Decades
I like remembering my life - that's probably obvious if you know this blog! But I don't have a great memory (also . I mark the passage of time by creating memorable moments - like New Year's Eve. It's impossible to remember every year, so I focus on decades. I can tell you what I did for New Year's in 2010, 2000, 1990, and 1980. For my younger years I marked time by my age: 10 years old, 20 years old - and I remember approximately where I was, what I was doing.
When New Year's 2020 was approaching, we were at home in Fort Lauderdale after a year with lots of travel (Australia, New Zealand, Ohio, Arkansas, Colorado) so I didn't want to go anywhere. How about a New Year's Eve party at our house?! That would be memorable. To my delight, several friends agreed - as long as I didn't make them stay up till midnight! So, we celebrated on Brazil time to ring in the New Year at 9pm! In the process, I learned that New Year's Eve in Brazil is a really big deal and it is traditional to wear all white.
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| We were so happy to ring in the new Decade with friends we've known for 30, and even 40 years. |
Little did we know
We had such high hopes for the year - and it started out quite nicely. We had our normal RV rallies around Florida for Jan/Feb. We joined our dive club for a special "dive with hammerhead sharks" in Bimini in February. Our last appearance was in Sarasota on March 4. We had already declined the invitation to speak at the FMCA rally in Tucson because it conflicted with the big dive trip we booked to the Maldives.
Were we ever lucky that the Maldives trip was scheduled for the last week of March. If it had been even one week earlier, we might have gone ... and we might still be there - stuck due to travel restrictions because of the Covid pandemic. We know people who got stuck in Fiji for 6 months! The Maldives trip got rescheduled for April 2021 - now it's looking like that may not even work. We should be able to get our vaccine sometime between March and June. We won't go anywhere until after we get it.
We start Zooming
When we're in town, we always enjoy going to our Earlybird Toastmasters club at the local Denny's restaurant in the meeting room. On March 19, we showed up and Denny's turned us away. They were open, but Covid-related lockdown orders prohibited groups of people from gathering. So, we went home and started a Zoom call - getting the connection info to as many members as we could. It didn't take long before everyone was comfortable with this new meeting space. It's not as good as IRL (in real life) but it's a helluva lot better than nothing. As we continue our weekly Zoom Toastmasters meetings we are finding delightful benefits. Our local club now has members in Spain, South Africa, Pennsylvania, and Orlando. And, all meetings are recorded, so if you gave a particularly good speech, you can remember it and share it with others.
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| What would we do without our Toastmasters group on Halloween!? |
The Book
Meanwhile, we enjoyed our #StayHome time. I was able to spend much more time revising my Learn Google Photos book than originally planned. Instead of just updating specific references to features that had changed, I rewrote the whole thing. I even hired an editor who is very familiar with helping authors of technical how-to books. Much more than proofreading, she helped me develop the book in a way that I hope is more useful to my readers. I spent most of my summer working on it and we launched the printed book on September 1. The "Launch" deal was for a spiral bound, autographed copy. As my author friend, Nick Russell says, "Writing the book is the easy part! Then you have to market" It sold well during the launch month - a few hundred. Then we've done 50-100 each month since. I'm happy.
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| Chris autographing lots of books |
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| Jim doing the spiral binding. We get them from Amazon, then he cuts off the spine, punches holes and inserts the coil. |
Mom
I got Hospice's call on Saturday night, Aug 29. Our Book Launch was a live-streaming YouTube event on Sunday afternoon. What an emotional basket case I was. Understand - the call was good news. She had been in Hospice care for 3 years, her death was a relief. She had no quality of life those last few years, she hadn't recognized me for several years before that. Her facility had been on lockdown due to Covid since late March, so I had not been able to visit. She tested positive for Covid and was transferred to a Hospice in-patient facility in Boca Raton that was specially equipped for Covid. I was able to have "window-visits." By that time, she was completely unresponsive. It was so past time for her to go. If Covid was the straw that finally put her over - I guess I'm grateful. It was a relief, but I was still inconsolably sad.
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| A window-visit with Mom at a Covid-equipped Hospice facility |
She was 89 years old and she had an amazing life. I wrote about it here. Alzheimer's took her away at 79. We took her on RV trips and a cruise during the first few years, but she could no longer function on her own. She moved to an Assisted Living Facility in 2010, then a more secure facility in 2014, then to the last memory care facility in 2016.
Her wishes were to take her Dive Club buddies out for one last dive to scatter her ashes and then raise a glass of wine to toast her and have a party. I booked the dive boat for Dec 5, thinking that the Covid restrictions would be lifted by then, but then the Covid deaths started spiking and it was too anxiety producing to ask people to gather. SO - we had a Zoom party!
It was great! In addition to her dive buddies from South Florida, I was able to get other friends to participate from various parts of the country. I loved seeing their photos and hearing their stories of Mom. We all rose our glass and made a toast to Mom - may her spirit live on in all of us.
Traveling?
Our normal life is traveling around the country, going to RV rallies and teaching our technology seminars. We didn't do any of that this year. But we did meet up with some of our far-flung friends by having happy hours over Zoom.
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| Last year we traveled to New Zealand with Melinda - this year we Zoomed to her home in Nevada |
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| Last year we parked our RV in Ann's driveway. This year we visited from the comfort of our own homes. |
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| Zoom has given us the ability to get to know our Geeks on Tour premium members. We have a "Backstage Pass" meeting after our Live YouTube shows with lively conversations. It's like having Geek conventions with a fraction of the travel costs! |
Teaching
I need to teach, it's what I do. It's what I look forward to when we go to RV rallies or other "gigs." It's why I wrote a book on Google Photos. Now, I'm using Zoom to deliver workshops that go along with the book. Two hours with 4 to 12 people, I demonstrate some things from the book, then I use the Zoom feature called "Breakout rooms" to give them some time and space to practice on their own. I certainly prefer in person classes, but this is a pretty good alternative. These techniques have been available for many years, but it's the pandemic that has forced people to use it. Now that everyone has had some experience, it makes it so much more feasible to offer teaching over Zoom. I love it!
We're old pros
It feels like Zoom just burst on the scene this year, but we've been meeting with a couple of groups for several years now.
If you're still new to Zoom, or just getting started and want to learn more, we've done a series of tutorial videos for you Using Zoom online meetings.
Good-bye 2020
As the year comes to an end, the US has surpassed 300,000 deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are certainly glad to say goodbye to this year and hope another like it never happens again.
However, for those of us who stayed healthy and are financially secure, 2020 was a gift. It was a gift of time and opportunity. The opportunity to spend quality time with family. The opportunity to spend time with ourselves - without the pressures of normal activities. For those of us who have always wished for the world to stop and let us get off, our wish was granted this year. In spending quiet time at home or on walks in the park, we got to think about what we really want from life. I was able to read some of those books I wanted but never got around to - and I feel better for it.
I love our travels and teaching seminars at RV Rallies, but having this year where all events were cancelled was like a reboot. When we start back up, we can decide what we really want to do going forward instead of just continuing on continuing on.
From March thru December, neither of us have left the house much at all. I can count on one hand the number of times we've eaten at a restaurant, and most of those were outdoor. We get our groceries delivered. When we are in public we wear protective face masks, but we haven't needed to do that much at all. The face masks really are uncomfortable, hot, and makes talking difficult.
As 2021 gets started, the virus is raging hotter than ever and we are now facing events where we are booked to speak that have not been cancelled. We might need some more masks, and will just have to get used to the nuisance. A vaccine is now available, but so far, it is impossible to get an appointment to get it. We keep refreshing the website only to see the message "all appointments are taken, check back later."
We'll keep trying. Meanwhile, we have a happy hour Zoom call with our friends in Arizona today. Looking forward to it!
