Tag: evictions

I’m trying

It’s December 7th and it just doesn’t feel like it. I’m trying to get into a jolly holiday mood but it’s tough this year. There are over 280,000 people dead of Covid 19 in the U.S. so far and that is a whole lot of grieving families. There are 20,000 people with cases severe enough to be in the ICU right now and many more infected. In many places around the country our healthcare system is close to collapse and we still haven’t even gotten to the post Thanksgiving spike. Cases are on a massive upswing while at the same time my library is continuing to open back up. This scares the hell out of me. I love my job, and I need my job, but if I bring Covid 19 home to my husband it is likely to kill him. Every time I see my mother, from 10 feet away, outdoors, masked, and brief, she cries and says she can’t take it anymore. She 74 with a heart condition and this whole thing has worn her down. So fa la la la la and stuff.

Still, I’ve been trying. We went and picked out a tree and set it in the stand… like a week ago… and it still has no lights. I set up our advent calendar and we keep forgetting to open the drawers and read the little slips. I got the kids involved in a bit of holiday baking, that went pretty well, everyone loves cookies. I played Christmas CDs and tried to keep things light and happy for a while. This was the most successful I have been at getting into the holiday mood lately. I’ll keep at it.

Cookie making festivities… (to be continued soon, I like to bake.)

There are many cookies still to bake, there are some presents to be wrapped, we are all here together and as safe as we can be in these mad times. So well, bake, we’ll game, we’ll wrap up the presents, we’ll keep the wood stove going and we’ll get around to decorating the tree real soon. I can’t believe all the protections put in place to help people weather the pandemic will probably be allowed to expire soon. I just cannot fathom the heartlessness that would see a massive wave of evictions during this time of crisis and in winter. I can only hope the incoming administration will leap to the rescue of the American people and do everything they can to get help and relief to folks, and PPE and other critical support to our frontline healthcare workers. Too many people already struggle to get enough to eat, too many have already been evicted, too many are stuck in a whirlpool of tragic events, grief and despair. It’s all too much and I’m not personally facing these issues, yet.

Into December…

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was exhausting but wonderful. The kids slept half the day away while I cooked and my sweet husband acted as my assistant. The meal was pretty freaking awesome even if I do say so myself. I was back at work the two days following but we’re closed on Sundays so yesterday was spent relaxing and recovering for the most part. We went over to Silverymoon just before dinner to get our tree and a wreath for our front door. We did well, I think. The tree is full and lovely. Last year we made wreaths at a library workshop this year that is unthinkable. Thirty people in a room all breathing the air and exchanging germs? So much is so different this year. I was running in-person programming for the teens, serving them snacks and butterbeer, free raffling off Hogwarts house scarves. I miss those kids.

Today I will pay the bills, it’s that time again. I am 100% grateful that we can still pay our bills. Because supporters of the president have refused to approve payments to help working Americans stay afloat and have refused to cancel rent, prevent utility shut-offs, etc. it is possible millions of Americans will be facing eviction just as we are heading into winter, less than a month before the big winter holidays, probably in the middle of the next big covid spike we’ll have. All those who travelled and gathered for Thanksgiving are currently spreading Covid-19 far and wide. (well, not ALL, but you know what I mean) I am hopeful that the incoming administration will do their best to try and contain the virus, get relief to everyone who needs it, and start the hard work of rebuilding all that has been destroyed these past four years. I hope that the people who have fallen so deeply under the sway of such extreme ideology can be reached, deprogramed, or whatever. I know they don’t get that all the things Liberals or Progressives want to do will lift them up as well as everyone else. As we see the safety net repaired all will benefit. As we fund our schools, fix our roads, ease the burdens on our police departments and retrain officers in de-escalation and so on, all will benefit. Fixing the nightmare of crushing student debt, making college more accessible, fighting climate change, it will all help everyone. I hope the improvements in people’s lives will get through to them, soften their hard hearts and help them realize we are all one human family. I try not to get too political here but have you seen the lines for food banks? Unreal.

I looked at the weather for today and we are supposed to get snow any minute now, that will switch to rain after a bit, add in some fierce winds later and switch to thunderstorms late in the evening. Because, why not? Snow in the morning, thunderstorms at night. Weather is a kooky thing but it wasn’t quite this weird when I was a kid, this is just freaking ODD.