A way out? Getting back to normal? Mockery! Leaves and grass and mud. Dog problems.

 So maybe there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with news of a possible vaccine in the next few months. Will we be “back to normal” for Christmas though? Will we ever be “back to normal”? 

If the announcement had come only from the government I might have had less hope.  Cautious optimism!

I read that under the current lockdown drivers are being warned that their car insurance may be invalid for non-essential journeys. What counts as an essential journey? Going to work, presumably. But going to the supermarket? After all, you could have bought less and walked with your bags! Drive carefully everyone!

I hear that Donald Trump’s campaign team set up a “voter fraud” hotline, with a view, I suppose, to gathering evidence that the presidency had been “stolen” from him. And now they have been getting prank calls from TikTok and Twitter users calling to laugh at them or mock them before hanging up. Prank calls prevent Trump supporters with “genuine” claims from getting through. Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, claimed on Twitter that the Democratic party was to blame for the prank calls. Well, of course! But maybe not as an organised campaign. Maybe it’s time for the Trump team to leave it all alone and have their leader withdraw gracefully. If gracefully is ever a way he does anything.

We shall see what the next couple of months brings.

Meanwhile, we have been clearing leaves from the garden. One of the neighbours says she has given up on her bit of garden. We share a garden with our immediate neighbour and manage to get along with it all quite amicably. The neighbour who has given up on hers has immediate neighbours with children who played football and basketball and anything-else-at-all-ball on their bit of grass just after the really heavy rainfall. Consequently the grass is all churned up into a veritable quagmire. Oddly enough, back in the day, when our children used to play ball games and other running around games in our garden I don’t remember them reducing it to such a mess. Either we have more rain now that we used to or maybe I just misremember it all.

My Italian class online continues to be great fun. We still talk over each other a little but we are becoming more disciplined. Our numbers were a little depleted yesterday. One missing member was too upset because her dog had just died; she had had him so long that he was a member of the family in his way. The other missing member is at the other end of the dog-owning chain, having just acquired a puppy who is demanding so much attention that she can’t do anything else at the moment. That sounds like a good reason not to have a dog!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!