I trust everyone is making their way through the holidays and
in good health!
This has truly been a very unusual year. In normal times, by
this time in December, most of us are frantically trying to
finish up our Christmas shopping, wrapping piles of gifts,
perhaps attending holiday parties and trying to get ready for
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with our families. But this
year that has all been put on hold. I don’t have to tell you
the endless events that have led up to this point. You know
that sad story. So, instead, let’s think about all the
positive aspects of 2020 instead...hang on now, I’m trying to
really think… 😊
Before writing this article, I spent time looking back, musing
about life with COVID and how it may have affected not only
myself, but many of us in Mountain View. The absolute first
thought that came to mind was that I would never, ever take my
family and friends for granted again. It’s not that I didn’t
love them in the first place, rather I realized I had
forgotten how utterly precious they truly are to me. This, my
friends, is a definite positive!
So, let’s see if we can find other positive outcomes from this
year. Because we had fewer exercise outlets, we walked more.
From walking, perhaps we became more physically fit (well,
maybe that’s an arguable point) and certainly we met and got
to know more of our neighbors. We could not eat at
restaurants, so we saved money there. And we learned we could
get our groceries delivered to our front door! I also learned
that ordering from Amazon is not as easy as it appears. When
you are given a quantity of ‘one’, read the fine print! I
cannot tell you how many times I ordered ’just one’ and ended
up with six or eight or ten in a box. I wasn’t alone in this
comedy of errors either. We had a virtual swap meet at our end
of Grandview from swabs to Rice Krispy Bars to brownie mix and
eight cans of cake frosting (that would be me) along with an
unknown number of jars of spaghetti sauce.
Then there was the traffic, or lack of it. Wasn’t that a great
perk while it lasted? Of course, we gained Tele-medicine, and
new industries like mask making companies and breweries who
converted their tanks to making much needed hand sanitizer.
Since we could not go anywhere, we used less gasoline, so that
saved us money, too. Oh, and what about ZOOM? Who knew it was
a communication program? I thought it was just a word used to
describe someone driving fast. Yet, some of us are using it on
a regular basis now. The Social Club was ingenious figuring
out ways to keep our community in touch and those events were
a great success.
There was a lot of fear, uneasiness and sadness this year. We
all recognize that. But in-spite of it, we have come through
intact and we are smarter, perhaps in better shape and
stronger for it. Mountain View is a special place to live. We
look after one another, help take care of one another and
through it all, we are always there for one another. I’m not
sure it gets any better than that. Let’s get through the last
few days of 2020, get our vaccinations and look forward to
much better outcomes next year. We are all SO ready for it!!
Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa and happy New
Year everyone. Wherever you will be for the holidays, stay
safe. We’ll talk again in 2021.