February 14, 2025
Everyday Life in Middletown
Not feeling very festive so far on this Valentine’s Day.. not much seems to have broken my way of late, multiple friends are currently sick or have been under the weather, and the professional and especially social upheavals I wrote about in the last entry have continued.
It’s not been a great week- it feels as if we’re fully into the dog days of winter, especially given the “6 more weeks” forecast by the Groundhog. It’s the week after the Superb Owl, and nothing is going on except for cold, wet and dark.
Nevertheless, there have been small victories: an unexpected bonus at work, a daughter finishing a graduate program and collecting a significant award, a happy and healthy family holiday season, planning a summer trip. I try to remember gratitude as I know that others are struggling, but still the malaise endures.
Where I’ve always turned to news and current events to center myself, the idea of joining others in a “news boycott” seems more appropriate of late. Nearly every day of this administration is some fresh new chaos and I’ve been trying to adopt the mantra of not engaging, but there are many triggers, falling short of actual confrontation.
The two of us had planned on going to Indy tonight to see a show. As the day breaks and she is still fighting the flu symptoms of the past two days, this is beginning to look less likely, at least the prospect of us attending together. Later I interest a pair of friends enough that they are offering to take the tickets off of my hands, when it is revealed in the fine print that the tickets are non-transferrable. A plan is briefly hatched to go as a party of three and purchase an extra ticket (thus recouping a portion of my costs), but this is ultimately foiled by sudden onset of illness in half of the other couple. Plans with still others to attend as a “non-coupled pair” never really materialize and I’m realizing my Valentine’s night may be spent with some junk food and a televised basketball game.
Today is shaping up as one of my shortest entries when I had hopes for it to be more. ‘Tis the season, I guess.
A random occurrence in the afternoon really encapsulates the day. While running an errand for work, a radio station I sometimes enjoy for totally random, unexpected oldie-hits pulls up a shattering Judy Collins cover of “Amazing Grace.” Collins is musical royalty for a certain period and genre of music, and can really carry a tune, but here comes a mournful song – a hymn, no less—on what most of us think of as a happy, or at least hopeful day. As I’ve written before, I am not a religious man, and her rendition, while indeed beautiful, seriously creeps me out and leaves a bad omen for travelling under potentially hazardous conditions over the weekend. I’m needing to sign off here -radio included- and hope for better next entry.