Yesterday–Saturday, November 7– was a big day for the US. In case you missed it: Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US presidential election. It was a very big deal. People were outside in the streets and parks, dancing, clanging on pots, waving signs, and singing. Yes, there was singing, too. And more dancing.
I was out and about yesterday, too. My book club had proposed an outing to a local bakery, in service of 1) maintaining our social support network through safe outside social gatherings; 2) taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather; and 3) gathering intel on the best croissants in the area (a new and ongoing project). Five of us met at a local Japanese/French bakery to pick up a cross-section of baked goods.
We walked to a nearby park and sat on the bleachers to consume doughnuts, croisssants (the almond one was excellent), scones and rolls, and to try to digest the results of the election. However, conversation soon meandered to topics more local. We’re all trying to figure out how to combine safety during the pandemic with maintaining the social support and human contact that’s essential for our well-being.
Several of us live alone, so we are pods of one. But one person does not a pod make. We’re going to have some Zoom meetings to figure out who can share pods and what that would involve (in terms of testing, self-quarantine, etc.) Despite yesterday’s ease of meeting and strolling and eating croissants in a socially distanced and very pleasant manner, winter is coming. We’ve got to make some clear plans. I’ll be blogging about our progress as we make our decisions.
But for now, we’re all enjoying the brief stint of warm weather and the relief that comes from an extended election finally being over. And we’re doing that by dancing outside while we can.
