Can it be April already? 2022
Just a short update on the world in 2022: a birthday, the war in Ukraine, Covid.
Little Baby Lockdown: Covid Diaries
For those of you who do not know, I live in Riga, Latvia and a few weeks ago, the government announced emergency measures were returning because Covid is on the rise. I have been shocked to see how quickly we went from almost 0 cases this summer to over a thousand cases a day with …
Update: Covid in Riga December 2020
Draugi, nav labi! That is what our Latvian Primeminister, Kariņš, said in his last speech about Covid. It translates as “Friends, it isn’t good.” Now they make t-shirts with the saying on it. It has quickly become his catchphrase. Earlier this year, I think I wrote about how Covid was pretty much under …
Līgo 2020: Lielvārde and Lāčplēsis
Last year, around this time, Rita and I were returning from our honeymoon in Italy. We spent a quiet Jāņi on June 23 in Vilnius, Lithuania waiting for our bus back to Riga. This year, I was happy to stay in Latvia for a more traditional and joyful celebration. Although with the current Covid situation, …
Pandemic Ending in Latvia
8 June 2020 The End of the Pandemic (we hope!) The last 3 months have been surreal. I have been recovering from back surgery, the world was thrown into a global pandemic, my father passed away, I started a new career, and now we have protests and riots in the United States. The good news …
Quarantine: One Month Later
Quarantine: One Month Later an Update It is the middle of April, and as T. S. Eliot once wrote, “April is the cruelest month.” I am not sure what he had in mind when he wrote those incredibly accurate words, but April 2020 sure fits that bill. I do realize each and every day …
Latvian Quarantine 2020
Latvian Quarantine March 2020 My birthday is in March. This doesn’t make me special because almost everyone I know has a birthday in March. But this year was special because I feel that my 48th birthday year celebration was the last big bang before the shit hit the fan. Today, one of my friends in …