Whatsits-day

 Ever had a period of time where you simply lost track of what day of the week it is? That's how it's been for me over the past ten days or so.

Part of it may be the timing of this year's holidays. With Christmas and New Year falling on Saturday, it seemed as though the weekend began on Friday, with the eves of both those celebrations...so Saturday became Sunday and the rest of the week simply a blur. Of course, being retired, the work week means much less to me now than it did two years ago, but I still keep track because Jill is still working full-time. 

But she works from home...and her business is closed from December 23 until January 3, so that no longer mattered for the last ten days, either. Add in that all that means we have not been keeping to our usual morning routine, either--sleeping late, for instance, nearly every day this week. (Although "sleeping late" in this house means getting up at 7 or 7:30 instead of 6, so.....)

So, today is Sunday, right? I think....

A Holiday or a Sales Pitch?

 So we have a new federal holiday--Juneteenth, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in Texas and, by extension, that of all black men and women. I have only one concern--that this holiday, like Columbus Day and Presidents Day, will simply become a reason for retailers to hold sales.

I think Juneteenth will, like those other two, be ignored by most businesses in terms of giving time off to employees. Government workers will get the holiday (in most cases, their contracts require they get time off for any official federal holiday), but private employers usually decide that only the "big" holidays--New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Christmas--are reasons to close up business (and retailers don't all do even those). Some give employees an option: "You can have Martin Luther King Day in January if you give up Veterans Day in November," for instance.

MLK Day has, at least, become known as a day for community service. With any luck, Juneteenth will achieve the same status.

Real Life?

 In 24 hours, the holiday season will be over for most of us, and we will return to real life...or as much of "real life" as we get in the current situation.

Jill will go back to work tomorrow after two weeks off...but, other than not spending eight hours or so every day at her desk, those two weeks were not all that different from the ones that preceded them or will now follow. (FTR, Jill has been working from home for five years now; the only thing the pandemic has done to her work environment is suspend the occasional business trips; her last one was in February.)

And, of course, I've been retired since May 1. I thought my retirement would be filled with things to do--especially community theater. But by the time I actually left my job, there was no community theater to do. And many of the other things I wanted to get involved in (I had proposed a "puppet ministry" for the young people in my church) have been put on indefinite hold.

So, frankly, except for some extra time on Zoom with friends and family and receiving some gifts, these holidays have not been any different from the "real life" that came before or will come after.

I suspect the same is true for most of you.

Virtual Gatherings

Jill and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving Day with just the two of us. Brian and TJ could not travel--nor did we really want them to. However, we were not completely isolated over the long weekend. As noted in the two previous postings, I made a trip Saturday morning to the Brandywine Museum, and we had delightful Zoom gatherings on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Saturday evening was a "virtual cocktail hour," organized by our friend Cat, with a group of SF fans from various parts of the country: Pennsylvania, New York, Chicago, and other areas. There's just one rule in these "parties"--no politics. So, for about 90 minutes, we discussed food, family, entertainment and other hopefully non-controversial topics.

The three-hour gathering on Sunday was all family: Brian and his wife, Heather, "zooming" in from Connecticut, and TJ from Brooklyn. Lots of catching up on work, social life, etc. was on the agenda. At the end, it was almost exactly like a conversation we would have had post-dinner had we all been in the same room.

We will definitely be doing more of these until the pandemic eases.

All Aboard!

 Every year, between Thanksgiving and New Year's, the Brandywine Museum of Art turns one of its galleries into a marvelous exhibition of model trains, many of them once owned by the Wyeth family of artists. (The museum's collection is dedicated largely to the Wyeths and their friends and colleagues, including many of the great illustrators of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.)

Earlier today, I made a visit to the museum, located in Chadds Ford, PA, on the banks of the Brandywine Creek. It is housed in a converted mill, not far from the site of N.C. and Andrew Wyeth's studio and home. (The museum offers tours of the studio as well.) Here's just small sample of the train layouts on display--all are operating and some include pieces that visitors can operate with a foot pedal

If trains aren't your thing at the holidays, there are also exhibits of two wonderful dollhouses. I'll show a little of those in the next few days.

Labor Day

 What does a three-day weekend look like in a time of pandemic and lock-down? Well, based on what happened over Memorial Day and Independence Day, it looks like a time when a lot of people think the rules are suspended.

Naturally, that worries me...especially with school having already started or about to start. How many kids, teachers, staff will be exposed to the virus who haven't been up to now....and I'm not even talking about anyone who foolishly attends some big gathering where people go maskless and crowd together too close. I'm talking about the ones who will inadvertently come into contact with the idiots who do ignore safety and sense for the sake of a little temporary fun.

Here's some advice: You may think the virus is a hoax; you may think the whole thing is overblown...but why not take the precautions anyway? You probably think you're a good driver and you won't have an accident--but you buckle your seatbelt anyway. Think of masks and social distancing the same way.