I’m just back in from going the long way to collect the mail. Yes, it is the middle of the night. Yes, it is raining. Yes, it is in the 50s.

I threw on my winter raincoat to go out. Normally, that would be overkill, but I was wearing shorts.

After a moment’s consideration, I slipped my mask on around my wrist, rather than over my face.

And, then I headed outside, hoping to encounter no one. I made a whole loop around the block — four complete (short) blocks — before stopping at our mailbox, mask still unneeded.

It was glorious. I truly envy those of you who can just collect your mail without having to consider a face covering.

I was stymied by an ice-breaker question asked today during a meeting: What have you added to your life since the pandemic began?

I think some of this may be why I’m struggling again lately. While I settled on the answer of growing zucchini, I’m not really sure it’s true. I can point to plenty of subtractions in my life. It’s all I see right now, with the threat of more looming just over the horizon. But all my decision-making is based on knowing what I stand to lose could be so much worse if I’m cavalier with my choices.

But maybe, like with squash, I need to find the small additions in my life. They won’t balance the equation against what has been taken away. But they might be enough that I can find peace.

And so, too, it is with my long weekend. Turns out four days is really the minimum number I needed. But I’m going to schedule another one in a couple weeks, when the foliage starts to turn, so Rudi and I can take a drive up to Skyline Drive.

And I have full weeks off at Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to. (Wear a mask, people, and stay away from crowds. I’d really like to be able to see my family before the end of the year.)

I didn’t get everything done this weekend that I’d hoped to do, but there was gardening (and the surprise zucchini!), a bike ride, a little shopping, the beach, knitting, apple picking, pizza, ponies, several movies (including the charming Enola Holmes on Netflix), National Book Festival sessions on YouTube, cider doughnuts, political postcard writing, fairy lights, a visit with a friend, a tomato tart, painted toenails, and ice cream, among other things. Which now that I list them out does sound like a pretty full four days.

I have a new boss starting tomorrow, a vacancy filled that I’m hopeful will eventually mean giving me a little breathing space to actually start getting work done again during business hours, rather than just managing everyone else’s work. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’m only halfway through my vacation weekend. What else might it include?

I definitely want to keep up the trend of spending time outside. Some time on the garden, some on the bike, and lots in the park.

But I’d also like to spend some time inside. The Burrow is a hot mess and I’d like to tame it some. Plus, I came home with apples and cucumbers from a trip to a farm today, so pickles and pie might separately be on my agenda.

I need to spend some more time writing postcards.

Finally, I still need to get some more sleep. While the last two days have been great, they’ve both involved getting up early, so here’s to a Saturday without an early alarm.

How about you? What are you getting up to this weekend?

Listen. Do you hear? That is the sound of ultimate suffering. My heart made that sound when Rugen slaughtered my father. The [women of America make] it now.

– Paraphrased from The Princess Bride

With forty-five days to go until the election and the devastating death of a beloved feminist leader on top of the rest of the shit 2020 has thrown at us, here’s my plan for this weekend:

• Get some sleep. I’ve been exhausted this week and won’t be able to keep going if I don’t start with this step.
• Send out postcards to voters. I bought 100 yesterday. Let’s see if I can put a dent in them this weekend. I need to buy more stamps first.
• Rally at the Supreme Court Saturday night.
• Make some political donations. Q3 ends in just over 10 days. Let’s make our money work.
• Spend time outside, including getting out on the bike (instead of hitting the gym à la RBG) and down to the garden.
• Finish my shawl, so I have new neckwear to express my dissenting opinion with the government’s choices.
• Hang up our new Halloween-colored fairy lights and paint my nails in fall hues, because we need light in the darkness.
• Do laundry, including linens and towels. (Mount Laundry is getting to be about as tall as RBG was.)
• Record a presentation (on cancer) for work. (Doing it at night should cut down on the ambient noise.)
• Bake cookies, because RBG is dead and we all deserve to drown our sorrows with sugar.

How about you? What’s on your agenda for the weekend?

Also, universe, watch out for Michelle Obama. 2020 has its sights on everything good in the world and I’m worried.

It was a nice weekend, if not quite as productive as I would have liked.

I started off by sleeping in.

I went to the garden, the library, the farmers market, and the grocery store.

We sampled wares from a new-to-us doughnut shop.

I knit and read.

We pulled together several bags of stuff for Goodwill (that Rudi will drop off during their intake hours during the week).

We had a monthly video chat with friends as well as talking with all of our parents.

We watched a table reading with the cast of The Princess Bride, some of a Mets game, and several stages of the Tour de France.

We did some, but not all, of the chores around the apartment we needed to get done.

I signed up to send postcards to voters.

Baking, biking, and nail beautification will have to wait for a later date.