We started the week off with a bang. We had Christmas Zoom concerts two nights in a row. The first was a baroque concert. They suggested enjoying cookies and hot chocolate with the concert. We didn’t buy their concert pack, but we did get some Oreos and make a nice cup of hot mocha. The other concert had each musician playing or singing in their own home. I don’t know how they kept everybody synchronized. Even the children chorus did quite well. Their last number was a jazz piece with irregular rhythms. I could tell they had a little trouble with that one. But overall, it was a great concert.

Sunday was neighborhood luminary night. Folks were invited to make luminaries and put them out from 6 to 7. Danita made several. It was fun walking around the neighborhood. Here’s a picture of the Jones with their luminaries.

Mom has been cooking meals that Mark and JiaJia can heat up after the baby comes. These are our favorite recipes that feed a family. Danita and I ate a little bit and froze the rest. Mark and Jiajia picked really good recipes. Danita and I have been eating really well.

Christmas day we had a small zoom with just Mark, Jiajia, and the Reeds. That was fun. One of our gifts was a 6-month subscription to “The Great Courses”. These are lecture courses. Most of them are 24 lectures, so we got started right away. We picked out 10 courses to watch together, plus we both have a few courses that just one of us is interested in. Five days a week at 9:00, Danita and I watch two lectures. In 6 months when we’re all done, we should have had our vaccination and we should be able to get out more. So far, the lectures have been excellent.

I also built a database this week. I use Quicken for our budget. Quicken has become quite cumbersome for what I need these days. It wants me to store data in the cloud, which I’m reluctant to do. Every time I start Quicken, the connection to the cloud account has to time out. I want to review accounts daily. It’s extra work to do that without the cloud storage. I decided I could build a database that I can use for our budget. The basic database is done. I will be using both Quicken and the database until I’m confident everything is working well. Then I’ll add some features. The cool thing is that I can make the database work exactly the way I want. I had to spend a lot of time looking things up. I forgot all the details of syntax and formatting. But it’s been a lot of fun. I haven’t done work like this in years.

My new bike has been delayed. Plus the dealer doesn’t usually stock the configuration I want. I want to test ride before putting down a hefty deposit. The dealer had one of the first bikes made by this manufacturer with the configuration I want in his warehouse. We agreed I would use that as the test ride. I rode it this week and it’s exactly what I expected. I put the deposit down. The dealer said I could take the old bike home and ride it while waiting for the new bike. I was pleased to find the bike fit in our car, so I took it home. Unfortunately, really old bikes develop issues. The chain was too loose. I fixed that (imperfectly). Then I found that one of the wheels was reluctant to turn — the brake was rubbing against the wheel. I started looking at that when I noticed one of the tires had gone flat. I hadn’t ridden even 5 miles. At this point, I decided I was getting a friendly message from my guardian angel about the wisdom of riding this very old bike. The bike’s in the garage waiting for the new bike to come in. One good thing is that I verified the new bike will fit in the garage.

That’s the news from Columbia. I hope everybody had a pleasant Christmas

Even without the parties or the prospects of seeing family in person, it’s starting to feel a little like the holidays. Danita put up decorations a couple of weeks ago. Radio music has been seasonal. We even got some genuine winter weather. It was about an inch of mostly ice. Streets are clear throughout the area. (Clear enough for safe driving, not clear enough for a bike.) Sidewalks in our neighborhood are clear, making it easy to take walks. We have 5 condos, each on its own loop. I call the neighborhood walk a “5 leaf clover” walk. Temperatures are staying near freezing, so Columbia trails are impassable.

I thought I would have my new bike by now. I don’t. It’s going to be a lot longer and quite a bit harder than I thought. That’s OK. Long bike rides are problematic this time of year.

And that is all the news that’s fit to print. I hope this finds everyone doing well.

This week our lives included the best Zoom we have ever seen, and the worst. The best was about insect diversity in Costa Rica. It’s from Road Scholar. This was a free presentation, so I’m passing it on. The presenter is a delightful person, very entertaining, and knows a lot about insects. I promise you will be entertained and you will learn a lot if you watch it. The recording is on the web through Dec 23. Here’s the link.

https://roadscholar.zoom.us/rec/share/WlUBEmLkpjE7Pnoxgx04sypnqOaqyZlwL1Lp9VorKfb05VOHPH2fkBe22N50eDE1.5EX2PypnMQ0DQn31

The worst was a presentation from Peabody about medieval music. Music was performed on instruments of the time. The performer had very good technique, but the music didn’t sound musical. I certainly hope that medieval people had better music than this.

The rest of the week was pretty standard. We had our last Detective Novella class Thursday. COVID is still running rampant after the Thanksgiving holiday. Many counties in Maryland are closing indoor dining. Some are also closing outdoor dining. That doesn’t affect us. Carry out is still allowed. We’ll be having a Bob Evans breakfast Sunday. Our neighborhood is bringing a seafood food truck Sunday. This is the truck that offers Key Lime pie in a jar. It tastes a lot better than it sounds.

We’ve enjoyed some very mild weather the last few days. Highs have been near 60, with sunny skies and mild wind. It’s perfect for outdoor activities, such as bicycling!

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Starting with a sad event, Houlihan’s permanently closed. This was a restaurant with the second best meatloaf in the county (after Danita’s). The next restaurant is so far below Houlihan’s I wouldn’t even give it a nod. There’s plenty of OK meatloaf. It’s just that Houlihan’s was particularly good. Fortunately, they had their meatloaf on sale for $10 less than a month ago, and we took advantage of it.

Moving from sad to shady, First Watch gave me a breakfast BOGO for my birthday. That was very nice. To use the BOGO, I have to create an account and order online, or order from their smart phone app, or dine in. We won’t be dining in until AP (After Pandemic), so that means to get the BOGO I have to let them store my credit card number on their servers. I find that sleazy. This Sunday Bob Evans is in rotation. When First Watch is up, I plan to try to order to-go in person, then go out to the car and wait for the food to be prepared. (It’s usually about 15 minutes). I definitely don’t trust First Watch to store my credit card.

The “best misadventure” award goes to trash collection. Danita and I got our second Shingle shots Tuesday. By Wednesday we both felt miserable. We had aches. We felt cold. I was still in my PJs when I heard the trash truck. Oops. I forgot to put the trash out. Danita was dressed. She ran the trash can down the street, hailing the trash men. Sorry about that, Danita!

Now for the “worst misadventure” award. I rode my bike to get groceries as I do every Thursday. Everything was normal until it was time to insert my credit card in the self-checkout machine. My wallet wasn’t there. I had the store put the order on hold and rode my bike home (about an hour). I went to my wallet drawer, and the wallet wasn’t there either. Both Danita and I looked everywhere. We never found it. There were no fraudulent charges. I had my normal complement of insurance ID, drivers license, and credit cards. It only took about an hour to cancel cards and order replacements. Friday I got the new credit card number. It took another hour to switch all the auto-charges to the new card. (I keep a list of all auto-payments just for this kind of emergency.) I had a new wallet delivered Friday. Danita and I will be getting new cards over the next several weeks.

Our most fun activity was a food truck yesterday. This time it was “Greek on the Street”. We had dinner with our neighbors. (Extremely socially distanced, of course.) Danita and I both had Gyro sandwiches. We split an order of Greek fries. We couldn’t believe how many fries we got for $5. It made a McDonalds super size look wimpy. We literally couldn’t eat them all.

It was definitely as much excitement as I want in one week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.