Sep 2, 2020 3 min read

If you’re reading this, breathe a sigh of relief. No, the COVID-19 worldwide nightmare is not over yet. I’m writing this Monday afternoon, and NASA says not one but two asteroids with estimated diameters between 60 and 90 feet will pass by Earth tomorrow night. So if you’re reading this with your morning coffee on Wednesday, congratulations! You survived.

That seems to be the story of 2020 so far: merely surviving what is the strangest year many of us have experienced. Did I mention there’s another asteroid scheduled to pass dangerously close to Earth the night before the presidential election? I can’t make this stuff up. Did you forget about the impeachment trial? That seems so long ago. How about Brexit, when the UK basically broke up with the European Union? Then came “Megxit,” when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle basically broke up with the royal family. Here in the U.S., the contentious, divisive presidential election, civil unrest and the pandemic combined would be enough for 2020 to go down in the history books. Then Kanye West announced he was running for president. But wait, there’s more!

Not to be outdone, Mother Nature decided to join in the upheaval that is 2020, starting with the devastating Australian wildfires. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, summer brought extreme heat with nearly two weeks of days with highs above 90 degrees and a rainfall shortage that left moderate drought conditions across the region. Hurricane season is already active and we’re only halfway done. The National Hurricane Center predicted 19 to 25 named storms, which is the largest forecast it’s ever made. Hurricane Laura made history for many reasons including being the earliest 10th named storm on record (we usually don’t hit that number until October), the strongest storm ever to hit Louisiana and churning around the Gulf of Mexico at the same time as Tropical Storm (and briefly Hurricane) Marco.

Just when we’re ready to hide under the bed, we heard about the arrival of murder hornets in the United States. These invasive, predatory insects can sting you many times with larger doses of venom. Great. If that doesn’t scare you, just look up and you might see some of the mysterious drones people in Colorado and Nebraska reported this winter. Were they UFOs? Well, in April, the U.S. Department of Defense officially released three short videos showing “unidentified aerial phenomena” taken by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2005. I’m not sure why any aliens would want to be visiting Earth right about now.

The Indy 500 was postponed then run with no fans present. The Kentucky Derby will do the same. They even postponed the 2020 Olympics. Professional sports were postponed and are now being played “in a bubble” or in shortened seasons (which, for the Pirates, is a blessing). Some athletes have decided to “opt out” of their respective seasons due to the pandemic. I’m wishing we could have just “opted out” of all of 2020!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.