The Royal Family- the descendants of the Kings who threw us out of our old homes- had a saying about bad years. They said it in Latin, to make it more prestigious sounding. “Annus Horribilis” has a grander aura than the mild profanity that has accompanied each month of 2020.

It would be more appropriate to celebrate the New Year on its real Eve tomorrow, but at Refuge Farm, we are declaring an end to the horrible year we have labored through together. Socially separated, of course, our washed hands held high in solidarity at whatever the experts tell us to be alarmed about at the moment.

I normally would celebrate the unusual good news that heart disease and seasonal influenza have plummeted to unusually low levels, so we must be doing something right, right? Funny how the number of deaths from COVID now equals the number we experience every year. Courage!

The excitement in The Swamp is not exclusively about New Years, though goodness knows there will be plenty of collective joy to be rid of 2020. What a year! Besides plagues and elections, there are cyber attacks and mass house arrests to celebrate. A resolute group in the Pacific Northwest is derailing trains hauling crude oil, which normally would be news, but hasn’t seen much coverage. There have been 54 reports of steel devices placed on the tracks in order to save the precious environment by spreading blazing oil all over it.

There is nothing people won’t do to make our lives better. Microsoft’s Bill Gates is confidently planning on discharging reflective material into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s warmth back into the chill of space. So, next year should be fine, if a bit chilly, once we are permitted to take our masks off.

We have certainly had our moments of high mirth in this memorable if perplexing cycle around the sun. But humor aside, I was crafting my weekly update in order to be prepared for virtually anything. I checked operating hours for the tobacco stores, liquor stores and groceries and noticed that DC hotels are shutting down for January 6th. They say the action is intended to avoid being caught up in mostly peaceful protests.

Seems reasonable. We could be in for more frolics in the week to come. So my advice is about the same as it has been since March: Avoid Crowds.

Let’s keep our stiff upper lips under our masks for the first hundred days of a new Administration. It is going to be a grand new 2021, all shiny and new. And there will never be another year to which we bid a more heartfelt farewell than this one.

We hope.

Copyright 2020 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com