Last Friday

 

TGIF!

For some reason and for me specifically, Thank God It's Friday doesn't conjure up the meaning it once had. 

In fact, of late, the added endorphins of a Friday afternoon have gone fleeting like autumn leaves.

This phenomenon of loss appears as one more subtle aspect of living in Pandemic times.  

Back when I was teaching at Sandpoint, Friday afternoons often brought out an exhilarating giddiness among students and staff as the hours of another school week ticked away toward 3 p.m.

Another week in the classroom was ending, and a welcome weekend break was coming.  

For several years, Friday afternoon meant locking up that classroom, getting together with my two teaching sisters and other family members or friends at Connie's Restaurant for French fries, ranch dressing.

While dipping those steaming hot fries in dressing, we  debriefed about our respective experiences in the classroom. 

Often, the day was temporarily catharctic, knowing that for a few hours anyway, we could take a complete break from the 24-7 planning and putting those plans into action with our students. 

On this last Friday in October, there'll be no French fries and ranch dressing at Connie's.  

The later tradition of Friday-night dinners with family and friends in a restaurant has been gone for some time.  

The past few months of Friday nights spent sitting around someone's yard in lawnchairs, eating cold take-out food topped off with a light dessert from whoever's hosting and catching up on life with sisters and friends has also ended. 

Too dark, too worrisome on this Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, with Covid spiking around the community, the state and the country for us to get together.

 We've all agreed that it's best to stay home and do our own individual thing on Friday night. 

Thankfully, at this house, Bill is still kind enough to go to town and pick up our Friday-night eats.  

Hardly catharctic today, but somewhat celebratory, thanks to a few outside happenings. 

By golly, Ryan Knowles' Sandpoint High Bulldog football squad will be hosting a state play-off game at Barlow Stadium tonight.  

 Friday night lights will be shining for a few hundred paying fans, socially distancing, of course.

This day also marks the last Friday of an endless and wearisome political campaign.  

What November and election day will bring us---that's the $64,000 question.  

Regardless, at least the campaign will end along with those obnoxious phone calls several times a day.  

I can't wait to get back to spam calls about my computer having a problem or someone tapping into my Social Security account. 

After Tuesday, there should be an "absolute," at least for my lifetime.  

Never again will my phone ring with the caller ID noting an Idaho number only to have Donald Trump yelling out who he is and that he's running for the Presidency of the United States, followed by another voice asking for money.  

And, to offer equal opportunity, my text messages will no longer include several members of the Biden campaign and friends asking me to chip in 20 more dollars. 

The campaign will be over and hopefully the election. 

Still, I think it would be grossly inaccurate to suggest that then we can all go back to life as normal. 

The Pandemic will still be here and probably will be getting worse, and it may be a long, long time before a Friday comes along and I can call my sisters and ask if they'd like to get together for French fries and ranch dressing at Connie's just for old time's sake. 

Still, I look forward to that day and better Fridays ahead. 

As for the last Thursday of October, 2020, it was about as close to perfect as it could be.  

I loved the sunshine, the blue skies and walking through noisy, crackly leaves, which soon got scooped into the lawnmower bag and eventually poured into to their winter resting place. 

A great day for enjoying life and making some progress on winter preps. 

Happy Weekend on this "last Friday."