A LOOK BACK AT 2021

 

End of June, 2020:

• Preparing to move from our home where we lived for 12 years which we sold.
• Attending Arlington Avenue Baptist Church, where we had been members for 16 years (and had previously been members for another 2 years before that).
• Working at MACL (Mid-America Clinical Labratories) in the Processing department, having celebrated my 20th anniversary there that March, but knowing that one of the co-owners of MACL (Quest Diagnostics) bought the others out.
• Starting to adjust to a COVID world where everything was closed.
• Working again to get my novel published.

A year and a half later:

• Finishing our fifth month in a Senior apartment after leaving another apartment complex where we stayed one year (Aug. 1, 2020 to Aug. 1, 2021).
• After moving further away from Arlington Avenue, we joined Northside Baptist Church this May, where I help in the streaming booth with the videos of the church service. I'm also in a small men's group that meets Tuesdays, and I just finished leading them through three months in Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction by Bryan Litfin.
• Finishing a year being an official Quest Diagnostics employee and six months working in the Purchasing department. Different employer, but still the same building, same co-workers, same supervisor while I was still in Processing. 
• Still adjusting to a COVID world (I'll be glad to get off any second now). Voluntarily got my vaccines (not required to at work where I'm at). Voluntarily wear a mask in grocery stores and as required at work and the library. Mourning the frequency of restaurant dining rooms (and in one case a gas station 7pm on a Saturday evening) being closed to staffing problems and some of our favorite items vanishing like McDonalds' Steak and Egg Bagel and Grilled Chicken sandwiches.
• No progress on novel, except for having Beta readers read it; praying about trying to publish it as is or completely rework it or wave the white flag (having been working on the novel since 2007, this is familiar territory).

This year, I set a goal of reading 12 non-fiction books (1 a month) and 24 novels (2 a month). Final count - 23 non-fiction (including 3 previously read) and 28 fiction (including one previously read - first time I've reread a novel for 20 years or more - and not including the one I just started and will probably be half way through by year's end).

The next two days, I'll do my annual tradition of giving lists of favorite fiction and non-fiction. The day after that, I'll let you know what I'm looking forward to in '22. Then, New Year's Eve, I'll mention what's coming up in this blog next year.