It's Friday! So what?

 

It will be nice when a Friday feels like a Friday again. 

I'll grant that for anyone in the work force, Friday probably hasn't lost all of its luster.  

Then, there are those of us oldsters who have been enjoying seven Saturdays a week for a year or two or more.  

That means when this Sunday comes, we shall have already done 31 Saturdays in 2021.

Since the Pandemic began, "Thank God It's Friday" has diminished in stature on our weekly schedule. 

Oh sure, at the beginning, the day still stood out for us golden oldies because we were doing our best at finding new ways to keep enjoying Friday Night Out to Dinner with family members and friends from other households.

I remember our very first attempt back in March when Bill and I decided to go to the drive-through at ServaBurger and then drive down to the City Pier to eat our dinner. 

My sisters went to McDonalds and later met us at the pier.  All four of us stayed in our vehicles while eating and talking about the new, weird phenomenon in our lives. 

As time passed, we collectively deemed it possible to have outdoor gatherings, exercising great care. 

Early April weather usually permitted such gatherings, even IF we froze to death while munching on our cold hamburgers and soggy, tasteless fries---prepared ten miles away and at least 15-20 minutes before we took our first bite.  

I have learned, through the Pandemic, that fries sure do taste a lot better when they come straight from the hot grease.

 Eventually, when hosting the gatherings here at the Lovestead, my learning curve improved.  Put those fries in the microwave.  Still wasn't the best, but the warmth was definitely more palatable.  

Back in the spring of 2020, "Thank God It's Friday" meant bundling up in the warmest clothes possible---maybe even bringing along some blankets. 

It also meant that those who attended the Friday night gatherings did so on time release.  

We had just so much time to sip on our drinks and gobble down our food, exchange a few nuggets of news while dogs sat around begging and then start moving with haste to our cars or back to the house. 

So, to say our Friday night gatherings diminished in fun for those first few weeks would be an understatement.  

When summer came, the situation improved with the temperature and longer days.   

We still dealt with dead fries, but the conversation lasted much longer as we sat around in a circle in our very own chairs. 

We even had a barbecue or two, taking great care to have our own utensils and making sure plenty of hand sanitizer was available. 

Those were some good times, and we were quite proud of ourselves that we had managed this aspect of the Pandemic rather well though the summer and fall months. 

Then, came winter and that's when nobody came here, and we quit showing up at others' homes. 

To say that this "Thank God It's Friday" feels pretty much the same as every other Friday since late October? Yeah, it's another understatement. 

Bill often drives to town, picks up a sandwich or some barbecue with sides, sends a text announcing "Got the Grub," arrives home with white sacks and spreads them out on the island for us to transfer our chosen "grub" to plates, do some microwave zapping and retire to the living room to eat and watch TV.

Happily, I must say, as would many, it's good to have a peaceful relationship with the person or persons with whom you've spent more than adequate hours and days over the past ten months. 

We usually get along well during meals, drives, hikes, whatever.

 I will have to admit that our Friday-night-meal conversation is hardly as lively as it once was when family and friends crammed themselves around a table at a local restaurant, drank a cold beer or Diet Pepsi, and enjoyed a enthusiastic session of yakkedy-yak, catching up on each other's past weeks. 

January Fridays for 2021 end today, and we'll move on to February and then March, probably quietly so.  

But, by golly, we're surviving, which is most important AND we have learned to adjust.  There's a certain pride in those accomplishments. 

Even so, I'll still look forward, with great nostalgia of the past,  to Fridays of the future where, with luck and time, they'll start feeling more like Fridays again.  

 

Our family friend Jean Martin sent me this photo overnight.  It was taken a while back.  

This morning my sister Laurie (right), texting back and forth, deduced that it must have been in the mid-1980s. 

Laurie remembers that Omar, the horse I was riding (left) was sold to the Glaziers around 1987.  She also figured that it was taken after she began her teaching career cuz she had purchased a new saddle. 

As we were determining and agreeing that this was Marianne, Mother and Laurie, riding Omar, Julie and Richie, respectively, I used "color in hair" as a criterion.  

Only her hair dresser (herself) knew for sure, but Mother's hair may have had help from a bottle, while mine hadn't quite gotten to that stage yet---and oh so curly.  Laurie's pretty lucky, having lighter hair. 

Anyway, we must have been having a good time.  We still haven't figured out where we were or where we were going. 

But, it looks like we were pretty relaxed on our horses, and that was a good thing.