In all honesty, I have no idea of what these mysterious clumps of “dirt” are in the backyard. They just suddenly appeared. They weren’t there two days ago and now they are. They kind of look like animal excrement, but I don’t know of any animal around here that could poop that much…. Even with all the poop and pee the herd of deer left in our yard last Summer, I have never seen anything like this before. However since 2020 has been such an unusual year, I supposed anything is possible. One way or another (whatever the mysterious brown clumps actually are), this is the photo I chose to close out a year that some have called a “s…ty” year.

The latest US coronavirus news is that the new, more contagious COVID mutation from Great Britain is now popping up all over the US and seems to be stemming from community spread; not travel. So it’s been in the USA for a while. COVID vaccination roll out is also progressing much, much slower than had been hoped. Between the two (and with people foolishly traveling and partying during the Christmas/New Years holidays) it seems like we are leaving behind a tragic 2020 and will be facing an even more tragic and sad start to 2021. As nice as the words “Happy New Year” sound, an unhappy start to the new year is actually the reality. 2020 continues on into 2021…

Even so, one must stay hopeful for a future that will eventually end this pandemic and give the survivors their lives back. So – if we’re really lucky - perhaps some part of 2021 will end up being better than 2020. Unfortunately, it won’t be the first part of 2021 that starts at midnight.