I'm back. 

I retired as an education advocate in June 2019, had one hip replaced and began to feel better. So, I thought about replacing the other hip so that I'd feel even better. The COVID 19 pandemic hit just as I was scheduled to have hip #2 done.

We hunkered down for the lockdown and waited. I got tired of just waiting, so I made phone calls, wrote postcards, sent letters, and got busy with Getting Out The Vote (GOTV). Michigan surprised us all by taking over the House, Senate, and Governorship. And we are temporarily minus the Orange Menace, although his memory festers on.

Meanwhile, I missed meetings with PFLAG so I checked in with the board of PFLAG Ann Arbor. The pandemic prevented us from having in-person meetings, and most of the board members were ready to call it quits. I volunteered to set us up with virtual meetings and a virtual workspace and set about figuring out all of the work needed to accomplish the transition to the cybersphere. The then-treasurer agreed to stay on, and I persuaded some other folks to be on the board so that we could continue as PFLAG Ann Arbor. 

We've had regular monthly meetings with guest speakers over Zoom (thanks to PFLAG National's account), the newsletter comes out monthly, we attended some Pride events, we adopted a QSA at one of the Title I schools in Ann Arbor, our phone rings occasionally, and our bills continue to be paid on time. 

Suddenly I became a huge cheerleader and idea person for LGBTQ+ rights. Two years into it, I'm less enamored of the whole endeavor--it's hard work to recruit others to be active in an organization when we're not sure the pandemic is really over, and when the world is so busy with climate change, political wars, real wars, religious zealotry, racism, hegemony, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. And then there's the everyday stuff: school, childrearing, work, keeping it all together, inflation, life, etc.

I'm pretty sure that I am not going to be able to do this much longer. 

But, on the bright side, I have two new hips and am relatively free of pain from them. And, I think that it's going to be spring for the next few weeks before it is summer.  

More later.