Merry Christmas 2020

 Greg and Dixie Goode

Crescent City, CA 

Merry Christmas 2020 and We Wish You a Blessed and Happier 2021

Just listen to the sound of that! Happy New Year 2021!

There has been so much about 2020 that we will all be glad to see in hind sight. Most of us could not have predicted last Christmas, what we would experience before the next Christmas rolled around. It was a roller coaster of a year.

Before mid March, we were having a good year, Daisy was in Basketball on Saturdays and loving Kindergarten during the week. She is very social and loved the class full of kids as well as the teacher. I loved volunteering in the class and working with the same teacher who had been teaching Austin and then Emerson 20 years ago. The class loaded an incubator with chicken eggs and began to plan St. Patrick's Day activities. And then between Friday March 13, when things were quite normal, and Monday when schools were closed and Daisy has never returned to in person classes. I've enjoyed having her here with me, teaching her and working with her as she learns to read and write and do all kinds of math and science and creative things is fun, but we both miss other people.

Emerson got promoted to manager where he works at New Dawn, which is good, but just as hard on Daisy as on him, when he has to work double shifts or gets called to leave town, or has to have his day off interrupted to take a client to the hospital. He works in homes with handicapped people and with them out in the community at large, and since his job is essential, the state closing down for a pandemic hasn't effected his hours at all.

For Greg, his students at the prison were already doing college work and he was the intermediary between getting the work to them and getting it back to the colleges, so he changed to doing what he could from home, with limited at the prison time each week. Now he just got out of the college position which he wasn't too fond of, and back into a classroom of academic work. He much prefers the business of actually having student time.

Also for Greg, one of the joys of life is his music, and having to indefinitely close down his children's choir has been so very sad for him. I hope that he will be able to restart it once children are able to be vaccinated. He did throw himself into designing a choir t-shirt logo, and that fed the creative need briefly, but he still misses both his kid choir, and the local community choir he sings in.

My health hasn't improved, the more staying at home I do, the stiffer and more awkwardly I move, and the more basic abilities I see falling away. I did manage to see two neurologists this year. The cognitive specialist evaluated me with five hours of testing and declared that there were no problems there, which is a relief, but the motion specialist did a few simple tests, talked rudely to Greg and I, and said to come back in 4 months. I tried getting a referral to a different one, but they are few around here, and Portland says they have closed down to new patients living more than 100 miles away. I know I couldn't be teaching anymore, even if I wasn't staying at home with Daisy, so of course the schools are having such a substitute shortage that they bumped up the sub daily rate by $50 a day through the end of this year.

I'm trying to think of the highlights of 2020. There were some parts that were worth the struggle. The Grandkids of course are high on my list of worth it, so one of my favorite memories is the day Trisha and Austin were camping up at Dry Lake and invited us to meet them there. We got to walk around the lake, watch Austin and Gavin Kayaking, push Gavin in a huge swing and snuggle Trinity. We got lots of sunshine and flowers and hugs. Speaking of the Goode-Pitt branch of the family. They got new truck and a new camper (well both in nice, used but new to them, shape) and they got deer tags, and went camping and hunting. Trisha got a deer. Gavin is going back to in person school and so far the county hasn't had ay school to home Coronavirus transmission. Some people at the in person classes have tested positive but gotten it elsewhere so the school precautions seem effective. I think Daisy would do ok going back as well, but she does well on Zoom and I would be high risk if she brought it home.

Because the idea of her having a 6^th birthday party during lockdown, was so sad, a Redwood School teacher, who is also a fireman, brought a big firetruck to our house for Daisy's Birthday. Then for the summer we did sign her into swimming lessons and she made great progress. It was in the outdoor, chlorinated pool in Brookings with one teacher and three students, so there wasn't a very high risk, especially since all summer Del Norte and Curry Counties had almost no Covid cases. Sadly that is no longer true. 

This year, more even than most, Consider this letter as a paper hug. I wish I could hug you in person.

Virtually a New Year

Hello, And so here we are, from New Year 2020 to the New Year of the 20-21 school year has been a wild ride that I never would have predicted. I don't think the January me would even believe if she could read a letter describing the last 8 months.

My prediction or "closing" at the end of my New Year Post makes me want to either laugh or cry. 

"2020 looks like more swimming, acrobatics, soccer and basketball with the granddaughter. Praying for peace and health for you and for the world. Remember to look for the good in each day."

I don't have to tell you about the isolation and loss of income that has been the truth world wide under the Covid-19 pandemic. I don't need to think there are any Americans who haven't heard about the divisions between people of various races and political and religious views. It's stressful and heartbreaking to be sure. I love my country and I love our world. There is so much beauty that it makes my heart break to not be able to get into school and share it with my students, and get out of school and be able to share it with my grandkids.

I have three, three wonderful, deserving, grandchildren. One who lives with me so I see her every day, and two I've never seen enough of even pre lockdowns and this year without birthday parties and holiday celebrations I miss them beyond words.

I've also been dying. My Dr.'s haven't come out and said that, but honestly they have never seen anything close to my daily degeneration. I finally get to an appointment and don't look too bad. It takes energy to dress and drive there (often a couple hours drive) and nerves and hopes add adrenalin, and I function better, then get home and pay for it with three days as an invalid.  My brain and my husband's face tell me I'm dying. (every time I need to adjust my body in any position) but I hope I'm wrong. The love and trust in my granddaughters face tells me I need to be around to be her safe place. She has no idea how many times I've shielded her from the ravages of a meth addicted mom, and I don't want her to know. Life is scary enough just hearing the news in the background, as she tries to master learning via zoom. As a first grader, with a wonderful, but older teacher, she and her teacher are learning together and it's hard.

I don't want to complain. I know that living in a rural place, with low covid numbers and empty areas where we can get out snd play means we are among the lucky ones this year. I know that we have an old house but we have one, we have lost income but still have enough to get by, we have each other.

We Have Each Other.

Just Breathe that in.

Sending you love and the reminder that we are not done yet. Hang in there and I will too, even if it tears a couple finger nails loose to maintain the grip.