A Number of Things

Nice old building. Let’s take a closer look…

Huh. Wonder what happened to that pillar?

“JULY 1863”, it says. Hmmm. What was happening in the United States then?

Fairytale castles and all.

.…when we stayed pretty close to home.

Red roofs make maze…

…people-packed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Wind worked wonders; stones stand silent.

Do you remember? This used to be normal. Only six months ago, we jostled against each other in crowds like this and thought nothing of it.

Last fall, my husband, our son, and I spent several weeks in central Europe, starting with a visit to the biggest temporary amusement park ever – Oktoberfest. It is, or it used to be, a place for crowds, and booths selling fun junk food, and crowds, and Ferris wheels plus every other ride you ever heard, of and crowds.

Also, various and assorted restaurants, and crowds, and big horses pulling big wagons loaded with big kegs full of beer for people to drink at the restaurants.

And crowds.

It was so normal. Yes, it was a special event, only a few weeks out of the whole year. But it was an event that had been going on for over two hundred years, and everybody who was there expected that it would happen again in 2020. And 2021. Now? Maybe it will happen.

Once this c*r*n*v*r*s is under control, we’ll have to figure out what “normal” is going to mean afterward. But right now, we just don’t know when or what normal is going to be.

Stay safe.