We did go a bit overboard when buying furniture. As for the new stuff, our leather couch is far too big for just the two of us, and I've assured her as we wear out the recliners on one end, we'll slowly move further down the couch until we eventually wear out the other sections and two other recliners at the other end. Our monstrosity of a TV stand being 9' by 7' was my wife's choice and I only agreed to buy it when she assured me she would pay a professional to put it together. After it took him 10 hours, I'm sure she was grateful that she didn't put the burden on me, because it would have taken a month. Our 65" flat screen television that her boss gave us as a gift for our new home actually doesn't look nearly as snug as we imagined it would filling the center space. Our new dining room table is heavy Italian white marble and again, her choice. We toyed with gardening after I built a large planter box with some spare wood I acquired from a woodworking next door neighbor, but we were far more successful with our flower bed in the front of the house; I experimented with an array of plants from Tenerife Canna lilies, sweet potato vines, cock's comb, marigolds, coleus, and both jasmine and honeysuckle vines. I can say with pride that we had the best flower bed in the neighborhood, and the best tree looking tree as well in the front yard - a Chinese Elm that I watered religiously, until an unheard of early season ice storm in late October split it's main trunk. I'm debating on replacing it this spring.
In addition, I spent an unimaginable amount of time on the lake fishing as there was simply little else remaining to do when I wasn't busy with a task at home. The picture at the bottom of this post is of the largest crappie I've ever caught and that came just a couple weeks back, so from that perspective, I had a banner year. She was 2 lbs, 7 ozs, and I caught two others the next day back-t0-back that weight 2 lbs, 5 ozs in addition to four others over 2 lbs; an unheard of 7 fish limit with all tipping the scales above the two pound mark. Most of my fisherman friends have never caught a 2 lb crappie in their lives.
Of course, 2020 was a bugger of a year and I started off getting very sick the second week of March with what I suppose was Covid, as I had every symptom at the time save one, and unfortunately, they weren't able to test me at the time as they didn't have a test for it. I spent a week off work, and by the time I was returning, we were being instructed to work from home, so jolly good that I had my old English desk in place. I asked my wife take a couple months off of work and this kick-started our aforementioned gardening/landscaping craze, as she had too much free time on hand.
Sadly, I lost a first cousin, Tina in early June who passed away in her sleep. She was a year my junior, and she and I were very close as kids. I remember the summers when we spent large quantities of time hunting for crystals and other rocks in the fields around our homes, as well as bike riding, and any number of other activities kids are predisposed to do outdoors in summer. I'm still heart sickened to my core by the thought of no longer seeing her when I return home each year to Tennessee, but I did brave the pandemic and flew home for her funeral out of respect for her. I also lost a 3rd cousin, Edward, to Covid in November. Thankfully, I had spent time with him while I was home for Tina's funeral. He was 13 years older than me, but I had spent much of my preteen and teenage years around him as he suffered from asthma his whole life and never worked public work, but he was usually free to play sports (baseball, football, basketball, softball, and horseshoes) with me. Since we were next door neighbors back then, he played a large role in how I developed athletically. He was very humble and modest, and everyone liked him, much like Tina. Additionally, I lost a brother in Christ, Larry, also in November to a stroke, and my wife's aforementioned boss to cancer. These four people were ones that I cherished and to say that losing them has made me rethink my own blessed mortality is putting it mildly.
There have been many more highlights than what I've included here. I cannot begin to mention all the blessings God has poured out on me this year. I've retained the ability to work and provide for my family, and my friendships from years prior have only grown stronger for the most part. Some that I once held dear, I've gladly allowed to slip into the "acquaintance zone" and I don't regret it. When the season for fishing started drawing to a close with cold weather, I jumped wholeheartedly back into my old passion from the 1990s of genealogical research, and have added just over 800 people to my family tree in less than two months, which currently sits at 4,950 persons.
I do want to say that as this year closes out, I am beyond happy to see an ole familiar face online and putting her wonderful talent to good use. She cannot know how deeply thrilled I was seeing her take that first step, how impressed I was at first seeing her, how much I'm pulling for her, and how grateful I am that God has blessed her as he did. Her beauty is blossoming and is both radiant and timeless. It's largely reflected in the little blessings surrounding her, and I pray for them always. While many may focus on the negatives of 2020, in hindsight, I'm focusing on the blessings. Thank you Lord Jesus!