Another 52 Weeks — #5
January was something else, and now it's February...
Not to overstate it, but January 2025 was “a month.”
A quick summary: Dealing with bitter cold and a large snowstorm while recovering from a difficult illness. Finishing a photo book and celebrating a milestone birthday. Taking memorable trips to Mexico City and Durham, N.C. Add to that Jill’s “School Counselor of the Year” activities, including a gala and board meeting, and a close relative who stayed with us the night prior to open heart surgery.
Also, we also are facing the aftershock of an inauguration while living in the Greater Washington, D.C., area, and the aftermath of a devastating plane crash close to home.
Oh, and the NFL playoffs.
No wonder that I’ve had multiple flashbacks — maybe they were fever dreams — to the early days of raising four children. With three kids born in a 12-month period and a fourth living in another city, the first few years felt like we worked on the assembly line episode of “I Love Lucy.” (For those of you too young to catch the reference, go here.)
A few years later, we morphed into the “all you can eat activity buffet” phase, a seemingly never-ending cycle of pickups, drop offs, tuck and rolls, and everything else in between. During those years, I used to joke that I went to work to rest.
And then, after the collective eye roll that was prominent during the teen years, it was over. The kids were grown, out of the house, and living their own lives.
Then in our early 50s, Jill and I left the Northern Virginia suburbs, moved into a downsized townhouse in Old Town Alexandria, went down to one car, and established a life as empty nesters.
It’s a good life. On most days, it’s a great life. We still move at a pretty rigorous pace — some habits are impossible to break — but I’m happy to be in this next chapter.
I’m also happy that it’s February.
Enjoy this edition of “Another 52 Weeks.”
In case you missed them, here are links to two posts from this week:
First Look: 'Keep Your Distance'
The video is a 30-second preview of my first photo book — Keep Your Distance: Walking Through the First Year of COVID. The book features 70 photos taken in New York, Richmond, Va., Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va.
As Brian Bilson wrote:
"Thirty days has September
April, June, and November.
Unless an leap year is its fate
February has twenty-eight.
All the rest have three days more
Excepting January,
Which has six thousand,
One hundred and eighty-four."