Although I have been to Italy three times, I have yet to see Rome or the region of Calabria. My most recent visit was with Jeanine when we had just started dating some 36 years ago. Last October, we celebrated our 30 year wedding anniversary. We had been planning a trip to Europe to include Italy and Greece but those plans never even got off the ground when the pandemic hit. With any luck, we will have been vaccinated in time to make the same trip next October. I hope those who follow this blog will forgive my week -long indulgence in imaginary travel. I needed something to inspire continued social isolation during these challenging times.

Of all the places I have ever trekked, Nepal is near the top of my favorites list. Seven years ago, I hiked the Annapurna circuit. The 150-mile trail covers some of the most magnificent scenery you can imagine. I feel lucky to have done it when I did as new roads are diminishing the trail every year. I would very much like to return to Nepal and climb to the Mount Everest base camp, which at 17,598 feet is not quite as high as the Thorung La Pass on the Annapurna circuit at 17,769 feet.

Although I am 50% Ecuadorian, I was nearly 60 years old before I visited for the first time. Maya and I spent 3 weeks there, equally split between the Galapagos, the Andes, and the Amazon. I would love to return again with Jeanine and combine it with a visit to Peru.

Had it not been for the Covid pandemic, I would have made my third visit to Africa last March. I took this photo 16 years ago in South Africa while lying on the roof of a mini-van, which was rapidly backing up when this herd of elephants entered the road we were parked on and asserted their right of way. It was a thrilling encounter and I cannot wait to make a return trip to the African continent for more of the same.

While visiting Kyle, who was working in Thailand at the time, we made a 3-day weekend excursion to Vietnam. It was little more than an appetizer which left me hungry for more. When Jeanine and I have both retired (only a couple of years away), I can see us spending several weeks, if not months, exploring this beautiful country.

As the new year begins, I am hoping it will offer an opportunity for adventure travel, something I have missed terribly since the start of the Covid pandemic. My 2021 motto is; “have vaccine, will travel.” In the blog this week, I will feature a new location each day where I hope to visit or revisit as soon as it is safe to do so again. Today’s entry is Greenland. I took the above photo from a commercial airliner while flying back to the US from Iceland.

At Digital Alloys, where I work as the CTO, we are focused on building a 3D metal printer with industrial capacity and commensurate proportions (think small car-sized). Today, I had the occasion to document one of the company’s early prototypes, a desktop version. As we seek new investors, interest in such a unit has been increasing and it would take very little effort to reactivate a program to bring such a model to market.

Light snow left the rhododendrons surrounding our house covered with a very pretty frosting. The rhodie leaves also offer a very predictable measure of temperature which can be ascertained at a glance. The colder it gets, the more the leaves droop. These bushes are very plentiful on our lot and I am looking forward to watching them bloom in the spring.

My youngest sister, Mayela, and her husband Stephen decided not to have children, but they have always had a loving family. Pictured above is her favorite “child, ” Peachy, who passed away peacefully today at the age of ten. I am fond of dogs and have lived with four over the course of my life. Peachy had the best qualities of all of them combined and was truly a special dog. She will be missed by all of us.

For the last two weeks, I have been on vacation. I have used that time to work on our new house and have been so busy that I have not been able to keep up with my daily blog entries. I have decided to forgive myself for this lapse and to consider it part of my vacation from normal daily routines. To start the new year, I thought I would take a look back at the kids when they were small. Few things make my heart happier than these tiny windows into the past and I can think of no better way to kick off a new year. I am happy to report that all three are gainfully employed and living independently, each less the 30 minutes away from us and minutes away from each other.

Out of an abundance of caution, we celebrated Christmas Eve outdoors this year. The kids joined us at our new home where we set up a temporary firepit just outside the house. There we enjoyed take-out Chinese food by the warmth of the fire. It was no less enjoyable than years past and perhaps even more so on a certain level. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for and our camping-like setting only minimized the distractions of modern life allowing us to focus more on each other.

Hoping to see the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in the early night sky, Jeanine and I drove to a nearby field with an expansive view of the horizon. Already parked there were a dozen cars of similarly intentioned individuals. I immediately set up my tripod and mounted my camera and 600mm telephoto lens. I looked to the southwest by west direction and spotted a bright light in the sky. When I looked in the viewfinder, I could not believe how beautiful the image was. It kept changing colors as the clouds moved by. I was very excited that the predicted cloud cover was not obscuring the view. As I continued to take photos, I noticed that the object seemed to be moving. What’s more, the view through my lens did not match what I was seeing with my eyes. Long story short; I had aimed my camera at an approaching plane and my lens was not focused at the correct distance leading to exaggerated size and color effects. Below is a similarly defocused picture of our Christmas “tree” featured in a recent post.

Jeanine enjoys cooking over fire. The fact that our last home was one of only two in the entire neighborhood that was connected to natural gas was a big selling feature. Our new house is not and cooking over fire and will require the addition of a propane tank on the outside of the house. I have been encouraging her to consider an induction cooktop which offers many advantages if not familiarity. Today, she agreed to give one a test drive in our current kitchen which launched me on a research and shopping project. Although I found a couple of very nice units, lead times are running 6-8 weeks.

Between the Covid-19 pandemic and having just moved into our new house, we have decided to keep our Christmas celebration as simple as possible. Behold our Christmas tree. It proudly stands 24″ tall and is adorned with simple white lights.