Hello Again, Holidailies!

Yes, it's that time of year again when the bloggers come out to play and post for Holidailies! I've been doing Holidailies since my Diary-X days, so for at least 15 years. (Does anyone remember Diary-X?)

Anyway, here we are - the Plague Year, when everything changed. 

At the beginning of the year, I worked in my company's headquarters building. I scored a nice, big, fairly private cube. Now I work from home and have no desire to go back. Even if I did, it would be on a schedule: Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Friday. No, wait - I tell a lie. Since the surge, everyone except certain essential workers must work at home until further notice. 

At the beginning of the year, we had tickets to see The Chieftains, Rock the Organ, David Sedaris, and John Prine. We saw The Chieftains before the world stopped. Rock the Organ and David Sedaris have been rescheduled. John Prine caught the virus and died.

At the beginning of the year, I went out and about, thither and yon, all willy-nilly and nimbly-pimbly. I went to movies, the mall, restaurants, shops, with never a care or worry. Now? I haven't been inside a shop or a movie since March. I have been to the mall, but only as far as Visionworks - right inside the door to the mall - to have my eyes checked.

At the beginning of the year, I saw my doctors' and dentists' faces, in person. Now the ones that I do see in person are gowned, gloved, masked, and visored. The others I see over the phone - at least I can see their faces.

At the beginning of the year, my own face was out there for all to see. Now I wear a mask every time I leave our apartment, even to take the trash to the trash room.

Damn.

So I look for hope. It's out there, amid the masks and thermometers and COVID questions. It's out there.