Bistro

Almost the moment I put our new bistro table outside, it started raining. Looks like the evening glass of Sauvignon Blanc will have to wait another day or two. The table does have a hole in it for an umbrella, but drinking a glass of chilled wine in the rain is not appealing....

The fact that I did a few things that I haven't done in a year yesterday caused several people to comment that it sounded like things were getting back to 'normal' again. This prompted me to think (yet again) about what is really normal....

I have been doing a lot of errands that aren't generally in my job description...buying salt for the water treatment system, chatting with the guy in the birdseed store about how he broke his leg but had to keep his store going so he walked 3/4 of a mile on crutches to the bus stop, took the bus to the transit terminal and walked another 1/2 mile on his crutches to his store, even grocery shopping....but I have been doing them because John broke his ankle and can't drive. That certainly isn't normal. 

A lot of businesses have not or will not survive. Biden's massive rescue bill, if it hasn't come too late, might be a sign of big social and economic changes. We don't know if we'll get stimulus checks, but if we do, I will probably donate mine to someone who is struggling. There is certainly no shortage...unfortunately, that is becoming more normal unless the city fathers can begin to think a lot more creatively. That wouldn't be normal either....

It has also occurred to me that what we took for granted as 'normal' a year ago will have changed even if all restrictions are removed. We have changed, in some ways, I suspect, irreversibly. At our stage in life, a year is enough to turn a tendency into a certainty. I'm not sure I will ever be willing to get on an airplane. On the other hand, I have become more at home with technology, thanks to Zoom and other internet necessities....

We will definitely be living one day at a time whilst creating new ways of living and thinking....