JOURNAL ENTRY #131: Another New Year

I brought in the new year quieter than ever for 2021.    I have brought in the New Year by myself in the past but this is the first time I ever brought in the new year in the apartment, alone.  Thank the pandemic.

I have been arguing with right-wingers about the pandemic.  You know, folks who like to say things stern and mean so they make you think their way of thinking is the right way.  Anyway, their argument is to open the city and stop succumbing to fear. And "it's just a virus".  Stupid stuff like that. It's not just a virus.  Stop comparing it to the flu.  In my lifetime I don't recall any famous person dying from the influenza virus.  This is different.  Granted, there is a high survival rate, but the death toll is still staggering. And the flu never left as many people incapacitated.  People have had neurological problems after dealing with Covid-19.

As I mentioned in the past that I am for mask-wearing and social distancing.  I am also for creating new ways to do business.  It is called evolving.  It is 2021.  We should have been teleworking more for a decade now.  We should have broken up the workday a decade ago.  That wouldn't have been a cure, but it would have made stricter social distancing a lot easier.  And it is better than thinking we can just continue doing what we were doing two years ago.  Anyway, I put most of the blame on them for why the infection numbers are spiking as well as the deaths from this coronavirus.  In any case, because of the pandemic, I spent a very quiet New Year in the apartment by myself.

I didn't have any resolutions last year, partly because I was still dealing with my mother's death.  I have a few though for 2021:

1.  Try to eat better   Incorporate my vegetables and fruits into my diet.
2.  Prepare to retire.  I have a few years left, but now is the time to start preparing to go

3.  Lose a few pounds.  Difficult, but if I am successful at item 1, I can lose some weight.

4.  Visit four cities and one new place.

5.  Purge my apartment of excess crap.

6.  Blog more.  At least once a week for both of my blogs.

I have already set things up at my apartment to eat better.  I have a deep fryer, an air fryer, and a crockpot so I can cook in different ways..  I bought a freezer recently so I can get more chicken and fish and cook better options.  I can also get fruit and make my smoothies and probably juice more.

Losing weight will be hard since I now work from home.  I have to maintain, then during the spring, get a bike and exercise more.  Thankfully, I have not over-indulged since the pandemic started.  I do need to exercise more though.

Last year I visited Maine, Baltimore,  and toured Boston while I was traveling to Maine.  I am going back to Maine in 2021 and I might actually visit Boston for a couple of days.  I would like to revisit Detroit and Toronto, two cities I had to cancel last year because of the pandemic.  If the pandemic continues I am thinking about going to Buffalo

I did a pretty good job of getting rid of a lot of paper from my apartment during 2020.  I am doing more before May.

I feel like writing again and taking pictures, so look for more blogs during 2021.