=> Kelzie’s School News © <=
*** 32nd Edition --- Adventures in Life Series –2020 –– Yearly Log ***
Instead of a Christmas note -- we write a Log of the last year after Christmas and mail it in the new year
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hoping You had a Merry Christmas and are having a Great New Year KSN came into being when we lived on our boat named “Kelzie’s School” in ‘87-‘91. This was originally published and sent to Kelzie’s friends to keep her in touch with those she left behind in WV.
And we’ve kept this tradition.
KELZIE'S FANTASTIC YEAR
What even is there to say? What questions can even be asked about a person’s 2020? We’re certainly going to have to come up with some, for that big cocktail party everyone’s going to schedule for the first day after quarantine ends. (Remember cocktail parties? Remember party lines? 2020 has guaranteed that we will come to remember them the same: distantly and involving of such an unnecessary number of other people.)
Q: “I will now conduct the Standard 2020 Interview #2 Version Tango with the subject. Please speak into the microphone.” <feedback squeal> “Please state your name for the record.”
“My name is Kelzie Beebe.”
Q: “Please state your covid status for the record.”
“My most recent covid test was negative.”
Q: “Ok, you can take off your mask.”
<whisper of home-stitched fabric from Etsy brushing against skin>
Q: “What do you remember of The Before Times?”
“I don’t remember that much. My parents and I drove from Indiana to Denton over two days just after New Years. I started classes the next week, and I honestly can’t summon nearly another distinct memory until Wednesday, March 12. I’m sure there were clients, classes, track meets, and pizza deliveries. They just don’t stand out.”
Q: “Not surprising. Where were you on Friday, March 13, the day the world locked down?”
“I’ll do you one better and tell you where I was on Thursday, March 12, the day between the day the NBA shut down and the day the world locked down. I was at a track meet a few hours away from Denton with the UNT track team. We drove there in one big bus, a couple vans, and one private car. I found a lot of reasons to be under bleachers or walking between warm up areas and events, to stay away from people. The NCAA and UNT’s conference suspended spring sports between the morning and afternoon events, and we were ordered home. We loaded up without finishing, and went back to Denton. I still do mental health and sport psychology work with the team, but I haven’t seen a single one of them in person since. In my program we spend three years with our team, and since I am in the middle of my third year with mine, I may end my time with them in May without ever seeing any of them in person again.”
Q: “What type of quarantine have you had?”
“The lonely, isolating, but no-covid-yet kind. I went into my apartment alone on Friday, March 13…which sounds like the beginning of a horror movie and it was because I’ve been in there alone ever since and will continue to be. Everything UNT-related quickly, and I do mean quickly, switched to Zoom. Every class I have taught, every class I have taken, and every client I have seen since has been through a computer screen. I can count on less than 2 hands the times I have been on the UNT campus in the presence of another person since the second week of August. Which, as the saying goes, is both “a blessing and a curse”.
Out of an abundance of caution I stopped delivering pizza in early April, but out of an abundance of no money started again in mid-July. 7 days alone in an apartment, taking all precautions, and 2 night shifts going into and out of the presence of hundreds of people. That’s what they call the big reveal in the horror movie, and the one where the dumb blond surely gets it.
Other than one last chiropractic appointment in March and a somewhat-emergency dental surgery in May, I didn’t touch a single person from sometime before March 12 until I got home to Madison on November 26. I’ve been in Madison for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and will return to Denton soon. Spring 2021, at least, and beyond I imagine, will be more of the same.”
Q: “How many different seating options do you rotate between in your apartment?”
“3. 4 if you count one useable only for social zooms. 5 if you include laying in the middle of my living room in the light coming in through my sliding glass door. It was a lovely, if ant-burning-through-a-magnifying-glass-esque, way to spend a summer indoors in an old apartment with lousy insulation in Texas.”
Q: “What do you predict for The After Times?”
“Apple allowed us to cut the cord, but Covid allowed us to negate geography. Where am I if I am always in a Zoom room? Wherever I want to be. That and maybe one day, if we’re lucky, health care workers will forgive us.”
MARNIE and RICK
After a long and quiet Christmas holiday together on Schacht Rd we drove Kelzie back to her home in Denton to explore her environs. Back in Bloomington the winter was spent caring for the farm, working out at the YMCA each morning, feeding the local feral cats (and catching many of the neighborhood possums and raccoons), watching IU basketball, and lamenting the awful news developments - the political scene and the onset of the Covid-19 Crisis.
We put both of our properties on the market - the Indiana farm in the summer of ‘19 and the Middleton “shotgun house” March ‘20 - with the plan of moving our WI residence to a permanent condo when the farm sold. As we were driving back to IN from Madison on the Sunday morning in March after contracting to purchase a nice Hawks Landing condo, we were notified within a 1/2 hour that each of our properties sold with accepted offers; now we had a plan for 3 closings and our move on 4.30. The first week in April the condo sellers stated they would not move out of their condo/close the sale because their “old folks' place” (they are younger than us) was not finished and they were afraid of the onset of the pandemic...and then neither of our buyers could “rent back” to us.
Wednesday afternoon we REALIZED we were “HOMELESS”. Thursday noon we headed back to Madison, Friday we looked at 5 houses with our realtors, and Saturday morning we settled on purchasing the first house we looked at - an unfinished, new house in Verona, near Madison.
Rick masterfully rearranged our complex multi-step move, we finished packing both houses, the closings went forward on 4.30, and later that day we shoe-horned our belongings from 2 homes into our brand new 2000 sq ft place (with a beautiful garage almost as large). During all of this we were on pins and needles in the face of the threat of Indiana and Wisconsin stay-at-home orders and our concern about contracting Covid-19.
The summer was committed to adjusting to the house, acquiring a few favorite perennials, receiving free plantings (100s) from neighbors, and nurturing a new lawn, scrubs and trees. That was fine with our schedule since there would be no traveling this year. Marnie joined Rick and his brother Paul in twice-weekly small group sessions with their fitness trainer, and we cobbled together 2 exercise spaces in our basement for additional workouts. Marnie’s power walking gave her a chance to get to know our new community.
Rick had one consuming activity. He got a new BMW moto last fall after the riding season so finally he could break it in. Every summer afternoon he rode the countryside, watching the farm ground being prepared, crops planted and maturing, and the harvest completed, covering 8500 miles.
We both became involved in volunteer work, Rick at the local Second Harvest 2 afternoons a week until distancing became an issue and now both of us gleaning for CAC 2-3 mornings a week. We transport donated food from grocery stores and bakeries to a food pantry (70#s of food is distributed to drive-up cars every 100 seconds in 4-4hr drive sessions per week) and to a shelter for homeless men. Hundreds of pounds of food every week...all our SUV will carry. This contribution of time feels helpful toward meeting the needs of our area and both activities are outside with little physical interaction, to maintain our distancing. We have been very pleased with the conscientious masking and distancing at these sites. Through all these activities we have been fortunate to stay healthy and safe from Covid, as we stay home as much as possible and when in public practice distancing and wear masks.
Kelzie was able to drive to Madison in time for Thanksgiving because all her therapy sessions at the counseling centers and classes (teaching and taking) were virtual; she has been working daily from her study cube here. We have enjoyed having her in the fold, at the dinner table, in our workout sessions, and help with gleaning. We’ll miss her when she returns to Denton and school early January.
2020 was a year of transition, frustration and sadness worldwide, and Americans have been faced with the additional fright of the political scene and election cycle. Over a million people have died due to Covid and many many more, including some among us, have been seriously affected by its consequences. Our lives have a new normal and our emotional health is challenged. We experience a sense of loneliness and depression due to isolation, frustration with noncompliant folks, and fear from the political strife and damage to our democracy. Too many Americans prefer the risk of Covid to a long and happy life (theirs and ours), and with the rising infection numbers, 2021 looks to be a lot like 2020. However, as Covid vaccines have gotten approved and distributed and the election results became clear, we do have reason for hopefulness and elation in the new year.
952 Pollow Road
Verona, Wisconsin 53593
608/497-0015 hm
Happy New Year
Kelzie, Marnie & Rick
We HOPE you had a great Christmas in spite of the circumstances and are having a great New Year.... and we pray that 2021 will be a year of health and happiness for all of you...
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