Saturday was Halloween, Sunday was also a holiday for some. Many of us enjoyed costumed picnics out in Central Park, and our houses and apartment buildings were decorated with creepy stuff. The inclination to celebrate, to mark our years with scheduled festivity, was alive and well, just masked. However, the night’s conversation didn’t touch so much on our fun times, we again focused on our anxiety about the election. Just before the Zoom call that day a number of Trump supporters had blocked New Jersey highways to traffic for hours, just to make trouble. Other Trumpers in trucks pushed a Biden campaign bus off the highway in Texas the day before. So wee talked about this. We talked about how those of us who ever worked for the United Nations had received notices warning them to avoid crowds and how to behave if they encountered a protest in the City, something they said they never expected to receive in the United States, these were warnings those posted in third world countries received. We talked about how so many of the buildings around us are being boarded up in anticipation of violence. I did an unofficial poll, and everyone who showed up that night had already voted early, either through mail in or through waiting on long line s at the poll, because of the concerns there might be harassment at the polls. We talked about our concerns over how if Trump wins we would have our taxes raised, and whether if he didn’t he would step down, Trump had his lawyers ready to fight the loss. Though someone noted Biden probably had some good lawyers lined up as well. We talked about why Trumpers adore him so much, how it was cult-like, co-dependent, even addictive, somehow filling some need for him these people have beyond presidential leadership. We talked about COVID and the increased lockdown in Europe. We worried that bars in other states like Florida were causing upticks in cases because they weren’t requiring masks. We worried whether our hospitals would be able to handle another increase in COVID. We talked about which masks we thought were best. We did talk about some other things, a few other things, outside what is causing collective anxiety. We remembered Sean Connery who just passed. We discussed the latest Saturday Night Live episode, and how most people liked it, Jim Carrey’s Biden has improved and they had some nice tributes to NYC. We talked about Scarlett Johansen and her marriage to SNL’s Colin Jost. We talked about other shows we’ve been watching, and we talked about the new Borat movie, and those of us who saw it encouraged those of us who didn’t to definitely see it. A couple of regulars got to see an exhibit about the rock promoter Bill Graham at the New York Historical Society and another talked about her improving tennis game. Another told us she just had an operation on her shoulder, now that elective surgeries feel safer to have. She told us how they don’t stitch so much but use a special surgical glue, and internally they removed her hefty surgical hardware which had set off alarms in airports, requiring her to carry a doctor’s note that no, she wasn’t carrying a gun, and replaced it with smaller fasteners. Someone noted “so now you’re held together with staples and glue, well done.” I suggested maybe add some duct tape to the list and she’d be good to go.
Sunday, Nov. 1 – Groove Del Dia De Los Muertes
