Life is too short to drink bad wine.

It's been a weird week, as Biden's win got clearer and clearer everyone's shoulders descended a bit. We are still on lockdown but not a strictly as the first one, or perhaps people aren't taking it as seriously. The numbers are mostly going down though not below 200 and they edge up every other day as well. The government astonishingly hasn't been doing detailed contact tracing which they are starting now so we will actually know what's causing the rise in figures and not just speculating. The most promising new vaccine is on the way though not without it's problems, it has to be stored at minus 70 degrees C. We've avoided the infection up to now, fingers crossed we continue to do so.

Kate's school continues to underwhelm with their strange fixation on the uniform, the kids are freezing with all the windows open and they are having lunch outside but gods forbid someone wears a pair of thermals that aren't the school colours. You've got to really wonder about their priorities, it's certainly not the kids. In addition, we are on lockdown and there are no green tights to be had locally so I had to order some good ones on line which will take a couple of weeks, they are just going to have to deal. I can't wait for Kate to be shut of this place.

We were quite busy last weekend. We finally motivated to paint my Mother's bedroom which was sooooo necessary, she burns candles a lot especially in winter and we've never gotten around to actually fully painting after the house was handed over to us tenish years ago as a white box. She's chosen a pretty dark greenish grey (very Scandi). I was doubtful but it's going to be an extremely elegant, very calm look, perfect for a bedroom. As a friend of mine said recently first coats serve to keep us humble. We cleaned like fiends on Friday and did prep like filling in any holes or cracks, next time I think that we will leave two days for this step so that we can get all the filling and sanding done before we launch into the painting as this always takes longer than expected. On Saturday I painted the ceiling which is the suckiest part of the job and leaves you absolutely coated in white speckles, I also covered any particularly dirty parts of the walls so that there would be a fairly evenly white surface for the grey. Yesterday on Sunday we cut in all the margins and then painted, the cutting in takes at least 70 percent of the time you spend painting. As the lady in the store assured us, we will need a second coat, that needs to happen today at some stage, maybe lunchtime, or at least we will get a start at lunch, Mom is anxious to do it while it's as bright as possible. Then the only thing left to do are the baseboards and the doors but that can be done after she's moved back in. Right now her bedroom has exploded all over the house, she's sleeping in my bed and I'm sleeping on a mattress in the library.

The other big thing on the weekend was the Blue Star Virtual Family Gathering. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the majority of the programme during the week since it starts at 11 pm my time. Most of the stuff I'm most enthusiastic about happens around 2 am lol. There's also a Disc server which I'm hoping people will start using on a more regular basis to connect. As everyone, the tradition is facing the challenge of doing something online that really should happen in person. I cried when Home Again was sung. Once again I am faced with the question on whether to try to start a coven again, my husband is gone so that excuse is not there anymore. Am I willing to put in that much work? Is there even demand in Ireland for a semi traditional coven?

Kate is back to school today, three face masks and a visor in hand.