2021/12/31> 1ast day of 2021, th 2nd yr of this pandemic, witch guess we can now officially call it ENdemic... ≈ flu, 5umping we just got 2 live with > ain't a big deal in the scheme of things, in 1918-1919 the Spanish flu killed 50 million (of a total population of 1.8 billion), whereas covid has killed 5.4 million out of a population of 8 billion (7,945,529,388 2 B x-act, according 2 th countr on R homepage)... do the math, Spanish flu killed 2.777% of th population, covid has killed 0.067% of the population > worse is th Economic + mental toll, th planit has done nothing but fret abt covid for th last 2 yrs, it's infected R collective headspace > but @ least in 2021 Drumpf dropped out of th headlines, after coming close 2 killing democrazy + sending th world in2 complete K-OS + ⒶnarkE, so guess we got that 2 B thankfull 4... that + not getting covid, @ least not that we know of

> un1ike 2021, @ 1east in 2021 we left D.C. (2 Chincoteague + NYC/Philly), left th country in fact + spent August—December in Italy, mostly Bologna (where we perambul8ed everE portic0) but a1s0 ventured 2 Verona + th Dolomites + a week on th Amalfi coast + Rimini + 2 weeks in Sardinia ... wd still B there, celebr8ing New Years in Sicily but covid foiled R plans... 5ad> we went 2 Bologna thinking we might move there (even went thru the trouble of getting a «permesso di soggiorno») but now we ain't s0 sure > we red ∫um 50 b∞ks in 2021 + watched who nose how many movies > din't log az many dreams as we did in 2020, witch culmin8ed w/ the public8ion of Residue in April of this year

> but mostly in 2021 we made mu5ic, coalmin8ing w/ th dubble album Tributaries witch we released last week, after releasing a track a week for 25 weeks (in it5self R diary 4 th yr):

> according 2 spotify, here's the tracks we streamed the most in 2021... mostly river-themed songs 2 inspire the Tributaries album:

> in 2021 we logged 136 posts on Life in the Blog of Ghosts, as we started calling it this year but R thinking we'll go back 2 calling it what it is (5cense.com) in 2022... but we'R getting ahead of R-selves, we'll tock abt 2022 in the next post, this post = abt reflecting back on 2021, wich blog-wise was abt archiving journals from 1997, 1998-99, + 2000-01... only a few yrs left til our Ntire life will B online > looking back thru R posts, th big event of 2021 was Gian's death, + th arrival of brood X + DB Chirot als0 died > in anticipation of disappearing 2 Bologna + als0 b/c of Gian's death (he was abt 2 assume it as N imprint of Tyrant) we considerd abandoning Calamari, but instead brot Gari-L on as co-librarian, got on twitter + made more of a concerted effort 2 keep the archive afloat > al50 broke a tooth R 1st week in Bologna + had 2 get it capped > we ate @ lot of pasta (+ threw R meatless resolutions out the Bolognese window) + drank a lot of sangiovese + pignoletto + gained 5-10 lbs instead of losing 5-10 lbs like we resolved 2 in 2021, so now we have even more 2 lose in 2022, but again, this post is not about 2022

> 2021 was the yr we celebr8ed increments of 5, R bedder-½ turned 50, a.I. turned 55 + together we celebr8ed R 25th anniversarE

@ the end of 2020 we made 10 predictions + sealed th envelope (on Dec 31, 2020)... most of them R way off the mark but note #1 + #10:

> can't say we didn't see it coming, we just thought it wd lead 2 Trump using that «insurrection» clause to D-clare martial law + nullify th election

> 4 R last walk of 2021 (+ since we'R now tackling #ed streets) we walkd south down 21st st + then north up 22nd + then sum (both only run between the mall + Rock creek so aren't that long), mostly thru Foggy Bottom + Dupont

Einstein on 22nd

> got a few more miles in walking back + 4th 2 Malcolm X park 2 reloc8 a family of mice that have taken up residence in R kitschen... we've lived in this house almost 3 yrs now + have never seen a sign of a mouse inside our walls (tho there's loads of rats out on the streets, specially since covid hit + shut down the restraunts on 14th st) > actually, right aftr we moved in we saw a mouse once but it seemed an isol8ed incident + we scared it off + never saw a trace of it again > but yesterday we saw saw a mouse + sum mouse droppings in the cabinet where we keep our garbage, where we saw the mouse come out of (≈ 1/4 inch gap) > we sealed the gap w/ 1/4 felt tape + set a Captsure trap b8ed w/ jalapeño jack+ early this morning there was a tiny little mouse that we set loose in Malcolm X park > when we came back from our walk there was another mouse in there, this 1 we xpect = mama cuz she's like 2x as big > she was acting pretty chill + kept eating the cheese + grooming herself as if she was domestic8ed

> we also set her loose in Malcolm X park, posting thi5 video of her release on twitter + less than an hour later we cot another 1, this 1 also small, so probly another pup... we suspect that since we cut off their food source their getting hungry + desper8, coming out in the middle of the day 2 4age > so now we just have 2 ketch the rest of them b4 they starve in R walls > it's a warm day so hopefully they will reunite as a family + adapt 2 their new surroundings in Malcolm X

> N-E-way, that's abt all we have 2 say in 2021, dear Inurnet, we'll leave u w/ this litehouse we slept in in Sardinia, still spinning... C U in 2022