And Megan Walker, I'm so sorry.

lisah, that's alarming.

I think our patio dining is done. Not just because the weather is turning, I mean.

Our Costco hasn't had TP or paper towels for a month or more.

We were planning to go up to have Thanksgiving lunch with my parents on their porch but my Hopkins emergency room doc friend is advising against that now. Given what she's seen in the last few days in the ER.

Man. Thanks for sharing that. I sure hope we can go up to my sister's for Christmas, but I'm starting to prepare myself for even that being a no-go. Seven of us, all careful, the kids (three grown-ups, living in Atlanta) are getting tested before they go up, and the rest of us might all, too, but... I dunno.

Thanks to re-entering Tier 1, my work has cancelled our Thanksgiving Potluck. Which I both understand and 100% support. Still stinks though. And makes it that much harder to get myself geared up for the actual day. I haven't even spoken to my brother about whether he wants to try to get together. The problem is if I offer to host, I'll do all the cooking, tidying up, plus pay for the food - and he won't appreciate it anyway. So I'm pretty strongly leaning toward getting a ham and some sides (a reasonable-sized portion of dark meat turkey if I can find it) and just eating when I feel like it. I'm really more into leftover turkey & ham sandwiches than I am the actual T-day meal anyway. Maybe doing the restaurant thing with the brother. Possibly with Dad & his wife too - they "don't really bother to celebrate". But they gotta eat something that day, whether it happens to be turkey-based or not.

Boy JenP, that's a lot of households coming together.

My parents have started stocking up on TP and other items assuming there will be another “shortage”. I have 16 rolls and plan to get more after work today. I have 2 gallons of disinfectant cleaner and have started re-stocking cans and non-perishables. I plan on either a TJs or ALDI run today.

We're not traveling or gathering as a group for any of the holidays this year, and we won't be having a party for my 50th birthday in January. This is going to be the first year I haven't flown at any point since 1988.

We've done just-the-three-of-us holidays before, though, when for whatever reason we couldn't or didn't want to make the long flight to Oklahoma or Alabama. What's going to be weird is to have the holiday season without the work Thanksgiving potluck or the office holiday party with its truly hokey games and ugly sweaters or the late Christmas Eve service with a crowded church singing ALL the carols and then crowding into the library for champagne and cookies or going to a single Messiah singalong, much less all three of the ones I'm a semi-regular at.

I'm trying to build in some extra home festivity, on top of our usual tree and stockings, to maybe make up some of the difference--an Advent wreath, an Advent calendar, some festive decorations for my home office desk, etc.--but it's going to be a strange Christmas.

So, y'all. I talk with Nilly today, and she has an idea. (She would have typed it here herself, but dear Lords, she's *so* busy. So, just imagine it in Nilly's voice and words, OK?).

Nilly is suggesting a gathering on Zoom, to say our goodbyes to DX. It'll have to be on Saturday, but not on Shabbat (it ends ~17:30 PM on Israel time on Sat, which translates to 10:30 AM on the East Coast). And she's volunteering her university Zoom's account. It will also be so good to see your lovely faces and say hello.

Nilly also sent me a few pictures of DX to share on Facebook. I don't have a FB account - who can I send it to?

And, if Amyth's up to it - there's also a suggestion for a Zoom gathering to say hi to her. But only if she feels like it and it's not too much.

What do you say?

That sounds great. If I can be there, I will.

(Have to work this Saturday afternoon, assuming the library is still open.)

BTW- Stacy Abrams: buffista? She writes romance novels, has opinions on BTVS & Angel, she watches Supernural. . .

I'm so worried about the impact Thanksgiving and other holiday gatherings this year are going to have on this pandemic. Lots of folks are going to be really careful, others are not. There are going to be people traveling home no matter what the lockdowns try to do. Even if the spreader events are less than 0.5% when do take into account the large number of people we are dealing with the math isn't good. Compared to the entire population of the U.S. the event in Sturgis this year was a tiny percentage, but it's been shown that it spurred Covid spread throughout a good portion of the country.

I've just been so worried about so many things for so long now. I'm so exhausted.