Unutterably Silly One good thing about 2020

[issybird]

The New York Times has an article which is subtitled: We asked readers to name one good thing that happened in an otherwise dismal year. It appealed to me as a concept, so I thought I’d post it here.

For me, it was going to the beach. Other years, swimming every day is what makes summer for me, but in 2020 both my pool and my lake access were closed. As a substitute, I went to the beach most days for at least a walk, and some days I’d hang out for a while. I’ve always loved the beach and while the ocean here is mostly too cold for swimming, there are still benefits to proximity to the salt water, broad vistas, sandy reaches and fresh breezes. Even if, as I devoutly hope, daily swimming is a thing for me again in summer 2021, I’ll still make the effort to stay in touch with the beach on a regular basis.

[DNSB]

For me, the best thing about 2020 is that it has a couple of weeks to go. There weren't many highlights about the first couple of months.

[Elektron]

For me, it was schools opening. People need human interaction, I was going crazy trapped at home. It hasn't been easy here in Alberta.

[DNSB]

Whereas for me, re-opening schools has been an unmititgated pain. Too many students who give lip service to social distancing, wearing masks, hand cleaning, etc. Last week I got to watch a group of high school students standing at the edge of the school grounds sharing two e-cigarettes between a group of 11 students.

[OtinG]

Terrible year on many levels, but I was able to get a few photos last night of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, including all four of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, then use those to create a composite image of the so-called Christmas star. So I’m happy about that. I enjoy astrophotography, but this has been a cloudy year, but the weather was great last night and I was able to record this conjunction. See attached photos. I also snapped a shot of the Moon just because it was there.

The rest of the year has been pretty bad over all.

.......

[poohbear_nc]

Beautiful photos - thanks for posting.


You know, I've been thinking about this question since Issy posted it ... and discussed it with my partner ... and sadly enough, we haven't been able to come up with one good thing ... except that we're still alive, and not a statistic ....

[binaryhermit]

Yeah, I'm drawing a blank here...

[tubemonkey]

I'm still alive

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

sadly enough, we haven't been able to come up with one good thing ... except that we're still alive, and not a statistic ....

Much the same in this household. We're holding a Zoom conference on Christmas day but it's a poor substitute for in person meetings.

Can't remember who said something like: When I woke up this morning, I was breathing and had a pulse so I got out of bed and had breakfast.

[Sirtel]

I just had the news that I may have a chance to move to a new apartment in the near future, thanks to my niece. I'm too old myself to get a loan from the bank, and when I was young, I had too small an income.

Otherwise it's been a bad year. Not because of Covid, I've always been a recluse and the virus has not changed my lifestyle much. But my mother's dementia took an abrupt dive downward this autumn. She's at a nursing home now, and we're afraid she won't be long for this world.

[OtinG]

I've been hanging around this forum for a LONG time--at least 15 years on and off. I'm on my 3rd user name now, I think, as I periodically went dormant then returned with a new one. I remember when the current MR logo was designed via a contest so as to reflect a more mobile era. It was during the pre-smartphone era when PDAs like the Palm Pilot ruled. That must have been at least 15 years ago. In that time I've grown rather fond of many of the people around here, although I’ve never met any of them in person. So it dawns on me that even though 2020 has been the year from hell what with the pandemic and other personal challenges and tragedies we have encountered, perhaps the "one good thing" is that we are all still here, still communicating, still waking up on the sunny side of the grass each morning.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I've been hanging around this forum for a LONG time--at least 15 years on and off. I'm on my 3rd user name now, I think, as I periodically went dormant then returned with a new one. I remember when the current MR logo was designed via a contest so as to reflect a more mobile era. It was during the pre-smartphone era when PDAs like the Palm Pilot ruled. That must have been at least 15 years ago. In that time I've grown rather fond of many of the people around here, although I’ve never met any of them in person. So it dawns on me that even though 2020 has been the year from hell what with the pandemic and other personal challenges and tragedies we have encountered, perhaps the "one good thing" is that we are all still here, still communicating, still waking up on the sunny side of the grass each morning.

Amen to that.

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I've been hanging around this forum for a LONG time--at least 15 years on and off. I'm on my 3rd user name now, I think, as I periodically went dormant then returned with a new one. I remember when the current MR logo was designed via a contest so as to reflect a more mobile era. It was during the pre-smartphone era when PDAs like the Palm Pilot ruled. That must have been at least 15 years ago. In that time I've grown rather fond of many of the people around here, although I’ve never met any of them in person. So it dawns on me that even though 2020 has been the year from hell what with the pandemic and other personal challenges and tragedies we have encountered, perhaps the "one good thing" is that we are all still here, still communicating, still waking up on the sunny side of the grass each morning.

Indeed - just when we needed a virtual community of friends and acquaintances - we already had one in place. Well said!