Hello and welcome to our third pandemic year in review. The letter reads as it usually does– as an account of Zoe’s year and how her parents tagged along with her through the adventures.
This year’s adventure starts where last years’ left off, right around Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas with much family in and around to celebrate. As was the custom of the day, we all did rapid antigen covid tests prior to showing up. The uninvited guest and unexpected gift that everyone around the table got at Christmas was covid. The Christmas was lovely, recall that– because a major damper got thrown over the rest of the holidays and New Years. All those around the table recovered and were doing well in the new year. Thankfully. Very thankfully. It wasn’t a great way to start off the new year, but there wasn’t anywhere to go but up.
But it didn’t exactly feel that things were going «up» when the truckers rolled into Ottawa a couple weeks later. At the time I was reading March Violets by Philip Kerr. A theme of this book is the apathy of the broader German population as the Nazis came to power. There is also a detective trying to solve things. It might not have been great for my head space to simultaneously be reading this book and seeing reports of people waiving hate symbols around on Parliament Hill. Sigh.
Onwards and upwards in February then! Hopefully. Yes. Thankfully yes!
In February Zoe and I played hookie and went out on a daytime owl prowl for snowy owls. There is a group that organizes such outings– you’re issued a walkie-talkie and your (don’t write convoy) group of cars drives around the farms south of Ottawa scanning the fields for snowy owls all the while communicating over walkie-talkies. We hit the jackpot this day! We saw a northern hawk owl and a snowy owl among the many other interesting birds that hang around Ottawa in February.
We made it to Mexico this year and had a blast. The Yucatán peninsula is beautiful! We studied the animals as closely as they would allow– snapping photos and drawing pictures.
The fish of the year is definitely the barracuda!
I am partially (read: entirely) to blame for some of Zoe’s initial hesitations about getting into the water– we had been reading up about fish we might encounter, and I told the stories of barracudas snapping off people’s shiny jewellery along with their fingers or ears. Without any really shiny jewellery, we were able to proceed into the water. We did encounter barracuda: we observed and appreciated them. Snorkelling and otherwise.
Then, on a fishing trip with Zoe and Adam (Brother-in-Law/uncle), I caught one!!! That’s right dear reader, if you were hoping for the self deprecating blurb about my mostly failed fishing adventures, then you’ll have to wait for the fourth pandemic year in review!
Zoe, Adam, and I got out for a half day of fishing and we did great. We started off with a bit of reef fishing– generally a good way to get fish into the boat and keep 5 year olds entertained on the water– we got a few. Then we trolled for a bit and Adam hooked and landed a cero and I got a barracuda. The cero ceviche was delicious and we let the barracuda go.
I was a little sad when it became clear that there was no house gecko that accidentally hitched a ride to our house in luggage. Those guys are cool to have hanging around in your house, but no house gecko for us in Ottawa.
We were into the ocean again this past summer when we drove down to Maine with Oma and Cioca (read: auntie in Polish) Ilona. There is a pretty good story about a winnable Pokémon stuffy on the carnival main that I was unable to win (or buy), but that Mum and Cioca were able to win with throwing skill. I’m light on the details, and Ewa wasn’t able to get them to me by publishing time, so the story might be lost for good. We brought back many shells, a Pokémon stuffy, but left the hermit crabs in the water.
As with other years, I ploughed through a bunch of detective/mystery novels this year. Here are some of the books that are worth a mention in the review.
I read through the Berlin Noir trilogy this year. The first of which was March Violets mentioned previously. The Pale Criminal is second and A German Requiem wraps it up. I’m reading these because Philip Kerr’s protagonist, Bernie Gunther, apparently goes off world travelling solving mysteries afterwards, and you need to start at the beginning. Reading in A German Requiem about Russian booby traps while simultaneously hearing on the news about Russian booby traps in Ukraine also wasn’t super– akin to my troubles with March Violets mentioned above. I suppose I prefer my fiction fictional. The trilogy was good, but on to different locales and hopefully more fictional feeling stories.
Zoe and I read some of the books I read as a child. On that, we score Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine in the unpleasant book column:( Seriously! How did this ever get published?! How was I ever allowed to read it?! George, with animus towards his grandmother, swaps out her medication for a concoction of all the worst household solvents he can find (and medication too, yes all of them). When she magically becomes large after taking the medicine, George’s dad insists they recreate the concoction so that he can monetize it. Instead, it makes George’s grandmother disappear. The remaining family members say “oh well”, and the book ends.
The Kaiju Preservation Society, by contrast, is wonderfully fictional. Kaiju are Godzilla monsters and they’re having a time in an easily enough accessed parallel world. Hijinks ensue when a delivery driver takes a job with the KPS. How will Kaijus Edward and Bella (named by millennial scientists in the KPS after Twilight characters) do in the end?! This was just the balm needed after some uncomfortable reading.
But the book of the year is Reef Fish Identification– Travel Edition: Caribbean Bahamas South Florida. The book has been into Zoe’s classroom on multiple occasions. It made it to Mexico. It is how we were able to identify Adam’s kingfish properly as a cero. The book was keenly poured over by many in the house as well as outside the house.
Alexa was the DJ and music filled our house. The Encanto Soundtrack has a number of banger tracks on it, it was our go-to for listening in the car.
Encanto - Family Madrigal
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Encanto - Surface Pressure
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Encanto - We Don’t Talk About Bruno
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Encanto - What Else Can I Do
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Encanto - Dos Orguitas
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Another artist that got heavy rotation on our devices was Boney M. The German-Carribean Funk group of the 70s came to us from Zoe’s cousin Naomi. Rasputin was one of her «bath songs». Daddy Cool was pretty fun, at least for a dad who mostly isn’t.
Boney M - Daddy Cool
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Boney M - Rasputin
/XMAS/assets/audio/2022-12/BoneyM-Rasputin.mp3
Ke$ha got pretty heavy rotation as Zoe prepared for her Hip-Hop dance routine.
Ke$ha - Tik-Tok
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A number of tracks make their way into our house from Zoe’s french school. That’s how Cheb Khaled and Kris Law came to our house.
Cheb Khaled - C’est la Vie
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Kris Law - Les Pouces en Avant
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There are a couple other tracks that got pretty heavy rotation. Zoe’s wake up song– Good Morning by the Kiboomers
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There has been a dance routine, from where– we’re not exactly sure, in development for a couple weeks that relies on LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem
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And the classic: Europe - Final Countdown (Illusions Micheal, tricks are for whores)
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There have been lots of other good adventures this year. Zoe dyed her hair blue. We got out and tried camping. Twice!
We checked in to Tremblant in the Fall. And then popped in to visit the birds of prey. The red-tailed hawk is named Solomon. Zoe was able to drive her own luge down the mountain.
In total, there were 16 additional types of bird added to our lifetime bird tracking app (Merlin). I spotted a hummingbird off our back porch early in the summer. I also witnessed a bird murder on our street when the neighbourhood hawk picked off a sparrow in a tree. The murders obviously have to happen somewhat regularly, Hawks establish domains in residential neighbourhoods because the backyard feeders provide them with a food source also. You don’t always see it, or know it is happening.
«Monday Fun Day Run Day» had a lighter year this year. I didn’t achieve the weekly frequency suggested by its name, but I still got out quite a bit. Goals for 2023.
Ewa has a couple thoughtful updates she’d like to pass along:
With all kidding aside, if you’ve made it this far dear reader, we’re doing well. We’re still reeling a bit from a frenetic year and hoping to slow down a bit over the break. We are and have been fortunate this year for which we are thankful. Hopes that you’ve fared similarly in 2022 and to hear from you in the new year.
Merry Christmas, Best Wishes, and Happy New Year– Tim, Ewa, & Zoe