Janus

Janus is one of the more intriguing Roman gods.  Able to look both forward and back and of course the origin of the term January.  

Time to bid a lukewarm farewell to 2021.  It was a little better than 2020 in some respects, but still a year of limitations.  My only travel of note was a quick trip to Michigan to visit my father in law.  At age 95 waiting for a more opportune moment is not reasonable.  No foreign travel, my scheduled overseas archaeology trip ran aground just short of loosened restrictions in the UK.  I was so close, but by a few weeks I fell into the protocol that would have had me sitting isolated in a hotel for a week or so before being allowed out into still spartan conditions where jovial post dig nights in the pub would have been technically illegal.  Oh well, they slid my reservation into the spring of 2022 and I was able to tack on an extra two weeks beyond my usual stay.

Lots of time with the grand kids.  Not quite as much as during 2020 Lock Down days, one of them started school after all, but still we saw them often and they are growing in size and sophistication.  But not in cuteness, they attained the maximum level of such that is possible some time ago.  They continue to surprise, delight and amaze us.

Well here's the year in stats.

Fish caught:  oodles.

Deer bagged: 0

Times on an airplane:  also 0

And for the year ahead?

A full month on tap for digging in England.  Omicron lockdown is likely in the UK after the hols but I think I'll get my tickets on spec assuming the wave and its associated mania will pass quickly.

Maybe a run out to LA, a place I've not visited since I was in grade school and even then all I remember was the LaBrea tar pits.  Oh, and that the air had an odd chemical smell.  For some reason I identified it as akin to a nasty hair care product called "Dippty-Do".  I suppose my mom must have used it.  Oddly it is still around and there is even a version for "men".

Teaching opportunities opened up quite a bit in 2021.  Four actual in person talks given for local community ed, summer Robot School, fall Enigma class.  There should be still more opportunities in the year to come.  Time to dial the robot stuff up to 11, the FIRST season is soon upon us.

And for Detritus of Empire?  Blogging remains an archaic activity which appeals to me.  So much has changed since I began.  Something called Tik Tok is now the most popular website in the world.  My readership is somewhat more selective....

Some categories of posts are becoming rare birds.  Although I have a couple coming up I think I've hit most of the findable brewery caves in my part of the world, barring new construction.  I have no immediate plans to return to The Groves of Academe, the Land of the Pharaohs, or Bella Italia.  Lets hope more Road Trips, Archaeology and Off the Map posts are forthcoming.  I try to avoid Just Politics but it is getting harder.  

See you here and there.  Well, mostly here.  Usually three times a week. 

Cheers