We are always wishing each other a Happy New Year. In reality, most years don’t live up to the hype. We get sick, the winters are too cold, the summers too hot and (ironically), too short, the (fill in the blank) costs too much or breaks down.
In the spirit of “it could always be worse” let me offer my list of ten pretty good things about 2022. If you think about it, I’m sure you could make a similar list.
1. We all made it through. At times, I had my doubts, with everything that is going on in the world today.
2. We got up to our favorite camping spot this summer, Scenic State Park, after missing 2021 due to drought and forest fires in the northern tier of the state making us skip a year.
3. At least some of the city beaches stayed open throughout the summer, in spite of the drought and the heat that dried up Minnehaha Creek, and caused periodic closures of some beaches due to E.coli or algae blooms.
4. We had to do plenty of watering—offset by letting our lawn go dormant—but we got a bountiful harvest of tomatoes and cucumbers.
5. We had a beautiful fall, despite numerous warnings that the drought would dim the display. It didn’t.
6. I finished another mystery novel, Flood of Memories, which will be published soon. I got a box of ARCs for Caravans in the Dark. So, two of my books will be coming out in 2023.
7. The choir I sing with, Twin Cities Catholic Chorale, ditched masks when the season started back up in October. No more singing in a facemask and inhaling a throat-coating of cotton fluff.
8. Covid may not be gone, but it’s a much better. School, churches, restaurants, and theaters reopened.
9. Our neighbors helped us out with snow shoveling when we needed it most.
10. Fun times with family and friends.
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