THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS

 And oh my goodness, it was, wasn't it. With all the traditional highs and lows – but all in all, the kind of year I hope never to repeat.

It started with a hard lockdown in Germany, as Covid refused to go away as we had all hoped. It cast its shadow over the whole year and affected almost every aspect of life here. Whereby I must say that most of the restrictions didn't actually bother us at all – we stay home and go shopping relatively little anyway.

For me, my health played a predominant role in 2021. It started with the diagnoses of a cataract in my right eye and glaucoma in my left eye. Both treatable – at some point.,

From there it went to the mammogram, biopsy, breast cancer surgery. And I must say that the two weeks waiting for the biopsy results over Easter were without doubt the worst in my whole life. We simply huddled together at home, trying to keep on with our lives with this dark dark shadow over us.

The word finally came and the operation quickly scheduled. All went well, and I was pronounced healed and cancer-free.

This being Germany, with a practical medical system, and especially with universal health insurance, I was in hospital for eight days, until the drainage tubes were out and the tumor had been biopsied. 

The worst part of my stay was the loneliness. I was allowed one visitor for one hour each day, with Norbert obviously filling that role. I did not see him at all on the day of the surgery as it was all too late.

The good part was having so much time to think about life, myself, my family, my goals and aspirations. And finding symbols of peace, hope and love, such as this view from my window and this loving statue in hospital parkgrounds.

Only 12 days after the operation I got my first vaccination. Radiation therapy followed – which was not bad – and in the middle of that I got my second vaccination.

Once all that nonsense was over, it was, on the whole, a quiet restful summer. The first highlight was when Michele and Lucas announced their engagement. The second highlight was, of course, the wedding in August.

Before that, though, I had my cataract operation, quite the psychedelic experience! And when I remember what my grandmother had gone through with her cataract surgery back int he late 1960s or so, it seems like a miracle.

Then the wedding! A beautiful day of love, perfect weather, a wonderful gathering afterwards.

My eye started getting worse and needed to be lasered to remove scar tissue. It was not all finally resolved until late November. Ugh.

We did manage to get away during two Covid breaks. The end of September Norbert and I went to Kell am See, near Trier for five days. Very lovely and relaxing. A visit to the nearby city of Saarburg was a highlight.

In early November Michele, Lucas and their dog Anton joined us for the first time as we all went to the North Sea in Zeeland, Netherlands. The area was lovely and we all had a good time just being together.

What have I learned this year? That I can take whatever comes at me. You do what has to has to be done and you get on with life. I was helped by having the ultimate support and total love from my whole family, and their contribution cannot be underestimated. They are my foundation and helped me immeasurably.

Covid will of course accompany us into 2022, and we must see what effects it continues to have on our lives. We hope, of course, for far fewer medical problems and doctor visits in the coming year. But what will stay the same is the most important – friendships, family, love and support

Wishing you and yours happy holidays and a healthy 2022.

Heart Healthy Buttermilk Cornbread

BUTTERMILK CORN BREAD OR MUFFINS

(Heart Healthy)

1 cup flour

¾ cup cornmeal

1/3 cup sugar

1 TBS baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg, lightly beaten

4 TBS melted butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

Combine dry ingredients. 

Whisk together egg and buttermilk. Drizzle in butter.

Combine and mix only until combine. Do not overmix.

Pour into greased 8x8 inch pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

OR

Fill 12 muffin cups 2/4 full. Bake 16-18 minutes, until tops are golden brown and muffins spring back just slight when gently touched.

Let cool 5 minutes.

NOTE: You can make your own cornbread mixes, instead of buying them. Just combine the dry ingredients in zip-lock bags. (Be sure to label them!)

What have I learned from 2020?

 First of all, much of what I have learned deals with politics and wondering why people react in the way they do, and I will not go into that at all. Discussion closed.

But what have I learned is a lot about myself. The main thing seems to be a realization of how little I actually need, in any way. And so much of what I need, I already have.

Most importantly, I have a loving, close family. Norbert and I celebrated our 29^th anniversary in February. Yes, it has been an adjustment having him home all the time now, but we have not had any trouble coping with it, and are enjoying the time together. Our son Lucas and his girlfriend live nearby and we have close contact with them, and frequent visits. And I still have close contact with my brother in the US – thanks to email and messaging and FaceTime. Not to mention having spent time with him on vacation in January.

These relationships are the main sources of happiness and satisfaction in my life.

I have learned that I enjoy my work in pro cycling. I have loved working for the Israel Start-Up Nation team in this bizarre sports year, writing about everything from a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem to our first appearance in an Arab land race, to winning races, to staff delivering groceries during the Italian lockdown to previews for the long-delayed Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana. 

This work gives me something to do – because I am most certainly not doing it to get rich! – and I know that my writing is appreciated. I have gotten to know many interesting new people, and even taxed my brain trying to think of ways to preview a Grand Tour stage other than “flat stage, boring, mass sprint”. :-)

What else? Less is more. 

I love clothes. I love to look at clothes and I love to buy clothes. I have bought very few clothes this year, virtually none. Yes, partially because the stores have been closed so often, and I do not like to buy clothes online. But also because I realized that I don't need any more clothes. In fact, I have done major culls on my wardrobe. My lifestyle is such that leggings and jeans and casual tops are appropriate 99.9% of the time. I do not have a minimalist wardrobe, I see no point in going through life with two pair of jeans and six t-shirts, or whatever. But I certainly do not have clothes exploding out the wardrobe when I open the doors.

This philosophy has also extended to our furnishings and other belongings. A lot of knick knacks have disappeared. Those which remain do so because they have a deep personal meaning to us, as opposed to “just being decorative”. Our Christmas decorating consists of a few candles, an Advents wreath and the decorated tree. The days of decorating every available surface are long gone.

Part of this, I suspect, is due to our age. Time to cut back, to simplify, to shed ourselves of unnecessary “burdens”.

Grocery shopping has becoming interesting (quite apart from the distancing, masks, etc, aspects). Can we go to the store only once a week? (Rarely, unfortunately.) Which store do we go to? The very large supermarket with the best prices and selection and the most customers, or the smaller store where we don't feel so pressured by others in the aisles?

And what to buy and how much to buy. How long will a package of 10 toilet paper rolls last? How much toilet paper does one need? How much do we actually need to use at a time? And so on, with shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, flour, sugar, you name it.

Then there is the question of “hamstering”. Better buy 3 or 4 packages of TP, before it is unavailable! No, thanks. Yes, we do already have 2 packages in the basement, I always keep a supply of such things on hand. Two are enough, I don't need to pack my shopping cart full. And I do not stock up on things out of fear that they will be out of stock in the stores when I need them, but to try to limit the number of times I have to go to the store.

Then there's traveling and vacation. We love to do both. We love to vacation in the US. However, we will not get on an airplane to go anywhere and especially not the US, until we feel it is safe concerning COVID. I very much hope to get over for my high school reunion next September.

We were in the US for two weeks in January, and spent five days in the Netherlands the end of September. That's it for 2020. I do miss the vacations and the planning but nearly as much as I had thought I would.

I realize that we are fortunate enough to live off our savings and not suffer from not having income. That we have all remained healthy, both physically and mentally. And that we have everything we need and want. Perhaps coming to these realizations is the only good thing to come out of 2020.

2020: The Year in Review

 What is there to say about 2020, other than that it has certainly been an odd one?

The most important thing is that my family has come through the year happy and healthy. I know that does not hold true for everyone.

We started out our year with out annual winter trip to the US. We had a lovely cabin at Myrtle Beach State Park, S.C., and were joined by my brother for several days. We plan to repeat this – some time!

We arrived home on February 1, which was officially Norbert's first day of no work. The decision had been made to close his firm, and that we would live off our savings for several years until he became eligible for retirement pay.

And shortly after that the world started turning upside down. A Karneval gathering in our Kreis (county) turned into the first COVID hotspot in Germany. Our local schools closed that month and stayed closed for weeks.

So we moved into the routine of wearing masks on those increasingly rare occasions that we left the house, staying home most of the time and getting used to the fact of a major shutdown.. And listening to our American friends all saying, “oh, you poor things”, while being confident it would never happen there.

This means that most of our year has been, shall we say, not newsworthy. Amazingly I got quite a bit of cycling work done over the summer and fall, which I quite enjoyed. My team, new to the top ranks, had a few large successes, so it was fun. And Norbert and I did get away for five days the end of September – noticing that Netherlands was starting to close down various states due to COVID. But we were lucky and enjoyed our few days away.

Our family grew this summer when Lucas and Michele adopted a dog – Anton is a lively Magyar Viszla, who is still going through puberty :-). He has won all our hearts, well, except for Amy.

Eventually we again had Lockdown Light and just in time for the holidays, the hard lockdown. We will still celebrate the same as ever, just then two of us with Lucas and Michele. We are grateful that Lucas has contined to work the whole year, staying healthy and getting his full income. Again, that has not held true for everyone.

There are few activities to report on this year, but there have been a multitude of experiences and new ways of looking at things – which I will write about later.

The Second Big Lockdown, December 2020 - January 2021

 This is a translation of a local news report, as to what is and is not going to be open from December 16  to January 10.

These are in addition to rules currently in effect, for example, masks required virtually everywhere outside of the home, no touristic overnight allowed, limited numbers of persons in stores, etc.

Remaining open: Grocery stores, wholesalers, Christmas tree sales, weekly markets, pet supply stores, delivery services, kiosks, laundromats, drink markets, apothecaries, dry cleaners, post offices, health care supply sores, drug stores, banks, opticians, hearing aid stores, gas stations, and auto repair shops. Restaurants may continue to offer pick-up and delivery only.

Closed: anything involving physical closeness, such as hair dressers, cosmetic studios, massage, tattoo studios, etc. (gyms are already closed), other stores offering non-essential goods or services, such as DIY/home improvement stores which were open in the first major shutdown last spring.

Children should stay home from school. Schools should be closed, as well as kindergartens. Parents who must stay home to tend to children should be offered paid leave. There will probably be “emergency” kindergarten and elementary school gatherings for children who cannot be cared for at home, including children of medical workers. 

Two guests allowed at one time, they must be from the same household. For 24-26 December, visits of 5 persons in the close family are allowed, but still only from one other household Children 14 and under are not counted in this.

Gatherings on New Years Eve are forbidden, other than the 2 persons from one household visiting. Fireworks are forbidden, as is their sale. Drinking alcohol in public is forbidden.

Employers are asked to either close for as much of this period as possible, or offer “generous” home office opportunities. Medically required treatments such as physio are allowed.

Churches, synagogues and mosques and other religious gathers may offer services when participants stay 1.5 meters apart, and wear masks. Group singing is forbidden. If a large turnout is expected, participants must register to attend.

2019 -- THE YEAR IN REVIEW

It was a year of travel, pro cycling and “the knee”. Lots of surprises along the way.

We started out with a surprise, as Norbert and I traveled to Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA, but our suitcases did not. We arrived on Saturday, they arrived on Monday, as did my brother Bill. We very much enjoyed sharing the time with him, as always.

Hilton Head proved not to be our thing, unfortunately, although we found an incredibly outstanding restaurant: the Sea Shack. It doesn't look like much, outside or inside, and everything is served on styrofoam with plastic utensils. But it had probably the best seafood any of us have ever eaten. Of the four times we ate out, three of those were there.

The highlight for Norbert and me was touring the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown near Charleston, SC. Really incredible and just so much to absorb.

I then started the cycling season with a new cycling team, a very small Austrian team. The first month went smoothly, however, for the second month I was told that I would not be paid as “they were unaware that I was doing any work.” As I said publicly, I have never been so insulted in my entire life.

Having now been screwed over by two teams in a row, I decided it was time to take a further step into retirement. I remained on call for www.cyclingnews.com as a journalist, and did various translations.

In May we had the absolute highlight of the year, as we flew to Vancouver and then took an Alaska cruise. We had a beautiful Airb&b apartment in North Vancouver, and spent several days oohing and ah-ing over the attractions, especially the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. The bridge, the platform walk through the trees of the rain forest – spellbinding.

We met up in another apartment with my friend Carleen, with whom I was traveling 30 years ago in Banff when we met Norbert. And we finally got to meet her husband, Doug. For Carleen and me it was as if we had never really been apart, and both of us got along perfectly with Doug.

The four of us then took off on the Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship, heading “North to Alaska”. The food was good, the scenery incredible, the companionship ever better. The stop at Icy Strait Point was funny more than anything else, Juneau was good with whale-watching and Ketchikan was ok.

The landscape was unbelievable, and we loved watching the sunsets.

However, it was the Hubbard Glacier which proved the most mind-boggling. So big, so impressive. We had wondered why we would spend three hours there, but when it came time to go, we didn't want to!

The summer went quietly, but by the end of August I noticed that my right knee was acting up more and more. Long story short, MRI showed the meniscus was badly off and needed surgery. I could have had it fairly quickly, but I had something more important to do the beginning of October.

Family always has priority, so the knee had to wait while my brother Bill visited us. A good time was had by all, and we all enjoyed a visit to the Kröller Müller Museum in the Netherlands, with its fabulous Van Gogh collection.

 Lucas joined us for a visit to the Borussia Mönchengladbach museum and fascinating tour of the stadium.

About 3 days after Bill left, I had the arthroscopic surgery on my right knee. We were distressed to hear that the damage was worse than anticipated. However, the surgery and recovery went well and after two weeks I was able to put the crutches away. The knee is not 100% and probably never will be again, and I will most likely have to have it done again at some point, with the possibility of an eventual knee replacement being real.

I had a huge surprise in November when the Israel Cycling Academy contacted me, to see if I was interested in working for them in the coming year. It was a second league team which is moving up to the top ranks in 2020, and they wanted a native English speaker who was also a good writer and knew pro cycling. Nothing strokes the ego like having someone seek you out specifically like that, and of course I said yes!

So much for retirement, right? Frankly, I found it rather boring!

December kicked up with a trip to Israel for the team, now called Israel Start-Up Nation. Several days in Tel Aviv, the Holocaust Museum, the Gaza Strip, the Negev Desert in a sandstorm – it was educational and moving. 

And of course professionally great. I very much look forward to my work the coming year.

Most importantly, we are all well and happy, and looking forward to further adventures in 2020!

Vancouver, Day 2, last part

Just one dam thing after another.....

We returned home after the park, and took naps. We decided there was still time enough to do something in the afternoon, so we went to the Cleveland Dam and fish hatchery.

The dam is set on a lake with incredible surroundings.

And here is the dam itself, built in 1954. It is used strictly for water control, not for energy production. 

It was, however, open (if that is the right term) -- that is, they were letting water through.

We walked down to the river, which was, of course, lovely.

I keep wondering who or what lives in this cave:

We then went downriver to the fish hatchery. Once again we walked along the riverbank. 

On our way to the hatchery, we ran across this sign. It is actually pointing out where the wheelchair ramp is, but it looks at first glance as if it is suggesting something else. 

And we saw lots of baby fish!

Finally, we found this beautiful scene at the hatchery:

We stopped at Walmart on the way home to buy a cable for Norbert's camera, then home for dinner. A salad for me and a sandwich for Norbert. We managed to stay up a bit later, all the way until nearly 9:30!