Welcome and Congratulations to the new President and Vice President.
It is a bright, sunshiney day where I am, and I’m looking forward to a morning of prayer and taking my kids out of school to witness the swearing in and the Inaugural Address of President Biden.
Pictures to begin your day as we begin a new era, with hope, optimism, and determination.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
– – Melody Beattie
What can we look forward to in this new year?
Beginning tomorrow, everything.
I’m optimistic. A new President and Vice President will be sworn in at noon tomorrow, and thus begins 100 days.
100 Days of mask wearing.
100 Days of vaccinations.
100 Days of returning to ourselves and becoming better.
A new year to set goals, to take chances, to create.
I’m looking forward.
Instead of publishing Election Connection today, I will publish the last one (unless times require updates) next week with ways we can continue to be civic minded every day, not only every four years. Persist, Stand up, Speak out, Rise up. Together, we can make things better.
January begins our year, and what better way to begin this already tumultuous year with a nice hot cup of tea in this annual celebration of Tea!
It’s been called!
November is full of opportunities for gratitude – Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, colorful fall leaves, the smell of apples and cinnamon. We don’t think so much of Election Day as a day of gratitude, but for those of us who cherish our representative democracy, it is definitely a day to count our blessings.
After the last seven months of isolating and after 230,000 covid deaths (and rising), those of us who have been spared have much to be grateful for in addition to respecting the sacrifice made by others, not only the dead, but the frontline workers – in the health care field, in the food field and the fields that grow the food, our first responders, our teachers, and our parents, and so many other unsung heroes.
Tomorrow is Election Day.
It is the final day to vote for the candidate that best represents us, ALL of us. We have the opportunity to vote for the man (this time) who cares; who epitomizes decency and character; who truly feels the empathy this country needs right now. On a more pragmatic note, he also knows how to get things done without divisiveness, without distruct, with honesty and dedication to service, and that is Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris. I proudly voted for them more than a week ago during early voting. You can join the majority of this country in turning around the hate train, the white supremecists who in the last two days tried to run the Biden bus off the road in Texas and closed highways in New Jersey and bridges in New York and today blocking polling places in California. We can take our country back, and it begins tomorrow.
“May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation.“ – Joe Biden
What we do, we do together.
Halloween during a pandemic. Well, at least everyone’s already wearing masks, right? My kids are in high school, so it’s less of an issue for us. They’re planning on going to friends’ houses and celebrating with a party instead of traditional trick or treating. They’ve already been hanging out with these friends since summer, so it’s equally safe as doing homework together.
On my neighborhood Facebook group, there have been some questions about neighborhood plans as well as some suggestions. One neighbor wants to do treat bags on a table at the end of the driveway, and limit trick or treating to certain hours – from five until eight. I thought that seemed reasonable.
Another thought was of a scavenger hunt with houses providing clues to their kids to find candy. The parents would do all the work and the neighbors who participated would volunteer so the kids weren’t randomly going to people’s houses who had no idea what was going on. I thought this was a great idea.
We usually have a bucket of toys and comic books in addition to candy, so the kids can choose which treat they prefer. They toys are the kind you get from McDonald’s Happy Meals or similar small items. Some are packaged, but some are gently used. We’ve decided to suspend this practice until next year (hopefully). I know our items are safe, but why put the parents in the position of having to say no to a toy if they have (legitimate) concerns.
I also thought that instead of having the kids reach into our candy bowl and choose their preference, we would have more of the same candies and hand it out ourselves. Two candies per child. We can wear gloves and put it right into their basket or bag.
I know some doctors and experts have talked about avoiding family during the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, which are closer than we think they are. We haven’t decided our holiday plans, but I also think that Halloween is a different circumstance. I don’t mean it’s more important than our traditional family holidays, but in some ways it kind of is. It’s fun. It’s dressing up. It’s candy. And it can be done in a responsible and socially distant way. Kids can come to the door one or two at a time. The candy givers can wear masks and gloves. There’s no hugging, shaking hands, sitting around a table talking and eating.
To be honest, it really sounds a lot easier.
Maybe we can have a Halloween inspired Thanksgiving. Drive thru. Go to Grandma’s house and she’ll give everyone a Tupperware filled with a portioned out turkey dinner. Same with Christmas; just add presents to the drive thru lane.
I don’t know. I’m still working on that one. In the meantime, let’s enjoy Halloween as best as we can. Teach our kids that we need to make some changes this year to keep everyone safe, and we can do that and still have fun. I’m planning on dressing up as a postal carrier if I can find my parents’ old work shirts.
We’ll find out in one week.
What are your plans for Halloween? Do you have any suggestions for making it fun and safe for kids in this unusual year?
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt
“Try new things and discover yourself every single day.”
– Bhavya Choudhary
“TSN”
(Try Something New) – My Husband
For the past two years, my husband has been offering this mantra: TSN, which stands for Try something new. He tries to try something new at least once a month.
I do like to try things, but I try them hesitantly.
I am inherently extraordinarily polite. If I am at someone else’s house and they offer me something that I’ve never had before or am even lukewarm on, I will take it, eat it, and thank them for it.
When we go out to dinner, I prefer tried and true food for the most part, but when I’m on vacation, I will beeline for the local specialty as well as trying new things.
Examples of this are poutine in Canada, tea in the UK, a proper British breakfast in Wales and England, Welsh cakes in Wales, chicken wings in Buffalo, cheesecake in NYC, pretzels and chocolate in Pennsylvania, lobster in Maine, crab cakes in Maryland, beignets and gumbo in New Orleans. Anywhere you go will have a specialty food to try.
On our recent visit to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Plattsburgh, New York, we tried many things that were new to us, but were common to the North Country and Western New York.
In the above photo, you will see:
This pandemic has given us many things that are new, not all of them exciting and wonderful, but we’ve hopefully taken them in stride, and will try to move forward embracing the new, the different, the exciting, and even the challenging.
When I saw this Pop Vinyl in mid winter, I knew I had to have it. Normally, I don’t order anything that takes more than a couple of days to arrive, but this wouldn’t arrive for weeks, nearly a month, but it was RBG. I could wait.
She arrived in late February, and I loved her. I kept her separate from my other Pop Vinyls, knowing this was only temporary, but I kept her near where I worked for inspiration. Every time I looked at her, I smiled and knew the world would be okay.
Back in February, things were relatively normal, at least for the Trump Presidency. The 2020 Election excitement was beginning to build. We Democrats had an embarrassment of riches in who we could choose for our nominee.
I should mention that I usually work at my dining room table, and that table is a repository for everyone’s junk. School supplies, mail, bread, cookies, a couple of candles, grocery store flyers, a prayer card on an easel, art supplies, my computer, my Zen Garden, and on occasion, family dinners.
Any time I turned around there was an avalanche either waiting to fall or having just fallen.
The candle (unlit) was on its side. The sand from the Zen Garden was strewn across the table. My other Pop Vinyl (Castiel from Supernatural) was flat on his face. The markers had fallen out of their box and were under the grocery ads. Every time this happened, I’d clean it up and hope for the best, knowing that this was an impossible mission.
Things fell all around, knocking over the prayer card and the easel, sand everywhere, piles of receipts flying with every fluttering breeze, but I noticed about two weeks or so ago that through it all, Ruth stood her ground.
Every couple of days, I cleaned up the chaos, but when I went to adjust Ruth’s Pop Vinyl, she was already righted, never having wavered in her place. I touched her stand, and I smiled at her, and I knew that everything would be okay because no matter what was going on around her, she would always stand, at the ready.
She still stands. On Friday night, I moved her to in front of the television. I added a vase of flowers I had gotten myself that morning.
Her life was well lived, and she made sure that my and my daughter are able to live our lives well. She was a giant long before she joined the High Court, and she will be remembered for never backing down, never falling down, always standing up for anyone who longed and looked for equality.
My Ruth stands, and I stand with her and her ideals. She will always be with us.
Funko Pop Vinyl, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (c)2020
When Libraries Are Second Responders from The Atlantic
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 