I love to travel. I have filled my memory banks with things experienced in “Far Away Places with Strange-Sounding Names.” But these days, it has become too difficult for me to drive cross-country or board a plane or book a non-refundable cruise.

I realize now that a great part of the travel allure is the anticipation of it. Planning where you’d go months in advance, consulting maps (yes, maps), researching what to see, how to pack, whom you might meet. That’s a joy, a treasure, sort of like planning for a holiday or a big wedding … two other endangered events.

With no travel, all that looking-forward-to is gone. I call this the Anticipation Hole. COVID has created a world in which it is difficult to plan much farther ahead than lunch. I must plant something new in that hole. I tend to pity parties if nothing else is on my calendar.

This year, I’m not treating COVID as something that shall pass soon. That misguided hope leads to time in the dumps as your plans crumble away. This year, I’m treating COVID as a constant. I’m finding new things to fill the Anticipation Hole that don’t require much planning (not seeking to become a brain surgeon or prima ballerina).

I took a poetry class in the fall. Now everything I read or say has my brain rhyming or beating out a new rhythm. My head is bursting with ideas for free verse, form verse, really crappy verse.

Also, I’d like to report that a novel takes me forever. Poems are somewhat less than 90,000 words. In fact, if limericks are your game, you could stuff that Anticipation Hole in a day or two.

My other new occupation is landlady. Sis and I have a renter for the first time ever. So far, we don’t get the concept that we are the owners … instead, we feel like hostesses. We’ve spent weeks figuring what furniture, what colors, what appliances, etc. And we worry about the renters. Will they like us? Will they really, really like us? I’m sure some of this obsession will change the first time one sets fire to the kitchen or paints the patio furniture chartreuse.

We’re only a month into the new year, so heaven knows what I’ll tackle next. I see the Community Education program is offering a course in Knot Tying. One thing I’m sure of … I will keep the Anticipation Hole full of short-term projects because I’m not sure long-term plans will come again in my lifetime. Although Sis hastens to add that there will always be income tax preparation.

Linda B. Myers is a founding member of Olympic Peninsula Authors. Her newest historical novel, “Dr. Emma’s Improbable Happenings,” is available at Port Book and News, One of a Kind Gallery and on amazon.com. Contact her at myerslindab@gmail.com.