New

Goodbye to this:

"They were careless people.  They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 

********

Hello and welcome to this:

We turn to the Lord to receive these, our brothers and sisters, into eternal peace and to comfort all of those who grieve the loss of a loved one.  Let us with one heart, commend those who have died from this virus and all of their loved ones to the providential care of the One who is the ultimate source of peace, unity, and concord."

-- Wilton Cardinal Gregory, of the Archdiocese of Washington, at the Covid-19 memorial, January 19, 2021.

Hope has returned.

A Weekend Like No Other

How was your weekend?  😜  As a friend of mine said, this will be a good "where were you when ..." memory.

I was out in our garden, finishing with the first parts of cleaning it up, and I could hear cheering and whooping.  Not that unusual, since it was a warm day and people had their windows open, and there are a lot of people here who watch football or soccer or whatever and get very excited about it.

But about a minute later, The Tim came downstairs and said, "They just called it for Biden and Kamala!" and I stopped what I was doing and went through the house to open our door.  Neighbors were already outside, dancing, cheering, and music was playing.  So Hamlet and I went out to join them, and oh was it joyful!  (The Tim did not join in, as he was afraid his dancing would "look like Trump's dancing." I didn't care.)  I spent the rest of the day crying or smiling or both.  

Philadelphia did not disappoint with their reactions, here are some photos for you to enjoy.

Here are some more photos.

And then of course, this:

Which was supposed to happen here:

*****

Saturday night, we had another reason to celebrate (and stayed up WAY too late) because we watched Notre Dame beat #1 Clemson in two overtimes!  It was a great football game, and Clemson's second string freshman quarterback is amazing - I find it hard to believe he is second string, I'm guessing being a freshman has something to do with it.  

Sunday, I attended a fun Zoom knitting meeting for an hour.  It was a group of somewhat random people but everyone was in a good mood (wonder why?), and it was wonderful.  

Other than my part of doing some cleaning up in the garden, I did nothing else socially redeeming over the weekend.  Well, unless you count having voted so that I could help my adopted city help the country to save democracy!

Finally - something good happened during 2020.  😂        

Whoops, Our Hands Slipped!

 

And Now ... We Wait

Oh Pennsylvania, please do the right thing!

Arizona - YES! (Something I have never said before.)

But unlike what we have been told by a certain Liar-in-Chief, we still don't know who has won the election for President.  So don't lose hope.

So what did you do yesterday, besides voting if you already had not by mail? I had big plans.  Well, big plans for once I was home, since Tuesdays are one of the days I'm at work in our building.  I was going to spend the evening knitting, reading, occasionally watching the results as they came in on TV, and of course enjoying a libation (or drowning my sorrows if necessary).  

Instead, I spent most of the day in bed, or sitting in a chair, feeling like I was going to die.  My original plan had been to go last Friday to get the second part of my shingles vaccine.  It turned out that Friday got all turned around, so I didn't go until yesterday.  Which was stupid, I should have waited until Friday of this week.  Because I got the shot on Monday afternoon, came home and other than a sore armw was fine.  Suddenly (seriously, all of a sudden), I was feverish, had one of the worst headaches ever, and felt like I was freezing.  I barely slept, and then not well, and so yesterday was spent in a weird sick haze.  I couldn't have made it into work if we had been getting paid a million dollars to show up.  My headache kept me from being able to read or to knit - I just sat and existed.  FINALLY around 9 p.m. I started to rejoin the land of the living, and today I feel fine.  But really, UGH.  I've learned my lesson - do not go for a flu or shingles shot if you are supposed to be somewhere the next day.

At least today I can function, so I shall continue with my plans that were for yesterday, omitting of course going in to work (even if I wanted to, I can't go into the building if it's not my day to be there).  I finished the first of the socks I was knitting, and will at least get the other one started.  And I want to cast on for a sweater, so maybe that will happen today as well.  I have about 50 pages left in a current book I'm reading, which is an enjoyable cozy mystery (the only thing I can handle right now).  

Keep the faith.  We can still hope.

Election Day 2020