 104 acres in size. Three and a half percent of the state has burned, and two places close to my heart (near my parents and near my brother) have gone up in smoke. 

As I type this, one of the biggest fires, the August complex, which is nearly one million acres in size (roughly the size of Switzerland), is still only 47% contained (according to CalFire). The one near my parents (the North Complex) is 78% contained and the one near my brother (the Glass fire) is only 5% contained. It is hard to find words sometimes. 

My Mom took this photo from her front yard.

But life goes on, doesn't it. While the state burns, we all still have to go to work each day, go out and find goodness in the world, go to Costco, etc. So, as always, here is what I did to "go about my day" in September. 

Running: As this is the way I keep sane, I had to try to do this as much as possible. I ended up running about 260 miles in September, including a couple of hiking trips. I have been running less days per week but more miles per day in an effort to still "quarantine" a little bit (less time out in the community) but to still stay healthy and have a little fun. 

Reading: This was an okay reading month for me. I only read one physical book; the rest were audiobooks. This was due to the fact that I did a hiking trip and instead of reading at night, I studied. Then when I was at home, I also studied and when not studying, tried to plan a couple of trips, which I will talk about in a few, so did not really read my book as much. My favorites this month were Wunderland and Shortest Way Home, although none of the books I read really wowed me. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood. 

Travel: The beginning of September was supposed to be spent in Belgium, Holland and surrounds, but as that did not pan out, a road trip to Oregon to stay with my friends up there was plan B. I usually do this every July, but this year things were a little different! I finally circumnavigated the Three Sisters, which I had been wanting to do for years but it was always too snowy in July. This year it was a record breaking heat year and was in the high 90s. Talk about a 180! 

After that was a visit to Mt. Rainier to hike parts of the Wonderland trail. Luckily the hiking days were smoke free, but on the drive from Oregon to Washington and then again from Washington back to California, the smoke was fierce and the AQI was over 600 at times (for those of you not familiar with AQI, a normal good air quality is under 50 and a so-so quality is under 100 and above 300 is, "Health warning of emergency conditions: everyone is more likely to be affected" according to AirNow.gov.) Definitely the view of the Oregon coast was not what it normally is (aka there wasn't one)! 

Mt. Rainier as seen from the west side. 

As I mentioned above, I also tried to plan a couple of trips. I had the week of September 21st off, and had a permit and plan to go and hike part of the John Muir Trail. However, at the beginning of the month, the National Parks were all closed due to the fires and on September 4th, a fire broke out near where I would be hiking, and is also now one of the largest ones in the state. My permit got canceled and so I also canceled my trip. This year has definitely been one of much flexibility and patience. 

Misc.: What else? The garden is now going over into winter mode; there are a few more straggler tomatoes and peppers and a few figs, but otherwise, its nearly bare. I am studying a lot, but am still not sure if my exam will get canceled (it is scheduled for December 5th). I am trying some new protein ball recipes for hiking trips, even though I am not sure when they will be. 

How was your September? What do you do when plans get changed?