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Time flies when
Well, we can put paid to Hallowe’en 2021! How the H E double hockey sticks did we get so close to November so quickly? I am purely blown away by how fast time seems to pass these days. Is it just me? Sometimes I’m very aware of which day of the week it currently happens to be and then, somedays, not so much. If the Toronto Star shows up on time for breakfast, then I can figure out which day it is. However, sometimes I’m up and at’em before the paper hits the front porch, and if I can remember where my phone is I can check for the date, the day of the week and the time. Of course, if can actually find my phone I’ll have to remember the password to get the information. But no matter the day or the date, my point is that time flies and I think I should be having a whole lot more fun at this speed, as the saying suggests.
So, this morning I remembered my password when I found my phone and I know, for a fact, today is Sunday, October 31st. It was an exciting day when I was a kid and doubly exciting because the next day, November 1st, was All Saints’ Day and Catholic kids didn’t have to go to school on All Saints’ Day. Let’s hear it for honouring dead people. Time dragged when I was a school kid. Those two days were something to look forward to—one day for free treats and the next was a donothing- but-wear-pyjamas-day with the bonus of having a big pile of candy, fudge, candy apples and popcorn balls to eat. Believe it or not, my parents were not “those parents” who made us portion out our treats to last for the month of November. Nope, in our house Hallowe’en was an “eat until you’re all sugared out” event. The only stipulation was that we had to eat the meals Mom prepared, no matter what. There wasn’t any saying “I’m too full of treats. I don’t have room for meatloaf.” Nope. When we became parents, LOML and I had the same philosophy for Hallowe’en treat eating when our children were young. “Eat all you want, but meals will still be on the table at the appropriate times and the expectation is those meals will be eaten. Be there, eat up or lose the treats.” We were a self-regulating bunch of treat-eaters, although Mom did actually serve lighter meals on the days after Hallowe’en. We were less likely to get meatloaf and more likely to get tomato soup and grilled cheese, or similar. The interesting thing is I know my parents didn’t have the same “privileged” upbringing they provided for us, and it showed when it came to holidays and special events. They were holiday observant as children, but they pulled out all of the stops when it came to us, their children. And, here we are rolling into the festive holiday season. As soon as November 1st hits the calendar, all of the Hallowe’en treats go on sale and the big push toward Christmas begins in earnest.
My point is, I can’t believe we’re zooming into the second COVID-19 Christmas and COVID-19 Christmas Number Two is just weeks away. I want time to drag like it did when I was a kid. But here I am, my internal clock is telling me it’s still 2019 and my cellphone is giving me a very different reality (and Bell Canada wasn’t helping on the 1st of November). While I, personally, don’t mind dealing with the restrictions of living in a pandemic, I’m still thinking of 2019 as something that happened a few months ago. Yep, in 2019 we had a full house over the year-end holiday season. Then in 2020 LOML and I celebrated on our own with a festive pizza and a bottle of bubbly. The time from Christmas 2019 to Christmas 2020 zipped by and now the time from Christmas 2020 to this very day doesn’t feel as if 10 months have passed. I’m not sure I can slow things down unless I spend time watching paint dry which would mean I’d have to paint something.
Put your Hobgoblins away and get ready to troop out the garland and tinkel (our Grandfriend’s word for tinsel). In no time at all we’ll be staring at a wrapping paper nightmare, putting the tree back in the storage room and ogling the Valentine’s Day yummies at the local megamart.
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