My Polish friends and I began Zoom-partying back in March of 2020, when I came to the inevitable conclusion that I could not travel to Poland as planned. So we met on Zoom instead of in person, and we have been Zoom partying every three or four weeks ever since. (Well, it feels more like a party to them as we gather during their evenings... and my noon hour.)
At first, Poland was spared a Covid surge and so the commiserating flowed mostly east to west. Toward me. Especially in the Fall of 2020, when Wisconsin rose to the honor of being a state with proportionately the greatest numbers of infection in this country, which itself lead the world in infections at the time.
But, we've since learned that the virus bounces around the world like a silly putty let loose in a school building. You can't predict where it will bounce to next and how long it will stay there. And so each month we passed the sympathy along to those who felt the burden of the pandemic most. At least two of my friends did get sick, several of their children and grandchildren also fell ill, though thankfully all have recovered -- some more quickly than others.
Today we were to have a Zoom holiday-themed gathering, but though I wore antlers and some sipped potent beverages, we spent more than two hours once again immersed in the topic of Covid. We have all been triple vaxxed, yet the fact remains that we are all in that demographic that has proven to be so defenseless again and again as variants emerge, and people refuse to get shots for the good of humanity, let alone themselves. So we talk about what our holidays will look like this year and we are all a cheerful bunch, so jokes fly and good humor prevails, but I cannot tell you how eager we are to wake up someday (maybe in 2022?) without the fear of Covid hanging over us. A Zoom party where we don't compare Covid notes -- impossible to imagine right now, but something to look forward to in some future period of time.
(3 missing today, happily *not* because of Covid)
In other news -- we Wisconsinites are creeping up to temperatures that belong more to early fall, even though we are just one week away from winter solstice. Today the sun was out and the patches of snow suddenly became a rarity.
Breakfast.
After my Zoom get together, I went with Ed to run two very important errands -- he needed a new battery for his car from Farm & Fleet, and I really needed a box of Candinas. Their herbal infusion truffle and ginger truffle are still hard to beat. We needed a box to carry us into the new year!
Both the chocolate shoppe and F&F are close to a segment of the Ice Age trail that cuts through the Prairie Moraine County Park. It's a lovely little segment (it took us about an hour to cover most of it), especially if you don't mind the occasional dog joining you on a part of the path (it overlaps with a terrific dog park -- one I would certainly take my pooch to if I had a pooch: lots of good dog sniffing ground and forest trees to mark). The sun was already making its way to the horizon, but still, it felt warm enough for Ed to leave his jacket in the car.
And then we came home and I made a frittata -- large enough for us to have tonight, with plenty of leftovers for him to enjoy in my absence. Unless something unexpected happens, I will be in Chicago starting tomorrow.
In the meantime, some lights and gingerbread and love, sent your way.
