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| One little hint as to why there haven't been regular updates at standingrush.org . . . |
Happy Earth Day! I'm embarrassed to say it's been going on 15 MONTHS since I last posted an update to the website. As with so many aspects of life throughout 2020 and into 2021, routines have been turned upside down. But my day-to-day existence has been flipped on its axis by more than a global pandemic.
The photo above, like my publishing over the last year+, is already outdated. But #5 (or "Go-go" as we affectionately refer to her) was added to our family almost a full year ago now (!) and her presence begins to explain why I didn't have that extra hour at the end of each night to work on a blog post.
2020 was most certainly one for the history books in our family. The time that has elapsed since my last writing has brought about incredible change -- beyond the familiarity of terms like COVID, social distancing, quarantine, masking, etc., etc., etc. Four became five which is huge in its own right. But we also lost a family member to the pandemic, moved my mom out of my childhood home (down the road to my brother's), fully rehabbed that childhood home, said farewell to lifelong friends in Perrysburg, and moved into the house that without question shaped the trajectory of my life as a biologist -- not to mention as a person.
Wow, it's been a crazy stretch. But now that the highest priority boxes are unpacked and the new office space is more or less set up, it's time to circle back and offer updates on all that went on at Standing Rush since my last official post (1/31/2020) -- inexplicably 447 days ago! Not surprisingly, life did anything but stand still.
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| The (7!) Krauses in front of the original Kraus Haus -- our new home (Photo courtesy of my sweet niece, Ellen Dziubek, www.ellendziubek.com) |
ASIDE: I did write one complete post that was set to publish on 3/26/2020. I can't explain why, but I never made it go live (until just prior to publishing this post). I also started a half dozen other articles on the computer -- and literally dozens in my head -- that never made it onto the site, at least as they were originally conceived. I just could never find the bandwidth to bring them to satisfactory completion.
In an effort to expedite updates to the site, you'll see I've taken a slightly different tack than I had grown accustom to over the first almost three years of writing. Updates over the last ~15 months largely take the form of chronologically displayed photos, with the goal of using captions to at least provide some context. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully my retroactively posted monthly updates hit many of the highs (and lows) and allow additional opportunity to follow this breathtaking environment through its natural, seasonal cycles. My hope is this format will be sustainable, useful, and an enjoyable way to get back to much needed Moment(s) in the Marsh. Most would likely agree, we probably need them now more than ever.