My heart is heavy this week with the news coming out of Ukraine. A war the people there didn’t not want and did nothing to deserve. A war, or rather an invasion by a tyrannical despot who is responsible for deaths, destruction, and suffering of the population of an entire country all to stoke his ego. It’s especially disheartening to see that the rest of the world is doing so little to protect the history, culture, and sovereignty of a democracy in Europe while the people suffer.

Over Presidents’ Day Weekend, we took a family trip to Stowe, Vermont to meet up with our friends and take in some winter activities with our kids. We took a similar trip last year, but with the boys a year older and the twins massively improving in ski ability, we spent even more time on the slopes and exploring the whole mountain. We also had the extra time to get around town and the Village for some skating and of course hanging out at our VRBO while sledding and relaxing.

Two years into the pandemic, and it feels like despite, or maybe because of the Omicron wave, we’re just giving up on protecting the kids and it has a huge toll on parents. There are unique challenges and stressors for kids of different ages, but with kindergarteners and a toddler, the past couple of months have been full of anxiety about health, testing, school closures, and work. Nearly every parent I know is going through the same thing with their kids, the schools, and their jobs, but it doesn’t seem like we are doing anything about it collectively.

When The Long Way Up first came out on Apple TV a year or so ago, I noted that it looked interesting, but passed it over because I wasn’t very interested in motorcycles. I completely missed the point though and didn’t realize it’s more of a buddy travel show featuring electric vehicles and how interesting that in turn would be. On top of that, it features Ewan McGregor who on top of being a good actor, is fairly funny and seems like a genuinely nice guy interested in making the world a better place on several levels.

Now, I’m not a big one for New Year’s Resolutions or even one to put too much stock in one yar being all that different from the preceding one, but I do think that a new year means it’s a good time to look forward to the upcoming year and what might be coming. While I don’t think 2022 will be massively different than 2021, there are a few things on the horizon in the world and for me personally that I’m looking forward to.

I have been taking the twins skiing since they were three and a half years old. This year, we not only got season passes to the local mountain, but have a couple of family trips planned both up to Vermont and out to Colorado to ski with friends. They’re starting to get pretty good at it, and I no longer need to take them on leashes or pick them up every ten seconds.

Another Christmas, another year of canceled plans and school anxiety. Thanks to Omicron, we’re in yet another surge of COVID in 2021 and there’s nothing yet to indicate that next year will be all that different. If anything, things are starting to look more like March of 2020 again than like Christmas last year when we had hope for the vaccines coming out, a slowing wave before Delta, and more businesses reopening.

My second ever marathon, and I think my worst one, was the Philadelphia Marathon in 2015. A year after my first marathon, the New York City Marathon, Philadelphia was a huge struggle for me. Pacing was a major issue. I got too excited by the energy of the crowds in the first half through downtown and the historic areas, and really suffered in the out and back for the second half out to Manayunk and back.

Yes, it can be done. While the back seat of a Model 3 isn’t the largest, at least not compared to our other car, a three row Buick Enclave, it’ still a usable option with all three kids in car seats while we run some errands, like picking up our Christmas Tree. While I’m excited for a few more inches of width, especially in the middle seat in the back with our upcoming Model Y, for the next six months while we wait for it to get delivered, we’ll be using the Model 3 more and more for our activities and weekend trips.

Ever since the pandemic started, we’ve been waiting and hoping that the next thing would be enough to get us “back to normal”. Remember “flatten the curve”? Then vaccines came around and we thought it would be a summer back to normal before delta came. Now, with kids as young as five getting vaccinated, boosters, and anti-viral drugs, it seemed like we were just a winter away from a return to normalcy, before the latest variant started cropping up around the world.