Next year is still a few weeks away, but Susie and I already discussing our tentative schedule for 2021.
As we look back on this year, we hope to reschedule some of those plans that were canceled because of the virus.
Will conditions return to the old normal and allow us to do the fun things we couldn’t do in the past many months? How will the election affect our choices? Will my health problems influence any of our decisions?
For the past several years, I have had breathing problems when exerting myself, whether working around the yard or engaging in outdoor activities on one of our trips.
I went to a cardiologist, who ran some tests and told me I had a bad heart valve.
He informed me I would need a valve replacement but not for five or six years.
OK, I can handle that.
He said it could be causing some of my breathing problems.
This summer and fall, my shortness of breath became worse and more frequent.
We went to three metal detector hunts, in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and, recently, Mississippi.
During each event, I had to take short pauses to catch my breath. This isn’t good when you are competing against other entrants and each stop could cost me several ‘targets.”
Susie finally made me call the doctor and tell him what was happening.
He scheduled me for several tests. I went in for a chest x-ray, and they took about a gallon of blood for some tests. Two days later, I returned to the hospital for an echocardiogram to see if my bad valve had deteriorated faster than thought.
Now, I am waiting for the results and possible remedies.
This year, my Hoosier Outdoor Writers Conference took place in February before the big closedown of everything. I don’t know when it will be scheduled for next year. My other two conferences were in September and October, or at least, were supposed to be. I don’t know if any of those will take place next year. I have tentative dates and will put them on my new calendars.
Susie is suffering from fishing withdrawal. Going all year without wetting a line really upset her. I already have an invitation to return to Minnesota and Ontario in the summer for angling on Lake of the Woods. That’s if Canada opens its borders again. Western New York is again a hopeful for some big fish, if everything works out. If we get to visit Florida in the spring, I have a charter boat captain ready to take us both freshwater and saltwater fishing while we are there.
Metal detector hunts are scheduled almost every month, and we try to attend several during the year. We have been invited to a hunt in Memphis in March if everything works out. I already have hunt flyers for events in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama and several other states, plus Ontario.
Depending on how I feel, I can either enlarge my garden again in the spring or just plant it all in grass. I watered my garden almost daily from August through September. Now that the gardening is done for the year, we get rain almost every day.
I have already started getting my seed orders ready before the shortage hits like last year. We are buying canning jar lids anytime we find them. Late summer, we were still canning beans, beets, tomatoes and more and couldn’t find lids without buying a whole case of jars.
Like everyone else, we are hoping the pandemic will end soon and we can resume our “normal” schedule. Now, I am waiting for the phone to ring and hoping the doctor will be calling with good news.
