Year in Review: 2021

Last year, I think I took a pass on this. Well, at least on the reminiscing, because...duh, right?

This year I'm gonna take a HARD pass. Last year (2020) my daughter was born. This year? More calamities than I care to remember, on top of the ongoing and seemingly never-ending global health crisis.

In any case, I thought I'd put together some links to things I wrote this year that represents some of the better content I came up with, or trips that defined the year.

Also, Betty White died. I read that if you add up all the leap years she lived through, she makes it to 100 years on the planet.

Anyway, Caliboy in Brooklyn in 2021 (in reverse chronology):

1. Tubing Attempt with Cass
   
2. Thanksgiving drive to Austin, TX
   
3. I just can't get Anna Burns' Milkman out of my head
   
4. Wedding on the Yucatan
   
5. Random Thing about Irish Authors, et. al.
   
6. Cabin Trip, 2021: Fire Season
   
7. Ants, Baby! I forgot about this one...
   
8. RIP Hank Aaron, GOAT
   
9. "Problematic Reverence," shortlisted for "Most Important Post from Caliboy in Brooklyn"
   

I didn't feel like I wrote so much this year, and I have some drafts waiting to be finished, but they won't be before the end of 2021.

Happy New Year everyone! Take care and hug your loved ones!

Winter Adventures

Today I had reserved a tubing ride on the slopes of Mt. Baldy for Cass and myself. Mt. Baldy is wonderfully named mountain town, wilderness area, and winter sport resort location about 60 miles from us. 

When I awoke this morning, I noticed an email that came in before 5 am. It was a refund from the Mt. Baldy tube rental folks: weather was going to be too inclement. Rain.

After dropping off Camille at daycare, we went up to Mt. Baldy anyway, hoping to find some snow to play in. It was drizzly and the road up to the summit was pocked with rockslide rocks, and eventually I turned back and parked at the Ice House Canyon lot.

Years back Corrie and I hiked the Ice House Saddle, the longest hike originating at this particular parking lot. Today Cass and I started off on the hike as the drizzle started to gain some volume:

I hadn't made sure that Cass had his skullcap, or his jacket, so I gave him my scarf and my Jameson (Whiskey) cap, and off we went.

The trail had tree coverage, as they nearly always do, but here instead of offering protection from rain, the coverage amplified the rain by dropping big-ol' droplets of water.

Some spots looked more picturesque in person than they appear in the pictures. The one below of Cassius and the the creek had much more vivid oranges in person, as the autumn foliage had yet yielded to the newly minted winter:

Eventually having gone for about an hour up the path, and with the weather worsening, we stopped again, discussed returning, and headed back to the car.

After lunch in Claremont we headed home and finally got into some warm, DRY clothes.

Someday soon we'll hit up some snow.

Antidote to Car Days? Beach Bike Ride!

After returning from days in the car---at 1 am---I knew just what would set the tone for our first Sunday at home since before Thanksgiving: get out on the beach path on the bikes in the morning:

Cass is getting so good on his bike sans training wheels that it's even more fun now to get out and ride. We went the whole way to the pier, went down to the end of the pier and walked around.

In the water was a loose school of bait-fish, not yet being pushed into a ball by predators. Also, a nifty view of our fair skyline:

The crane left of center is essentially at our place, to give reference.

Camille almost got her head stuck! That would've been terrible:

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Sometimes the best thing is to just get out and let the air hit your face, stretch out your limbs, and forget about the automobile.

Cass may have also worn out the usefulness of that blue bike, and a newby may be in the Decemberween offering...