The fire pit is the subject of one of the things I learned on a more personal level in 2020.

(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 51)

Last week I gave you a bunch of information - little facts I picked up here and there throughout the year that I hadn’t known before.

If you missed that, you can read it here.

But there was a second, separate list I threw together much later in the year.

I was thinking about what a strange, difficult year it’s been, and how I couldn’t really write about what I learned this year in general without writing about what I learned about myself through such a time.

So that brings us to this week - a little reflection on some of the personal takeaways I’ve had this year.

We’ll go bullet point by bullet point, just like last week:

I think the biggest takeaway from the past nine months was a reaffirmation of something I’ve always suspected: I could totally hunker down with my family forever. I know there are some people for whom this has not been a pleasant time, but that has not been the case for us, at least as far as being around each other. I think it’s a combination of personality types and also the age the girls are at right now. Everyone is doing remarkably well and we have yet to get on each others’ nerves…and I don’t think we ever will.
Maybe a big part of this is the dog’s presence. She has been a joy to have at a time like this, and she makes us all happier. BUT the big thing I’ve learned is that she’s so used to having us around we might never be able to leave her alone again. It might be a real problem when the pandemic is over. But, then again, I have no desire to ever leave her.
All that said, I do miss my extended family terribly. I don’t like not having the option to see them whenever we want. And, although I liked the novelty of it at first, Zoom is not my preferred method of communication. Now Zooms tend to make me a little more sad than enthusiastic.
I think maybe we like the idea of being a fire pit family a little more than we actually like being out with the fire pit. We didn't spend as much time with it as I thought we might this year…it was less of a ‘hang out around the fire pit all night’ situation and more of a ‘let’s make S’mores and then go back inside’ deal. I realized this when, after I had put it away for the season, we brought it back out for my daughter’s birthday in September, never used It, and it sat for two months before I put it away again.
This was a harsh realization: After a lifetime of my world revolving around sports…turns out I can live without them if I have to. That the pandemic started by canceling the NCAA Tournament was a particularly tough blow - that was one of my favorite events ever. Now I don’t know that I’ll be recapturing the love I had for it. I don’t know - that remains to be seen. Because I also know this: When baseball came back and now with the football season, although I know I could live without sports, I sure do prefer having them available to watch.
I rediscovered my love for video games. I dabbled with the Switch a bit early in the pandemic but it wasn’t until September that I went all in - I got a PS4 and have been playing ‘The Show’ almost non-stop, along with a few other games. It is a very good way for me to spend my downtime, and I promise you I’m also getting my work done. (Video games can also serve as a nice replacement for sports…or as an accompaniment, when I set up my little TV next to the video game TV.)
I don’t think I miss comedy - or, at least, the comedy life, as much as maybe I should. (Although this week I had a new take on this - you can see that in the ‘Notes’ below.)
With everyone home I make good lunches for the girls, but I have paid less attention to my own lunch. Whereas I used to do a little too much for lunch, probably, i’ve learned that I don’t need that much during the day - a little snacking here and there is good enough. I’ll usually do a yogurt, some mixed nuts, maybe some cut-up cheese cubes, and a Kind bar (vanilla blueberry). This may not seem like a big deal, but I think I’m making some healthier decisions at lunchtime, which is a revelation for someone with a lack of discipline (see: video games) and a lot of food at his disposal around the middle of the day.

There was no good place to put this picture with the way I formatted this week’s post (I would have liked to put it to the right of the relevant bullet point), but I just wanted to show you that the fire pit became more of a place for bunnies to hid… — There was no good place to put this picture with the way I formatted this week’s post (I would have liked to put it to the right of the relevant bullet point), but I just wanted to show you that the fire pit became more of a place for bunnies to hide from the dog than it did serve its intended purpose.

Notes

*I mentioned above that I don’t know that I miss comedy the way I probably should. But I also mentioned last week that I was doing a Zoom comedy show this week for the first time. I wasn’t eager to do it, but I was gently prodded to “Just come on, do it,” and so I did. It wasn’t bad. I would have much rather been on stage in front of people, but this was a good time with some people I like. So let me amend the first sentence there to “I don’t miss the comedy life at all.” I would much rather be at home at night than driving an hour to do 5 minutes of a hour-and-a-half to two-hour show. But telling jokes, that’s fun.

*I have another show this week. It’s on Tuesday night. Check it out if you’d like - I don’t know. I don’t even really know how you watch it. I think The Comedy Studio has it live on their Facebook page. Also, if you can do what you can to support The Comedy Studio, do it. Buy a ticket to watch a show online (I think there are some good ones coming up in January), send them a donation…whatever. That place has been good to me and we need it to come out the other side of this OK.

*Next week will be the final post of 2020, believe it or not. I will do the annual “What I’ve Read” post. Of course, I’d love to hear from you: please comment below or on the Facebook page something you’ve read in 2020 that you loved, or everything you read in 2020, or if you have something you learned about yourself a la me in this post, share that as well.

*If you don’t already Like the Facebook page, you can do that here, and if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can do that here.

*One last holiday-related “Every Week On Wednesday” this week - it references one of my favorite writing highlights…then one more before the end of the year. Still not sure if I’ll continue it into 2021.

*Expect an exercise space update in the new year - I don’t think I told you yet the Peloton delivery was delayed, so we should have that by the end of the calendar year. But I successfully (as unlikely as it seemed) moved the elliptical machine from our bedroom to the downstairs space this weekend. It was…not easy. But it’s exciting that that space is taking shape.