Flashback Friday

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Third Quarter of 2020 and now everything seemed so much easier. We started to see a glimpse of what the new normal would be. We knew we were moving in August, and started packing already in June. I went back to work, and that was weird. Weird, but it also gave me a glimpse into how our life would be once we moved. Calm, and away from the busy city. Life in the countryside also meant we were now close to various mountains. The Catskills, and also the Mount Washington State Forest, and tons and tons of other parks and forests. By July the Covid case count had also dropped, a lot. Both in the city and elsewhere in the state.

July

I went back to work July 1st, and that was an interesting experience. Interesting because I had not gone to work since March 16th. More than 3 months. I started walking across Manhattan every day again, and there were definitely less people out, but possibly more drugs? I say that because I started seeing the same two people shooting up in broad daylight as I walked by back from work. I got my gateway test, the covid19 test, on my birthday. In order to get back to work everyone had to take a Covid test within 14 days. In this way all potential asymptomatic people would get caught. Since then I have done 3 more random tests. All negative. Columbia University must have such a large pool of data now, which is great. We had some social distanced BBQ on the roof terrace again with our friend, the last few ones before we would leave the city. I, believe it or not, can still miss our life in the city. Well, mostly pre-pandemic life. Who would have thought that? I get a longing for the city when I see the beautiful sunset photos from the roof top terrace. At the end of July I went across GW bridge for the last time. In the evening we had a social distanced picnic to celebrate our friend who defended his PhD thesis. And just like that July was over.

August

    August 1st we loaded the kitty cats in the car and drove north. It felt weird and scary at the same time. Also this was the first time we hired people to move our stuff. After moving cross country one too many times we were tired of doing all that work ourselves. So we found ourselves in a mostly empty car, plus the kitty cats. And that if anything felt very weird. We adjusted fast to life on the country side. Things are the same here as in the city when it comes to masks of course, but there are fewer people. And of course fewer people where we are because we don’t really have any neighbors. The back side is that we have to drive everywhere, to the store etc. But we quickly started to adjust to that too. Here we go to the grocery store every second week, about the same as in the city during the pandemic. We don’t have to drive to get into nature though, which is one of the major reasons we wanted to make the move so early. Here we walk out the door and walk out on the trails. That is magical. We biked to Millbrook one day, and another day we went to Wassaic and biked the Harlem Valley Rail Trail to Millerton and back. We invested in a BBQ the first day we went to the store after moving, and one of our move in gifts was a baking steel and a wooden and steel pizza peel. At the end of August we also went on a hike to Minnewaska State Park.

September

   If March felt like an eternity it was nothing like September, but in a good way. We had landed at our new location, figured out where to get groceries and I had finished a whole month of long commute (140 miles per day). On top of this the number of Covid cases had been so low for so long by now, and we felt we had some more freedom. Masks were always, and are always a part of our life now of course, but the places we choose to visit and what we choose to do is always driven by the case count. In September we also took a short vacation. All in all September was filled with good food, drinks and hikes. We went to Wassaic Lantern Inn, a place we’ve been to several times by now. It’s easy to go to places now when social distancing is less of a problem. We also went to countless antique stores, there are so many around here. We went to the Catskills to hike, did a rail trail bike excursion from Hopewell Junction to Poughkeepsie and back. We booked tickets to go to Storm King, which is this fantastic place where art and landscaping merges. We went to McEnroe Farm which is a farmstand but they also have food for take out and nice local cider. We also managed to go to the beach in Conneticut and got some fresh oyster. At the end of the month we went to Poughkeepsie for a social distanced drink.