Of twenty-twenty, we have had a plenty...good bye and good riddance!
Like you, my year started pretty normal. Right out the gate I was off to Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Leiden, Amsterdam and Gdansk, where there is a lovely Ferris wheel (links to photos on my instagram page), all in a two week period. Standard stuff, but by March life had slowed considerably. Ugh@#$%^&* The SARS virus we had been hearing about from China was in Maryland and in all the places I had just visited in the EU. Fortunately, Governor Hogan took steps early to implement quarantine actions. Stay at home orders went into place in March and the University of Maryland complied. Don't go to work if you don't have to we were told. Mask up inside. Limit contact outside your bubble. Social distance. Only "ZOOM" video meetings. Lots of new words in the daily lexicon. For me being use to working from home or where ever I wanted, this didn't sound bad at first. And, by then my lab had dwindle to a few and I was contemplating moving. So, there wasn't much going on in the lab that needed my attention. However, suddenly being forced to work from home felt confining in the same way that pre-COVID working from home had been a luxury.
Speaking of moving, we did so during the damn pandemic making it our 5th time to move across the continent. Shipped the Kia Sportage to Seattle and rented a lux SUV that Donna drove the entire way every day for five days from BWI to SEA. I worked off and on the whole way and tried be generally as annoying as I felt safe being all in order to help keep her awake. Once there we took a couple days to regroup, picked up the Kia and then moved on Northward. Even got in a lovely lunch with my former driver while we waited on the Kia to arrive at his house near Seatac. Arriving in Victoria on 1 OCT we went straight into quarantine for two weeks - as per government requirements and yes they called to check that we were in fact staying home. No going out. No going off property. Thanks to Donna's foresight in packing all the household things we would need in the two week quarantine when we could not get to our belongings, we were mostly set. And, thanks to delivery of fast-food and groceries it went by well enough bolstered by help from Dave Schibli and Derek Smith. These guys work at the lab I inherited from Christoph Borchers who resigned as Director back in July 2019. They insisted on helping move all of our belongings from their de facto quarantine at the ABF terminal in Surrey (an inexpensive way to move but requires you load your own trailer) which is right at the border. Not a simple journey from Surrey to Victoria as it is three hours one way including a 1.5 hour ferry ride, but these guys insisted on helping even though it meant unloading off the ABF trailer in Surrey onto a UHAUL and then off the UHAUL into our Victoria rental. Long day, but felt like we had arrived to find family waiting on us.
Just like the 18 years in Seattle, we put down roots in Baltimore in our seven years there making leaving bittersweet. Lots of friends left behind and sadly one homeless man, Leslie Dale Watson, who I had come to know well during my walks to and from work. Too many people to name, but thanks to social media they are virtually close except Dale who I'll likely never have the luxury of chatting with again. And then there was our hundred + year old row house with all of its charm like the marble fireplace that we bid farewell. Sold surprisingly quickly, but then Donna had staged it like a pro! Lots of charm in the historic Bolton Hill neighborhood like the veg and fruit man's horse drawn wagon that we will miss. All of the places we could walk to were also hard to give up as was our lovely patio decorated by Donna enjoyed by Trixie and where I worked and ate many meals. Even our 33rd anniversary was spent in quarantine but in style in the kitchen. Thanks COVID!
Our oldest, aka Mint, stayed behind in Maryland near the College Park campus where he is finishing up his degree in kinesiology. What he'll do with this degree remains a mystery but he has begun making job applications. Can't imagine the job market will recover by the time he finishes in May 2021, but loads of new graduates will be in this unnerving position. Sadly, this will be the first Christmas we have spent without him. Don't want to dwell on that but hope he can - pandemic pending - find a way to celebrate if even alone. He said perhaps he would be with his Seattle childhood mate Elliott who is now in the Coast Guard and nearby in Virginia. Our youngest on the other hand, aka Ham, is here with us. Soon he'll start his fourth year convalescing from an unknown medical problem causing debilitating muscle soreness. In July he and I traveled to LA to visit Cedars Sinai's Center for Undiagnosed Patients (CUP) to try to shed some light on his condition. CUP uses a team of doctors who meet patients individually and then meet as a group afterward to discuss possible diagnoses. Sadly, none was forthcoming. Even the genetic mutations ordered by the CUP neurologist failed to find anything pathological, sigh. As of now we are set to undergo whole genome sequencing to see if something inheritable shows up. With COVID ravishing LA even more so than when we visited, when even the homeless on the streets had masks on, it could be Summer 2021 before we are able to discuss results with the genetic counselor.
Our first morning in Victoria we awoke to the strangest feeling brought on by complete and utter silence. Not even any road noise in our Gordon Head neighborhood. Weird because in Baltimore we had become use to the daily sounds of urban life: gunshots, sirens, police helicopters overhead with spot lights at night, traffic scofflaws, pedestrians yelling obscenities at each other, squeegee boys, twelve O'clock boys and all manner of chaos one can imagine in a city where police abdicated control of traffic laws after the Freddy Gray riots. Despite all that, we will always miss Baltimore. What a wonderful and whacky place to live. The urban life - sans traffic scofflaws - suited us. I loved walking where ever I wanted and interacting with all the "scary" people we were warned about when moving there in 2013: "Don't live in the city! It's too dangerous" we were told. Well, it was fine and fun. Fantastic even. In addition to Donna's now good friends she left behind, I met a luthier - Phil Jacoby - who got all my guitars working again after spending decades mostly in their cases. More of this to come on that front I hope.
That's about all I got. We are happy to be at a University that wants me, but sad to have left our friends behind in Baltimore. Indeed, very sad to have left Charm-City with its gritty, funky, friendly folk where grocery store security guards wear bullet proof vests and carry firearms and remind you to "stay safe" as you exit the store. Victoria is quite a bit more boring by comparison, but we'll get use to it - I hope. Happy Holidays from Dave, Donna, Ham and Trixie! We miss you Mint!!!!! Hoping the border opens by the time you graduate so we can be together. Lots of love, hugs and kisses from all of us to all of you.
