Confinement. Isolation. Sequestration. Lock down. Quarantine.

Of all the words to describe this peculiar existence we are in today, I have the most trouble with “quarantine.” I simply can not recall this word when describing how we are living these days.

It is blocked from my memory. Unlike the actual quarantine which we live minute by minute in our homes.

Ah well, I’m not here to summarize 2020 — nor analyze. I can offer no grand insights, survival tip, recipes, bromides, earned wisdom, nor life lessons. It happened. It ran over us and didn’t even honk the horn or stomp on the brakes. There were no skid marks. We just took the full brunt of its force.

And here we are. Hello, 2021. Show us what you’ve got.

In the absence of people, parades, ceremonies, music, theater, authors, artists, restaurants, travel, etc. I did what everyone else did in 2020: Posted obnoxious flamers on Facebook and Twitter. I smote my enemies, digitally speaking. People got pissed but nobody got hurt, so I suppose … no, nothing to suppose. I wasted a lot of time online. We all did.

The good news is, I also got out and walked around our beautiful city San Miguel de Allende, often with our dog Moppit on the end of a leash. In the quiet and the solitude I noticed things that I had not noticed when life was revving at full throttle and the streets were packed with people.

Small things — a color, a shape, a texture, a statue, a flower, a bend in a tree, a mural, an angle, a glint, a crevice, a shadow — small things that sometimes added up to a picture.

So, today I’m going to finish off what I started yesterday — 2020 (as if it were so easy to finish off 2020). Here are some pictures from each month and an occasional link to a blog post that might expand on an image or an event.

I hope they give you a momentary diversion from your own, uh, oh yes, the word is “quarantine.”

Here’s a link to the first half of 2020, if you want to see how it came out from my perspective.

JULY

AUGUST

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Soon there would be ten masked murals scattered around San Miguel. The message is clear: If Lisa, Frida, and Vincent can do it, so can you. The message still applies.

BONUS: Seventeen escapes you can enjoy in San Miguel while sitting on your couch.

Reasons to be cheerful before 10 a.m.

SEPTEMBER

BONUS: Framing life: A San Miguel gallery.

OCTOBER

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NOVEMBER

BONUS: In four days an underpass is transformed into an urban art gallery

DECEMBER:

Walking through Centro on Christmas Eve: All is calm, all is bright

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If you want to see how the first half of 2020 came together, in my mind, then click on this sentence.

Thanks for playing along! If you see me on the street in 2021, smile and wave and let me take your picture from a socially distant space! I miss photographing people!

Happy 2021!