Just back from picking up litter with the Beautify Carolina Forest volunteers and students from Scholars Academy.

It is the beginning of a new year and I hope it’s a healthier and safer year. With the rollout of the vaccine in the coming months, things should slowly get back to normal.

Spent this week getting the house back in order after being gone for two weeks. Christmas tree is up and wreaths are hanging from outside lights. This is the one time of the year that I miss the snow (for about a day). Christmas just isn’t the same without some white stuff.

I love the new decorations at the front of Covington Lake, especially the grinch and snowman. Thank you to Peter Lucarelli and his elves for all the work.

As I write my column, Norm and I are in Glassell Park, California, outside of Los Angeles. We drove here from Myrtle Beach via stops in Memphis, Tennessee, Amarillo, Texas, and Flagstaff, Arizona.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I know that it probably was different from previous years with smaller family groups but hopefully, next year, we can get back to normal times.

As I write my column, we have just elected a new President of the United States. My hope is that President Biden can bring this country back together, strengthen our bonds with our allies all over the world and get this pandemic under control until a vaccine is available.

It is Nov. 1 as I write my column. How this year has flown by. We had about 50 trick-or-treaters last night. Norm wore his mask to pass out candy and pencils. It was probably a good night to let kids be kids and some adults be kids.

I love this time of year with the warm days and cool nights. Spent this morning working in the yard cleaning up plantings and cleaning up the garage.

Finally sitting down to write my column after a busy community yard sale day. I don’t think it was as busy as our spring yard sale, but since we were the first yard sale this spring after the pandemic, I think there was a lot of pent-up demand.

As I write my column, I’m listening to all the COVID news, especially since Mr. Trump tested positive, and how that affects the campaign and the vote.

Everybody is trying to decide what to do about Halloween this year with the pandemic, and I for one, am not sure what I will do. Since you can be a carrier without knowing, it is a little scary as to who has touched the candy you would get. I think I’ll wait a few weeks to make a decision to…

This is not the first column that I have written since COVID, as I was asked to write a newsletter to appear on our neighborhood site, Covington-Lake.com, to keep people informed of what was going on.

How the world changes in a week. Who would have thought that everyone would be fighting for toilet paper, paper towels and Clorox wipes at Sam’s? Who would see that everything is closing, no sports, no travel, no cruises, no college classes on campus and no school in some places? Hope everyo…

Last Thursday morning, 17 homeowners met for breakfast at Early Riser Diner. It was our biggest group ever. Several new homeowners came, so there were lots of introductions along with a nice breakfast.

It looks like spring may be on its way as the rain has stopped, and I hear that we will have a few days to dry out. The daffodils are up, and lots of buds are forming on the trees around the neighborhood. Norm and I walk around the neighborhood for exercise, and see that everything’s startin…

It has been a busy information week so I have lots of news for our homeowners.

Several homeowners have asked on Facebook for dates for the yard sale, etc.

The board has informed me that after the last annual meeting and elections, the board members will maintain their past positions.

As I write this column, it is a cold and rainy day. But I hear that it is going to warm up this week, and I can’t wait. The daffodils are blooming and I want the weather to be better so I can enjoy them.

I’m just back from our annual HOA meeting held at the Carolina Forest Library with about 55 people in attendance. We had a quorum, thanks to the board going door to door to encourage participation, so it was a legal meeting.

We’re back from a busy morning of picking up trash along Carolina Forest Boulevard. Norm and I pick from U.S. 501 to Gateway Drive once a month and homeowners John Lopez and John Wills pick from Gateway to Covington Drive.

So, the holidays are over and we are back home after two weeks in California. Enjoyed the stay but glad to be back. We had a quiet New Years’ Eve and day as we did the red eye from California. We didn’t get much sleep for a couple of days so had some catching up to do.

As I write my column, it has been a very busy Christmas week and day. We are in California and just spent three days in Las Vegas with our son, Ben, and his fiancée, Laura. They love to play poker and Norm loves to play craps, so they really enjoyed themselves.

I attended the Horry County Parks and Recreation Department Christmas party on Monday, Dec. 9.

Last Saturday, the social committee led by the Harris Family hosted the annual community Christmas party.

As I write my column, I’m sure many of you are hitting the Black Friday sales. Since both of our children live in California, I have them do an Amazon wish list and then I order and have it shipped to California, and wrap it once we get there. That makes my shopping easier, so I’m pretty wel…

We are finally home from our Italy trip. We left just in time, as two days after we left Venice, the city got flooded with six feet of water. They had a super moon and tide, and Venice is slowly sinking, and the water just came over the sea walls.

As I write my column, I’m sitting in the Marco Polo airport waiting for a flight back to Myrtle Beach. After being gone 14 days, I’m ready to get home.

As I write this column, I am off the southern coast of Italy on a 10-day cruise on Oceania Nautica.

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween. When I was a child, we knew everyone in our town, so we went out with pillow cases to fill with treats and came home with piles of candy.

I hope no one has any major damage from the wind/rain storm last weekend. If you still lived up north, it would have been a nor’easter, but here, they call it a cyclone storm.

As I write this column, I’m recovering from a busy day volunteering at the fifth annual Friends of the Carolina Forest Library Family Fun Day. We had over 300 children with their parents and grandparents and I believe a good time was had by all.

I’m finally getting my clock back in order after dealing with the three-hour difference in time after visiting California. It isn’t bad on the way out there, but really messes you up when you travel east to come home.

I’m back from California after a week-long trip. Enjoyed getting to know my grandbabies and them getting to know me.

I’m writing this column from Long Beach, California where I’m visiting my daughter Katie, son-in-law Troy and first grandbabies, Eleanor and Evelyn, 10 months old.

It is Sunday evening and I just realized that I hadn’t written my column yet. Busy, busy week with the bag of books sale at the library, meetings for Fun Day and getting ready to go to California to see my granddaughters. They are now 10 months old and crawling, standing and becoming quite t…

Hope everyone is safe after our third hurricane in three years. I’m not sure if it is because of global warming, but the hurricanes appear to be getting more frequent.

I hope everyone enjoyed our second annual National Night Out block party this past week. Over 100 residents and their families, along with 20 police officers and firemen, attended the party.

It has been a hot week in Carolina Forest, and I’m enjoying our pool in the afternoons. I’ve had a busy week with the Friends of the Library bag of books sale, so I enjoyed the time I had reading a good book.

As I write my column, we are having another afternoon shower. I’m thinking about all of those people in the track of tropical storm, Barry, who has his heart set on flooding out some homes and lands in Louisiana. I will keep them in my prayers and be glad that we are just getting an afternoo…

Summer is in full swing, and my garden is producing all kinds of vegetables and fruit. When we got home from California, we had piles of radishes, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, cantaloupes, musk melons, green beans and yellow squash. I made some pickles and gave lots away to the neighbors.…

It has been a busy two weeks for me, as Norm and I have been in Long Beach, California, visiting our daughter and son and their families.

I hope everyone is starting to enjoy the summer.

It was a busy week in our household with meetings and finishing my elbow physical therapy.

I just got back from the Covington Lake pool grand opening. The first part of the evening it was pouring, but it finally stopped so we could grill the hotdogs and enjoy the rest of the snacks and desserts.

I’m glad to see that everyone is enjoying the new pool. It has been very busy this past week with lots of adults and children having a fun time. I don’t think people realized how much bigger it is compared to our previous pool. Everyone loves the zero-entry ramp, as it is easier to enter the…

­The big news is the Covington Lake community pool is now open as of last Friday at 2 p.m. After much hard work on the part of the board and Premier Management, it is open for use.

It looks like the summer is finally upon us and my garden is starting to prosper. We have radishes, lettuce and carrots to pick this week. I have given a lot of lettuce to neighbors, as I just can’t eat it fast enough. Soon we will have tomatoes, peppers, green beans and more.

Happy to report that I’m out of my cast and starting rehab on my left arm so I can now type with both hands again. Feels good to not have the constant soreness in my elbow anymore.