In contrast with the previous 14 months, this week has involved significant travel.

Why so much recent travel?

This travel is largely driven by my sister. She wants to see things and people in a way that I don’t need to. For me, aside from an occasional hit of uncertainty from pandemics, elections, and some personal circumstances, the past 14 months have been great.

For me, the biggest socialization-related drawback of the pandemic (because clearly the health risks of the pandemic are far more terrible than many isolation-related complaints) is the fact that, until a few months ago when more solid data rolled in that outside transmission is essentially a nonissue, I haven’t felt comfortable running with friends. I really do enjoy running, and though I love a good solo run, something is certainly lost when every run is a solo run.

Today’s travel

Today’s travel was motivated by my sister’s desire to see one of our cousins. He recently moved from one city to another, and though I had of course visited him in his old city, and though I had seen him between his move last year and our visit today, I had not seen him either in his new home or in his new city.

His new home is great! The location is amazing, with a view that stretches for miles. Looking in the direction visible through the windows, I can see all of the city that lies in that direction (the parts of the city that lay on the other sides of the building are, of course, obscured). We spent plenty of time visiting in his home, after which we walked to a park.

Between our walk to the park and the park itself, I would not be surprised if I saw more people in those few hours than I saw in the remaining part of the prior 14 months. The weather was beautiful; yesterday felt like summer for the first time this year, but today just felt aseasonally beautiful. Was it winter, summer, spring, or fall? I couldn’t say – it was just beautiful.

Was it winter, summer, spring, or fall? I couldn’t say – it was just beautiful.

After today’s travel

After traveling, we returned home. I ate pizza for dinner, and then I did some editing (which took much longer than I expected but was a fun, and I think valuable, experience).

Oh, I also added analytics to this site. Because Google Analytics is way too creepy for me, I decided to go with Insights, which is free and tracks without using cookies! So far, it looks like I’m my site’s only visitor, but that’s fine with me, seeing as I’ve made no efforts to publicize its existence.

Well, let’s see what tomorrow brings!