We're with you ever staunch and true!

 Bear Down!...... from the Wandering Berkmans!

(a special prize goes to the first person who can accurately guess the reason why we begin this blog entry with such an evocative opener!)

You thought we dropped off the face of the earth, didn't you?  

No, just laying low as much as possible like the rest of the world.  

To recap-- in early October we made a quick stop in Washington to see Julia off to their new job in So Korea to teach English.   Then off to Tucson to find us some sun.  October and November became December and we're still in Tucson.... and it looks like we'll be here for the foreseeable future until the vaccine comes our way and Americans are welcome around the world again.  As always, your guess is as good as ours as to when that will be but, ever prepared, we're starting to look at the calendar backward and making a preliminary plan to be in Italy with brother Budd and Kris hopefully in the fall and Thanksgiving in NM.  

Can we make it to Denmark in late summer?  A visit to my sister Christina in England in August?  Visit my parents in May?  A NJ stop in June?  A family trip in June to South Korea to see Julia?  

So many dreams, we just have to be patient.  And ever thankful that for the most part family and friends have been spared the virus.  

To update, Julia got their first job teaching English in So Korea and began in November.  After a 2 week quarantine in their new apartment in Bundang, Jules now teaches their students over Zoom from the school but as the Covid numbers rise in Seoul, they anticipate teaching from their apartment soon.  When they're not at work, Jules has explored their area with friends they made in their semester in Tokyo a couple of years ago and with current colleagues.   Our weekly FaceTime with both kids is just one Covid silver lining event.   Next week, we meet to see who wins for most correct of our annual predictions! Triple points for the person who predicted "global pandemic. "   

Happy kids, happy parents (:

Knowing we'll be here for a bit, we've outfitted our month to month rental with a hammock and not one but 5 bird feeders in the backyard.    After years of playing the board game "Careers" as kids, we finally know what a yellow-bellied sapsucker is! 

Remarkably, the days go quickly.   He may not be able to plan trips but Don keeps finding great places to hike and visit all while staying away from people.  

Agua Caliente is our new Verona Park.  Who knew there was water in Tucson?

When the temps in November hit 96 degrees (but it's a dry heat!), Mount Lemmon was our go-to for cooler temps and fantastic views of the city.  

AZ wine? Yes, please!  Charron Winery was all ours on a Tuesday afternoon.  

And we stayed close to home as well as the Covid #'s in Tucson crept up.  

We wrote postcards to swing states and we voted by mail.  

We baked lots of spelt bread and played tennis.

When we knew we couldn't be with the family for Thanksgiving (even canceling a visit from Zach and boyfriend Alexis), we drove to NM in early November  to see Don's family for a masked week of distant visits.  Actual Thanksgiving greetings took place on Zoom- it was sad to be apart, but it was great to see everyone.  

And Hanukah became a series of fun Zooms with family members and friends, a different group on each night.  Night 5 was a NJ/NY reunion with our Stessel family!  

Zooms planned again for Christmas, this time with the promise of seeing our British Barber family-- it's been a while and so many new grand babies!

And to think a year ago, Zoom was just a tv show from our youth.  Now it's another silver lining to, as the Queen once said, this "annus horribilis."   Here's hoping the vaccine makes the difference and gets us back together again soon.  But can we keep  on  Zoom-ing to see those folks far away?  We would like that.  We welcome all Zoom invites!

Happy Holidays to all of you!  Be well, stay safe and here's to a new year of health and happiness! 

And in the meantime, keep your mask on!

Thanks for following along!

Don and Monica

arizona