2020 Is Such a Weird Number for a Year!

Wouldn’t you agree? It is an uncommon number, for counting years, anyway. The last time we had a very similar number to the one we have now was 1010, which was a very long time ago, basically still in the early Middle Ages, and the next one would be 3030.

But after relatively peaceful and almost idyllic Middle Ages (compared to our times), we managed to screw up our world so perfectly that it is pretty clear to me that there will not be a 3030 year for humans on this planet. All humans will be long gone by then, erased from the face of the Earth by a major nuclear conflict, or some sneaky diseases that will eventually turn a few hundred survivors into disgusting, flesh-eating zombies, until there is no trace of what used to be called human civilization.

Oh, well, who cares. We will be all dead by then, along with our children, grandchildren, and their grand-grand-grandchildren. All we can do is hope that the zombie era is not going to surprise us much sooner than I would be expecting it.

So, after this optimistic celebration of is year with its unusual but no doubt highly significant number, I will try to sum up what the last year brought to me. I obviously have no idea what the year 2021 will be like, but I can say a few words about this year, soon to become the last year.

As far as my translation business is concerned, the year 2020 was not much different from 2019, or 2018 for that matter. After I moved from Eastern Virginia to Southern Bohemia at the end of 2018, I thought I would be retired and not working much now, but that is not the case.

After I finish my silly post today, I will have to proofread two translations done for me by other translators before delivering them to clients, unless I decide to do it tomorrow morning, which is always a possibility, given how lazy I have become. Despite my perpetual laziness and the ever-present sentiment of all-encompassing general procrastination, this year I will probably make about twice as much from my translation income as last year, but the main reason for this is that one large order that I am getting every year now was about three times as big this year compared to last year, mostly because in addition to the usual kind of materials, I had to translate new materials relating to the Covid insanity of this year

I do hope that there will not be any new Covid-related translations for me next year as well, although it is probably just a pium desiderium (wishful thinking called in Japanese a sweet thought, 甘い考え).

As I have said a number of times in my recent posts, my two pensions (American and Czech) are more than sufficient to cover my needs where I live now, not really because I am particularly frugal, but because I downsized after I retired or semi-retired, after getting rid of my wife who moved back to Japan, etc. I must say, a wife is a major drain on one’s finances, a drain that in my case lasted three decades and a half. Once a person solve the wife-spending problem, all of a sudden, instead on having to borrow money to pay the bills, for some reason one is unable to spend the money one keeps making.

This may be why my two sons, both in their early thirties now, are still single and show no interest in changing their marital status any time soon. On the one hand, I understand and support completely and wholeheartedly their mental processes. On the other hand, it would be nice to have a grand kid or two, and I have none at this point. It is one of the things I failed to achieve so far in my life, but then again, it’s something that does not really depend on me that much.

So what I want for next year to bring to me would be a gradual disappearance of the nonsensical Covid rules (face masks on, face masks off, depending entirely on the mood of our wise lords and masters in our respective clueless governments), and the ability to fly to United States without any problems, such as a useless wet rag on my face, to see my sons again after more than two years – nothing more and nothing less.

Wish me luck!