Loose Leaf Notes

The following 2021 review was done by excerpting the first line or few in one post from each month last year. You can click on the name of the month for a full accounting.

January: The snow we got at the New Year was like frosting that covered everything and made me wonder where the gingerbread was.

February: Is “cold” the mutant past tense of “cool?”

March: For me, as a virus long hauler for 40 years, “spring fever” is a real thing. As the temperature and sap rises so does my low-grade fever.

April: It all started when I was looking for flat bean seeds for planting and no one had them in Floyd, a crop failure I was told.  I googled “garden center in Roanoke” as we drove to Roanoke to pick up our grandsons and the “Parakeet Garden” at the Science Museum in the Center in the Square came up. I couldn’t resist.

May: The RSVP invitation to the family wedding we went to in Massachusetts asked ‘what song would you dance to?’ My first answer was RESPECT by Aretha Franklin. I wasn’t the only one who chose that song, so of course they played it.

June: It was a small but attentive audience for the 3rd in our Soulful Aging Poetry Reading Tour. Seated on the deck of the Soup Shop with just-brewed lattes from Chantal Coffee, Katherine and I delved into the topic, the developmental stage of aging, the passage that we often resist embracing or even talking about.

July: Every day at Floydfest is my favorite. Every picture, every scene and every connection with friends felt cherished and full of history this year because it was the last festival on the 20-year site (new location in Floyd County coming in 2023).

August: This is not a sewing bee. Nor is it a bridge club. It’s an overflow meeting of minds, the Scrabble kind, enjoying lunch and crunching letters at Outerspace.

September: We broke a sweat. We held our own. We stopped to rest. And posed with boulders.

October: We gave Hopa Joe the camp name “Camp Champ” because he was the most experienced hiker/camper of us and because he got the whole camp-out going. Liam helped Joe put up the tents.

November: Have you heard of Tuesdays with Morrie? We spent our Tuesday with our Portsmouth friend Maury, on the way to spend Thanksgiving with Joe’s mom and sister, where, yes, there was gravy.

December: “We went to a “Christmas Office party.” It just happened to be a Floydfest party for the festival team of workers. There was an inaugural “On-the-Rise” Cookie Competition. The spread included some “Bad Ass” cookies. Not to be confused with the “Good as Shi*” Balls.”