Year in Review: February 2021 - February 2022

Since it's my birthday, I figured I'd catch everyone up on (the little?) that's happened in the last year. (I'll probably forget to mention something.)

Like many of you, COVID-19 hampered and hindered some activities. At this time last year I was unvaccinated, a little too young to be targeted early for the vaccines. In March I got my first Moderna dose, and in April I got my 2nd Moderna dose. I had virtually zero reaction to the 1st one, but the 2nd one definitely stirred up a reaction. Fortunately the worst of it was over about 24 hours after the shot, and 48 hours after I felt essentially normal. I remember thinking at the time that life might go back to normal. In November I got my booster, this time the Pfizer shot. The reaction was similar to my 2nd Moderna shot.

I didn't go out of my way to mix-and-match the Moderna and Pfizer shots; they were just the most convenient ones I could get each time. (I'm a little bit glad the Johnson & Johnson shot wasn't the most convenient, since it appears to be somewhat less effective than the others.)

Probably in early March my right foot was fairly painful. The podiatrist diagnosed plantar fasciitis, something that first bothered me about 8 years ago when I was doing quite a bit of hiking. It was the period between when I was laid off by Telcordia and when I was hired by Alcatel-Lucent. Back then I credited Alcatel-Lucent with my recovery from plantar fasciitis, reasoning that the job kept me in an office and off my feet enough for the foot to heal.

This past spring, I had no convenient reason to stay off my feet, and the recovery was kind of slow. I did get a couple cortisone shots to loosen things up in the foot, though I think a stretching exercise I learned is probably why the injury both recovered and hasn't (yet) returned. I was hobbling around for a few months though.

Sometime in the spring I started meeting a small number of colleagues for lunch. For much of the summer we'd eat outdoors at either Chimney Rock Inn or Green Knoll Grille, but much of the winter we moved indoors. This is one of the only times I've been indoors without a mask for much of the year (though there was a period when I went shopping without one).

With few social commitments, I had a fair amount of time for volunteer work. Though I did an invasive plant removal session for Raritan Headwaters Association, most of this was done for Duke Farms:

• Outdoor Educator - This is a job where you hang out at an outdoor stand and try and talk to passersby about a nature/conservation topic. (Where else can you walk up to people, start talking about vultures, and not be thought of as strange?)
• Trail Steward - I think the original idea was mostly about trimming plants that were intruding onto some of the trails, though it evolved a bit into cutting down invasive plants and planting native ones too.
• And a few other tasks that I did far less regularly.
• Unfortunately these are strictly warm weather activities, so they don't occupy my time from November - March.

Sometime during the year I went to a dermatologist just to see if I should be worried about any moles. (The dermatologist seemed to think my moles were boring, which is good.)

Sometime during the summer I participated in the Duke Farms Butterfly Count. This was the 3rd or 4th year I did this, so it's becoming a traditional summer thing for me. We didn't see as many butterflies as usual; I don't think we arrived at a firm explanation for why that was.

Also over the summer I was told that my car needed repairs costly something like umpteen gazillion dollars, so I bought a new-for-me 2018 Toyota Corolla. So far the only weird thing is it reports low tire pressure sometimes, and the warning indicator stays on even after I top off the tires, and then a couple days later it goes off and stays that way.

As Halloween approached, I decided to buy less candy this year, since (perhaps due to the pandemic) I hadn't gotten many kids the previous year. I could have bought even less candy; I think I got an embarrassing 10 kids or so. It was a little weird that I saw more kids walking around, but few stopped.

Last month I lost internet here at home, and no plugging/unplugging sequence was able to remedy the situation. I had been paying $230 a month, though it looks like it had risen to $250 a month recently. This seemed high, so I used the internet loss as an excuse to switch to Fios. To lower the cost, I'm doing without a cable connection to my TV. Based on a suggestion, I've got a Roku attached to it. And I supplemented that with YouTubeTV for something pretty close to my old Optimum package. I expect this to cost me about $120 a month, a pretty impressive drop. (I'm hoping I didn't accidentally acquire channels I don't need while trying to learn how to use the Roku.)

One weird this about the Roku is that sometimes (it's happened twice now) it uses only about 1/3 of the screen. A Roku forum has a workaround for that problem - basically reboot it. If I unplug it then plug it in again, I'm back in full screen mode.

I'm sure I'm not utilizing the Roku to its fullest, but so far I think the experiment has been a success. (I'm still considering getting an antenna as a backup, though I'm not sure how well it'll work. It needs to be an indoor one, and I won't necessarily be able to aim it in a useful direction.)

As someone too young for Medicare, I was pleasantly surprised that I'm getting financial assistance on my health insurance this year. The previous year I don't think I even tried to get any, so I'm not sure if I overpaid last year. AFAIK the only downside is that to qualify for assistance I need to keep my income a little on the low side. We'll have to see how that works out.

I've been battling an achy knee for a month or so. It felt pretty bad one morning after jogging, but seems to be doing somewhat better lately. I've had somewhat similar problems over the years so I'm not sure if this is something new that will require attention or if it's something that'll go away on its own if I just give it some time (and tolerate some discomfort).

Speaking of jogging, this has been a cold winter, at least once we got into January. On cold mornings like this one (21F that felt like 12F) I've been wearing layers and layers. Fortunately I haven't fallen over. (This facemask is at least partly to prevent cold air from bothering the fillings in my teeth.)

Winter jogging garb for a fairly cold day