This last call of the day is a demonstration for pool membership management software, because I’m now a neighborhood association board member, which means that I have three volunteer jobs, again. And this is because I am an idiot. I'm not so much of an idiot, though, that I’d use a shady cut-rate meetings platform to demonstrate a technical product. If you’re a tech company, you need to get the tech part right.
But there’s always a bright side, and the bright side is that I’m almost finished with work for the year, and that means no more Zoom, Teams, WebEx, GoToMeeting, or NoNameCrapVideoCall meetings until 2021. And the other bright side is 2021, because whatever it will be, it will not be 2021.
*****
I never take a day off just to take a day off, but I did today. Well, half a day, but it still feels like a day off because I started a bit late and knocked off early and now it’s 2:45 and I’m going walking on a ridiculously cold day. Cold enough, in fact, that I thought quite seriously about not leaving the house at all. But then I looked out my kitchen window and saw Running Lady, who is about 75 years old, running down my street, and I was ashamed of having even considered slacking off exercise because of a little chill.
The thing is that Running Lady runs very slowly. I can probably walk faster than she runs. And even though she runs slowly, it always appears to be a tremendous effort for her. That makes it even more impressive. She does it despite how hard it obviously is. She maybe does it because it’s hard; because, like Jimmy Dugan, she knows that it’s the hard that makes it great. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, as I pile on the layers and zip up my puffy jacket and wrap myself up with a scarf and steel myself to the cold and ice.
*****
So I did go walking and it wasn't even that cold. It was lovely, in fact. Running Lady still has my everlasting respect, because she would have been out there no matter what, because that's what she does.
And now it's less than a week until Christmas. We are breaking all the rules by traveling across a state line to see family in Philadelphia. It will be a small and socially distant gathering and we're staying for only one night. The Maryland travel advisory excludes Pennsylvania and other bordering states and I've heard, though I haven't verified, that the reverse is true. We're on 95 North now, about to pass through Baltimore, and traffic is lighter than normal for the Saturday before Christmas, but the roads are not deserted by any means. The blacktop is still chalky gray with salt residue and the median grass is still frosted with the remnants of Wednesday's snow. It's cold again. The stop the spread and stay home for the holidays messages flashing on the electronic signs are making me feel a little bit guilty, but not that much.
*****
And just that fast, the weekend is over and we're on our way back home. It's 4:30 Sunday afternoon and we just drove through the snow covered battlefields of Valley Forge National Park, dotted with pre Christmas sledders and cross-country skiers rather than bedraggled Revolutionary soldiers suffering through the winter in miserable log huts. It was pretty. We're driving through the waning minutes of daylight on one of the shortest days of the year. The sky is pale gray tinged with pink and gold. We just drove past a farm house bedecked in wreaths and Christmas lights, its snowy field hosting a huge gaggle of geese. It will be dark in 15 minutes.
We had a fire pit in my sister's front yard last night. She wanted a snow fire, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. We bundled up in our puffy jackets and boots and held cold beer bottles with gloved hands, and then we came inside and ate like there was no tomorrow. This morning, I woke up early and went back out in the cold to walk off yesterday's cookies and hot roast beef sandwiches, accompanied by the world's gassiest dog. It was a long walk, in more ways than one.
*****
It’s Monday now, December 21, and I’m back to work, but not for long. I wasn’t going to take much time off next week because blah blah blah COVID blah blah, but I’m going to take most of the week off, the last week of this stinky stinky year that ends in just ten days.
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| It's the same one I had in 2015. And in 2013 and 2012. It's a good planner. |
In fact, I’m considering this year over already. My new day planner starts today, and since I’m using a 2021 day planner, it’s officially 2021. I set up my 2021 book list gages, and marked my calendar with important dates and events, and transferred necessary information from my 2020 planner, all the while enjoying the clean new unmarked pages and the gilt edging and the uncreased silky ribbon marker. It feels fresh, like a new start. There’s always a bright side and sometimes the bright side is a fuchsia leather notebook that will document the events of 2021; which whatever it will be, will not be 2020.
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