Frederick Area, Monocacy Battlefield

 Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Roadtrip to the Frederick area.  Found several spots to get out and explore.

These beauties we spotted in someone's yard along the way.

Gambrill Mill Trail was next.

Just stopped for a minute at the Thomas Farm.  Will have to save this spot for another day.

Jug Bridge

Big Event Ahead

 Late February 2021

That's right, we have a brand new Granddaughter on the way.  She will be the first girl in the family for a long time.  Mom and Dad Besmen were hoping I would have a girl and in anticipation, they started working on a dollhouse.  Now I am working on a way to gift it to our granddaughter.  So I am working on that now.

It was almost complete when I had Chris but never quite finished.  When we packed up everything from Mom and Dad's house I tried to pack the rooms the way Mom had them.  We are going to try to get the roof finished by the time the shower happens.

Things are Looking Up for 2021

 The Month of February 2021

We are not setting the world on fire yet, but we are getting a bit more active.  Let's start out with a really good meal from Bruce's smoker on a Tuesday evening, February 9th.  We have our own restaurant.

Tuesday, February 9, 021

We took a trip to Rock Creek Cemetary.

There are quite a few famous graves there.  We mainly went to see the Adams Memorial.  It is commonly referred to as "Grief" but I understand Henry Adams did not like that.  It was officially named by the sculpture The Mystery of the Hereafter and The Peace of God that Passeth Understanding.

Some other notable graves we located.

Sunday, February 14, 2021

Happy Valentines Day.  We are heading across the bay looking for some good walking trails.  Before the bridge, we stopped at Jonas and Anne Catharine Green Park.  This was a riverside walk but it was very wet and flooded so it was a short walk.  This has been a theme for the year so far.  Pretty wet and not really nice weather.

Continuing on across the Bay Bridge we hoped to hike along the Terrapin Nature Park Loop Trail.  Unfortunately, it was flooded, but, nearby was the Cross Island Trail.  This is a paved linear park that spans Kent Island from the Terrapin Trail to Kent Narrows.

We will have to do the Terrapin Loop in the future.

Slow Start to the New Year

 The month of January 2021

Well, I have to start this year's book with a confession.  I am way behind on posting anything to our blog.  I often depend on my pictures to stimulate my memory.  Sometimes I will write down activities in a notebook to help me remember and I usually save items like brochures, maps, etc. from the places we visit.  I will also consult our calendar to keep track of dates.  This year we either never left the house or we just didn't do anything fun for the first month of 2021.  I am inclined to believe we really didn't do anything outside of shopping, errands, doctor/dentist/vet appointments, and the like. Not a good way to start any year.  Bur considering the "pandemic" I guess it is easy to let the days slip by in a month like January.  Let's hope it only gets better.  Spoiler Alert:  It does!

The Final Month of 2020

 December 2020

What can I say about this month?  We are all hoping that 2021 will be a much better year.  I have so little memory of December, that I am not sure it even happened.  Christmas was a big zero.  We could not visit with any family.  We could not visit with Dad.  We had hoped to have Chris and Candice with us but Chris woke with the feeling that he was losing his taste so instead of a seafood dinner he had a Covid test.  Fortunately, he was negative.  Brandon was quarantined because Lindsay and his cousin had Covid.  We do not have a single picture taken in December.  The entire month was one big zero.

A Few Signs of the Times

Throughout the year 2020

Though we tried to be as active as possible, and I think we did pretty well, these are some of the things we constantly had to look at.  You almost had to be a rebel to get out of your house.  Even to shop.  We had to go outside Montgomery County to shop.  We really couldn't deal with the long lines and rules here plus you never know when you are going to get too close to someone and they will freak out.  Other counties were handling things a little better, plus it seemed that we have so many people in this county it was just too much competing with them.  I was always watching the numbers, which never really made sense, and the news was always frightening.  It seemed that anyone who died or got sick, it was only Covid that caused it.  In my opinion, even though the virus was/is terrible there was way too much fear and overreaction spread around.  There was so much unknown in the beginning, but even as new things were learned about the virus things were very slow to change particularly in Montgomery County.  People were masking up and wearing plastic gloves afraid to touch their groceries.  Then go out in the parking lot and throw them down instead of putting them in the trash.  It never ceases to amaze me when I would see an individual driving in their car with a mask on. And no one will ever know why there was a toilet paper shortage.  Some of my pet peeves were closing public bathrooms "for your safety." Yet there were porta-potties set up outside the doors in some places.  Other places, once they could open for business still had restrooms closed.  How can not being able to go to the restroom when you need to, be safe?   Safeway wrapped their credit card machines in Saran wrap as if that surface was different from the original surface.   We have fortunately been able to go back to our water exercise classes.  Though in the beginning, we had to come and go from our pool (because of renovation) in our swimwear.  Leaving the pool in a wet bathing suit when it is winter is no fun.  We have to wear a mask in the facility but not in the pool.  Some women actually wear two masks in the pool.  I can't imagine keeping them dry if they are putting any effort into the workout nor can I imagine breathing in that chlorinated water is healthy.  They have obviously increased the chemicals in the pool.  Our skin will show you that, plus they have to spray some kind of disinfectant all the time.  What we won't do for some exercise.  I am sick of hearing "We are all in this together," "this is the new normal," and "it is too soon to open anything up, stay home and save lives." I could go on and on about things that didn't make sense but people are getting very sick and people are dying.  I just wish there was a little more thought put into things.

Never did figure out why people were throwing balls in the playground. 
 Think it was a silent protest.

Look at all the tennis balls.

Tennis Courts eventually opened up but the basketball hoops
are still gone as of the end of 2020.

November was a Quiet Month

 November 2020

On Thursday, 11/5, we went for another hike in the area.  Today we hiked a trail in Little Bennett Regional Park, the Froggy Hollow Trail.  We walked around the Kingsley Schoolhouse.

The next day we did a geocache that took us out to Dickerson, MD.  We ended up at the Woodstock Equestrian Special Park.  This cache was located at the bottom of what looked like a furnace or chimney of some sort.  This area was the Brewer Farm in the past.

We also went to Kingsbury Orchard where another cache was hanging on a tree.  There was a market stand nearby and when we got out of the car to go to the tree the lady at the market stand freaking out because we hadn't put masks on.  We were not even walking anywhere near the fruit stand.  That is how afraid people have become.

This is Taylor Cooley.  She is my 15-year-old niece.  She and her mother, Melanie, visited the graves of my parents and placed a cross between their graves.  What a sweet thing to do.  Unfortunately, my folks never got to know Taylor.  They would have loved her dearly.

The week of Thanksgiving will go down as one of the strangest ever.  On Monday evening I received a call from Chris.  His good friend that he was with received a call that he had tested positive for Covid.  Candice is expecting Victoria in April and Brandon was with them at the time.  Candice and Brandon packed up some stuff and came to stay with us while Chris isolated himself until he received the all-clear that he had not acquired the Covid.

We were very happy that they had a safe place to stay with us.  In fact, Brandon and I did a Youtube video while they were here.  It was fun working with him.  The video had its moments, but it is not easy to make a successful video.

An action shot.

Thumbnail.

Thanksgiving Day was a strange one.  Brandon went to his Mom's so it was just Me, Bruce, and Candice here for dinner.  We still had our deep-fried turkey.  We, of course, fixed a plate for Chris and dropped it off so he could enjoy his dinner.

Brandon came back Sunday and he and Candice were able to go home on Monday.

I started a new hobby this year.  Bruce took this picture of me working on organizing my postcard collection.  It is an amazing look through history looking at postcards, some of which are over one hundred years old.  It is especially interesting reading what someone in 1910 may have written to a friend.