I had such good intentions at the start of the year. I was going to lose weight, get in shape, and most of all, return to writing on a regular basis. And then the rest of 2020 hit.
It started with COVID and it ends with COVID and a parade of masks and hand washes and furtive outdoor trips. We made it worse on ourselves by deciding come hell, high water, or pandemic, we were still going to follow through on our decision to sell our home in Missouri and move to Savannah. And we did make the thousand mile move, though it’s not something I would recommend to anyone else during a pandemic.
Before and after each house viewing was a frantic wiping down of surfaces. On the trips to and from Georgia, we stayed at hotels that sometimes echoed like ghost towns. One hotel provided us a little bag with soap and toiletries in it. We were lucky to find toilet paper in the bathroom. If it weren’t for Cracker Barrel, we would have starved.
House hunting in our new location was also an adventure. The market was inflated because people weren’t selling and the homes that did go on the market were trounced on like a side of beef spotted by a pack of hungry dogs. Thankfully, at the point we were ready to give up and look for an apartment to live in for a year, the home we bought popped up on the market. And we only had to fight off one other hungry dog.
It’s not a perfect home. We discovered the laundry area was only 29 inches deep making it very challenging to find appliances. The spaciousness of the master suite is matched by the lilliputian size of the two other bedrooms and bath. And the seller was a real estate agent who had only bought the home 45 days previously for a quick fix up and re-sale. But after we got all of our stuff in it, and all of the boxes we’ve been living with for over two years unpacked, it became our home.
We love the area where we live. It’s a couple of blocks from a wonderful nature trail, close to the Ogeechee river and several hundred acres of marsh and park. The Coastal Botanical Garden is right across the street from our subdivision. Our neighbor in back of us is a church that holds outdoor services during the COVID restrictions, with folks honking their horns to every “Hallelujah!”
Best of all for this area, we’re not at flood risk. Even conservatively, we’re not at risk of flooding. And we saw our first alligator in the wild!
With all the back and forthing, thankfully we have not gotten sick. We wear cloth masks that have a pocket and we insert a folded blue shop towel that supposedly provides us more protection than cloth alone. The only sightseeing we’ve done is by car, outdoors on trails, and to Tybee Island to the beach. We’ve met some neighbors…from a distance. We respect the mandates—we’re not having a hissy because some leaders are trying to keep us safe. Not all leaders. Not even some of the most important leaders. But some leaders.
Speaking of leaders, we were able to get registered to vote in time to request an absentee ballot and contribute to the blue wave we hope will overrun this country. Like Missouri, Georgia is primarily a Republican state. Unlike Missouri, though, there is a chance we can start turning the state blue this election.
Three things to take away from 2020 so far: Don’t move during a pandemic; nothing is more important this year than to stay healthy; we have to get rid of Trump and turn the Senate blue.
Let me hear a Hallelujah!
