Lots has changed since a similar picture in February - including the fancy new thermometer Kathy got this week.

(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 47)

I’m almost afraid to say this, for fear of putting the ol’ jinx on it…

But it has to be said:

The weirdest thing about the past eight months, considering we’re in the middle of a pandemic….is how healthy we’ve been.

It’s remarkable, really - I don’t know that we’ve ever had this kind of a stretch of health in our house.

I mean, it makes sense: we’re limiting where we’re going, so there’s less of a chance of catching anything, and certainly the girls not going to school is a contributing factor.

But I bring this up now because, as we approach the end of 2020, I was thinking about how the year started.

I was going back through my old Sunday Papers in order to see how I wrapped up last year, to make sure I had the end of this year in order…

And then I happened upon this post from February.

In my memory, that post didn’t have a lot of details about how I was feeling…but re-reading it again now I realized it was a little more revealing than I remembered.

I was very sick the end of February vacation week, following my youngest daughter being sick - she had missed the last Friday of school and was in rough shape for about five days.

I was in terrible shape for a few days and it took me a little bit before I felt back to normal.

But at that time we had no idea about COVID. It’s easy to look back and say we had it. I have no idea.

Kathy had traveled to California shortly before then, so she has considered the possibility that she brought the virus back with her.

My daughter’s classroom was insanely sick during January and February - so many kids were absent. So maybe that was the virus passing through there. Who knows.

But I bring this all up to point out, if I indeed had COVID (which certain symptoms indicate I might have, others were weird but not COVID-like), I was probably a big spreader. I was in bed for at least 3 days, and even when I was recuperating I was back out doing normal life things.

Since then though, knock on wood, we’ve been in very good shape in our house.

There have been occasional headache bouts here and there, but overall it’s been a healthy time.

Which I guess means we’re doing the right thing.

We’ll see how long that continues. Because the timing of this post is interesting - and there’s something else I guess that’s been on my mind, maybe subconsciously - a trend that I hope will get bucked this year:

I always seem to get sick around Thanksgiving.

Notes

*Oh, you were looking through the end-of-year posts to see how you wrap up the year, John? So we can expect the same kind of end-of-year posts? Well, funny you should ask. I was thinking about mixing things up a little bit this year - you remember last year I, I think, was the first year away from the ‘mailbag’ type of end-of-year post - I did a ‘What I Read’ post. This year I will do that again along with a couple of other ideas I had. So you can expect those for at least three weeks in December.

And if you have a real itch to send me an e-mail or a question or a comment and I get enough that it merits a ‘mailbag’ or Q and A post….we’ll do it. I liked doing those, but I don’t like burdening my readers.

*I discovered this week that I accidentally posted the Sunday Paper from a few weeks ago on my personal page instead of the writing page. So if you missed it (and care to read it), here’s that post.

*And if you did miss it, that probably means you already Like the Facebook page. Good for you. If you don’t, you can do that here. And you can follow me on Twitter here.

*I’m more and more tired on Sunday mornings, I guess, when I put these on the Facebook page. Maybe I should start scheduling the posts so I don’t have to make it the first thing I do on Sunday morning.

*We got a great e-mail from the composting company this week, pumping up the fact that Thanksgiving week is the biggest composting week of the year. It was quite amusing…I’m a big fan of the composting company and composting process and this e-mail only made me a bigger fan. Let me know if you want their info - it would be great to get more Framingham folks on board. Actually, you should do it even if you’re not in Framingham - it’s in a bunch of different towns. I would love to see the cost come down in Framingham…but it’s probably more important that people in general get in on the composting process.

*I promise you I’m not being asked to promote them or anything. I just think it’s one small thing we can do to help the environment.

*I know Thanksgiving is going to be different for a lot of people this year. That’s not a great thing, but hopefully it pays off in the long run. I hope you’re able to enjoy the holiday in some form or fashion, and at the very least have a recharging long Thanksgiving weekend. I’m looking forward to that part of it.

*And, I didn’t intend to make this a ‘thankful’ post, but the bottom line is we in this house, and those we’re closest to, have our health this Thanksgiving, and for that I’m thankful.