2021

January 5, 2021

2021

If there has ever been a year that I have been happier to see arrive it is the year 2021, or perhaps that is giving the new year too much credit as it is more correct to say that there has never been a year that I have been happier to see come to a close than 2020. By almost every measure, the past year has been a pretty awful affair, not just for us personally, but for so may people around the world and I have never been more ready to celebrate the arrival of the new year and the hope that it brings for better times than this year.

Ironically, unlike many past New Year’s Eves, we didn’t do much celebrating at all, opting to stay at home and enjoy the arrival of the new year quietly at home, watching Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen usher in the year on CNN from a weirdly mostly empty Times Square in New York. It was as different as New Year’s could be, especially here in Key West, which is traditionally one of the top five places in the United States to ring in the new year.

The ongoing pandemic has changed that, like much of everyone’s lives this year. The distribution of the two vaccines that have been approved is going way slower than anyone could have hoped for and to top it off there are a couple of new strains of the Covid virus that have emerged causing greater concern as they appear to be much more easily transmittable. That is all bad news as the pandemic is raging still with new records coming fast and furious day by day. As of today, there are now 20,764,892 confirmed cases in the United States with 356.764 deaths. Here locally the numbers are rising just like everywhere and we have 4,372 cases in Monroe County with 2,286 of those being in Key West and 35 deaths.

Not so much this year as Mayor Teri Johnson had implemented a curfew from 10 PM to 6 AM for the three days of the New Year’s Eve weekend, which eliminated all of the traditional events that draw massive crowds to Key West. The crowds were here though, just not congregated on Duval Street as per usual. The curfew was not without controversy, though a planned protest pretty much fizzled out and only one business (Fogarty’s) flaunted the curfew and refused to close resulting in a massive police presence to shut them down and the  arrest of their renegade owner.

By midnight the streets were completely clear of people and the curfew was a success. Part of me wanted to be downtown to photograph the events as they occurred, but opting to stay home with Kathy and relax was the best choice and we were able to see the excellent photo, video and news coverage by the likes of our friends Gwen Filosa, Rob O’Neal and Larry Blackburn. About 15 people in total were arrested for violating the curfew and spewing hateful diatribes at the police and officials who were just doing the job and an excellent job at that. I guess for right-wing hacks, Back the Blue only applies when the police crack down on Black Lives Matter protests. 

The last week of the year was pretty much a relaxing, enjoyable celebration of the holidays for us. We spent Christmas Eve having a beautiful small outdoor dinner at the home of our dear friends Nadene, Meredith and Trevor and another couple our friends Fiona and Jim who are sadly moving away from Key West to the Florida Gulf Coast. It was just a wonderful evening of fantastic food and good friends and it was especially nice to be around a child who was so excited about the holiday. 

Spending time with friends is so wonderful and so important to our sanity even if it is outside and weird and socially distant and it is one of the small joys that we have enjoyed and appreciated more than ever in the past year. We also have appreciated the technology which allows us to connect with family and friends when we can not be with them. Platforms like Zoom and Facetime may not be as good as being able to visit with people in person, they are still a much-appreciated chance to connect safely with friends both near and far.

The New Year brings hope and a chance to reset and refocus on what is important. We plan to remain pretty much at home and limit travel and interactions with people until the time when we can be fully vaccinated and even after that I expect some aspects of our lives will be forever changed.