It’s time once again to look back at the preceding twelve months. 2021 has been a rather interesting year, and as one college professor once told me, “‘Interesting’ is the weakest word in the English language.” Well, I’ll take what I can get on this. So there.
And with that in mind, here are ten moments that made 2021 – for me, and for all you blog readers – the year that it was.
10. It’s one thing to send messages and correspondence to various famous celebrities… but it’s another when they respond back. Such was the case this year when tennis legend Martina Navratilova responded to one of my tweets. Or when professional wrestling stars The IInspiration read one of my observations on their podcast.
9. Rolled up the sleeve, got my Fauci Ouchie. If I can do it, you can do it.
8. Nearly twelve years from the time I joined it – and four years after I left – the Times Union finally closed down its community blog portal, caving like snowflakes because Elise Stefanik had a temper tantrum. Although I made some great friends with fellow bloggers at the portal, I always felt that the newspaper treated us barely above the level of free clickthroughs and targeted advertisements.
7. Alumni gotta support alumni, and I was very proud to witness my high school classmate Fredericka Hughes and her family participate in a celebration for Ruby Hughes, as a part of Albany’s South End was renamed Ruby Hughes Way.
6. The dealer turned over an 8. Then she turned over an ace. And combined with the three aces that were in my hand at the time … I walked out of Rivers Casino with a nice chunk of change.
5. Hey Chuck, I got a great idea … how do you feel about climbing down the side of a ravine to photograph a covered bridge? What, you think two foot surgeries will hinder your progress? It’s a photograph, man, you can’t waste the opportunity, can you?
4. I tried. I held out for as long as I possibly could. I really did. But the promise of a new BlackBerry cell phone never came, Verizon bricked my KEYone, and I had to race around the Capital District to get the next best thing to a BlackBerry – a Google Pixel 6 Pro.
3. For a while, I added an additional feature to my Saturday “What’s Up in the Neighborhood” blogroll recap, which included video interviews with many of the bloggers and writers that populate that little blog list on the right side of my page. And if you’d like to watch these interviews again, we’ve got Daniel Nester and the Pine Hills Review, Silvia Lilly with the DelSo blog, Fran Rossi Szpylczyn’s “There Will Be Bread” blog,, Roger Green’s “Ramblin’ with Roger,” Jerry Papandrea’s “DerryX” blog and YouTube channel, Liette Hebert of the “Oui-Liette” page, Jack Urso of the “Aeolus 13 Umbra” portal, Carl Johnson of the Albany history blog “Hoxsie!”, Layzgal from “Killin’ Time Being Lazy”, J. Eric Smith and his blog, Audley Stephenson’s “Best Audacious Life” interview blog, Amy Biancolli of the “Figuring Shit Out” portal, Aaron Bush from the “Aaron Knits” blog, Lale Davidson from her “A Writing Life” blog, and Jon in Albany’s pizza and dining blog. All here on clickable links.
2. My first photography trip away from New York in nearly two years (thanks COVID-19 pandemic) led me to Strasburg, Pennsylvania, and a fun time photographing their steam locomotive. By the way, one of the shots from that weekend trip picked up to blue ribbons in Competition Season, so as far as I’m concerned, the trip was worth it.
1. Syracurse … BUSTED!!! A win, place and show at the 2021 New York State Fair, thus ending one of the longest photography droughts I’ve ever experienced.
And there you have it. 2021 from the Chuck Miller blog. What will 2022 bring? I have absolutely no idea.
But I know it will bring one thing for certain.
A new blog post every single day on this portal, without fail.
And on that — you can totally rely.
Chuck The Writer 
It was a year, fer sure. Oh yeah, I actually forgot that interview.
LikeLike