Maybe it is denial, maybe it is wishful thinking, maybe I just had a minute more than was reasonable to look at an email from OAT. I opened it! I read it! I reread it and saw that if I booked and things looked bleak when departure was approaching I could change the departure with no penalty. I looked at my account and saw I had  credits to cover the cost which I would lose if I didn’t travel before the end of 2022. We  both miss travel overseas. 

I think that is enough declarative sentences to get the idea. We have booked a trip with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) to Sicily for April 2021. The last trip we booked was Panama way back in 2019, the booking, the trip was March of 2020. We are scheduled to leave April 5 and return April 30. If it doesn’t happen we will go when we can. It will have been more than a year since we crossed the borders other than to Canada maybe.

We have not been sitting still. Over the weekend Leigh and Pat were here to visit us and Dan and Malena. I have told the story of our friendship several times in these pages. We went to Monticello with no crowds thanks to the pandemic and also took a tour of the UVA Grounds guided by our grandson Alexander, a fourth year student there. On Sunday we hiked a piece of the AT where it crosses the Blue Ridge Parkway. People were suitable masked in all of those environs. We dined at home although we did have a Bourbon tasting at Ragged Mountain Distillery. They have a beautiful patio with a marvelous overlook and we were separated from other parties by way more than 2 meters. 

After a moment of quiet from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon Patrick Watkin appeared as expected. Pat is Dan’s step son from an earlier marriage. He calls us Bubbe and Zayde as he has since he was an infant. Today he is a very large man, taller than Josh and Corey. Shortly after his arrival Josh manifested in the driveway and another gala of stories and food began. Alexander will be joining the merriment tonight and Dan will have his four boys together for the first time in decades. We are so grateful to be able to share the joy. 

Although all have been keeping themselves in relative seclusion for months we do recognize that there is inherent risk in this gathering. So be it! We are not hugging and we are staying further apart than we might wish with masks ready, but we are together and not subject to the loneliness that leads to depression. As noted at the beginning of this post we are planning out into the future and look forward to more 2 meter gatherings with friends when we return to Rochester.

Oh meters! We have traveled enough that metric and Celsius seem normal to us. Tell me it 40 out and I will shuck down to tee shirt not reach for my windbreaker. Carol got a piece of equipment that  listed a maximum distance of 6 feet 6 inches. It seemed strange until I realized that the original measurement was 2 meters. 

But I wander. . .