January 1, 2022
Ushering in the new year
Looking back
For so many, this has been the second terrible year in a row. Between Covid, natural disasters, political trauma and personal misfortunes, there are endless reasons to be discouraged, depressed and disheartened by the state of the world or our own personal situation. We can only hope that the coming year gives us all more reason for optimism than the last two have.
In this context, we feel almost guilty about having had such a rewarding year ourselves. Unlike the previous year, the pandemic had a less severe impact on our lives and plans in 2021. Once we got back to Portland and were vaccinated last April, we’ve led our lives much as we did before the pandemic. It helps of course that we’re pretty solitary anyway and that most of our days are spent by ourselves biking or walking.
If you’ve been following along over the past year you already know much more about our lives than we do of yours, but here are a few things that stick out.
First, our health - thinking back, we don’t believe either of us had so much as a cold in the entire year - or in the previous year either. The last illness of any kind either of us can remember was Rachael’s mild case of food poisoning when we flew home from Andalucia over two years ago. I think this is attributable more than anything else to an unreasonable share of good luck, but also to the fact that we don’t mingle much and stay reasonably fit. I’m certain that I’m healthier now than in years past when I routinely fell out of shape every winter and had to crawl back into it again every spring.
Just fro a cycling and metrics perspective, 2021 looked quite similar to 2020. Not counting days with only incidental biking, We biked 263 days last year, covering roughly 11,000 miles with 420,000 feet of elevation gain. In other words, for the year as a whole we biked nearly three out of every four days with an average daily ride of 42 miles with 1,600’ of climbing.
Rachael, who keeps a detailed spreadsheet, ended with an average ride of 42.06 miles - remarkable, given that 42 miles is her ideal length ride at this stage in our lives. This is way better than the measly 41.59 she averaged in 2020.
In addition, there were a number of days with significant walks - Rachael much more than myself, although I’m gradually walking more as my knees seem to be improving from such regular exercise. Rachael tracks this too, and reports that she hiked almost 700 miles on 76 walking days. Between walking and cycling, she was outdoors getting significant exercise on 339 days last year. Wow!
A few other statistics of note:
- Completed the longest continuous unsupported tour of our lives, biking over 5,000 miles over 5+ months from Minneapolis to Rome.
- 7 countries visited: USA, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and Italy.
- 14 US states visited: Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
- 8 CycleBlaze meet-ups: the HAC group (the Grumbys, Bruce Lellman, Andrea Brown and ourselves), Greg Garceau, Bob Distelberg, Suzanne Gibson and János Kertész, Susan Carpenter, Pat and Scott Fenwick, and Kelly and Jacinto Iniguez.
- No injuries (no dog bites!).
- roughly 5 flat tires.
- Too few reptiles and amphibians. We’ll strive to do better next year, Bill!
Looking ahead
We don’t really make New Years resolutions, but we enter 2022 with hopes and wishes. Above all else, we wish you all good health and good fortune in the coming year. For ourselves, we’ll consider ourselves beyond blessed if the year ahead is anywhere near as rewarding as the one behind.
The major goal for Team Anderson in 2022 is of course this short nine month jaunt from Nice to Barcelona that we’ve been talking about for awhile:
Thank you all again for following along this year and including us in your lives in this small way. We’d love to see you in person someday, so please let us know if you see that we’ll be in the vicinity in the months ahead.
To a better 2022!
A calendar for 2022
Continuing with a tradition we began two winters ago (for 2020 and 2021, we’ve assembled a virtual calendar for the coming year, emulating a tradition that dates back at least twenty years before our retirement from the professional life. Every year we would assemble thirteen photographs from the previous year for the coming year’s wall calendars: one for each month of the year, and one for the cover. And, Rachael reminds me that she and I didn’t have exactly the same calendars - she and I often ended up with different favorite photos; so, really we should think of this as my calendar. If she creates her own for her virtual cubicle wall she’ll probably make different choices.
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2 years ago
Congratulations on a year well lived! I’m sure I speak for many in thanking you for bringing us along on your 2021 adventures. Your posts provide a near-daily reminder that there can be pockets of normalcy in these uncertain times. Good luck, good health and safe travels in 2022.
2 years ago
Your calendar this year is one of the best ever. Just beautiful.
I wish your 2022 to be as good to you both as the previous two have been. Thank you for your diligence in keeping up such a nice journal. Reading and enjoying it is a part of my every day routine.
2 years ago
It was great meeting you IRL last summer. Hope you both have a wonderful 2022!
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It will be nice to see the sun you bring. It's raining cats and dogs at the moment in Portland.
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