WHAT DAY IS THIS??

[A little FYI--The topic for today's post didn't come as a result of the pandemic--my sense of what day it is has long been a thorn in my side. From some comments I've heard lately, that appears to be true for other folks. If it's not your problem--good for you! You can laugh at our struggles. We won't mind.]

We had a Monday holiday this week. Not a worldwide holiday--not even a whole community holiday. In my area, the banks were closed and the Post Office was closed. That was it.

from 2015

For everybody else, it was business as usual. I took my vehicle to have its oil changed and get it winterized for the coming season. (I tried to talk the owner of my automotive center into doing something about winter itself, but he said he wasn't able to help with that.) When I told him I wouldn't need a ride home because my daughter, a Post Office employee, was off today since the PO was closed, he asked why? Since he's a history buff, I had to twit him a little about not recognizing Christopher Columbus who has a whole day to himself on our U.S. calendar.

Home Depot was also open for our convenience. We bought paint to update some outdoor stuff--mailbox, house numbers, light fixtures, plus samples to try out on interior walls for later decorating projects.

That was about it for retail therapy. My daughter started the outdoor painting projects (which she assures me are 80% prep and 20% execution). I managed a couple of small indoor tasks before lunch, which is always followed by napping.

So the day progressed. A leisurely day.

The next day was Tuesday. Felt like Monday. My daughter's colleagues at the PO kept asking each other what day it was. They agreed on "second Monday of the week."

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I write these posts on Wednesday, one of my quiet days, which means usually no appointments or other obligations. Focus is easier to maintain on a quiet day. If I have a topic in mind before Wednesday arrives, I can explore it in depth. If I have no topic in mind, my energy is put into the production of thoughts and images that might develop into a blog post. As you can imagine, having a topic ahead of time is ideal.

Sometimes thoughts and images emerge out of life in my neighborhood--new neighbors, renovation of an old house, new dog or a mama cat with her kits who hasn't been seen before. Other times my posts come from my connections to people outside my home life--medical personnel, store clerks, pharmacy staff, library folks and patrons. Or, I could be stimulated into writing about family life, arising from receiving letters from children.

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Keeping track of days--I don't find that completely baffling. A daily session with my journal helps--I start with the date, the day of the week, then the weather. By the time I'm through all that minutae, my brain has waked up and accepted this is, indeed, Wednesday. I'll probably remember that for hours. Wednesday...Wednesday...draft-a-blog-post day.

Where I get derailed is getting a few more days down the week--the one that has a second Monday, you remember--and realize the day doesn't feel like Thursday, or Friday, or . . . .

Apparently I'm not alone in this dilemma. Even normal weeks have people saying, "It doesn't feel like Thursday, I thought it was Friday all day." Uh-huh. 

If you're one of those people who never has such difficulties with the day of the week, the name of the day, what it feels like . . . you deserve some kind of award. 

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So, moving on from day of the week, I have to say I'm not thrilled with the current season of this year, 2021. I know it's autumn. My calendar assures me we're 'way past the autumnal equinox, and the beautiful photos on the October calendar pages illustrate a typical northern U.S. autumn. Around here? Nope. It's almost the middle of October, and leaf color in Northeast Indiana is spotty at best. Only one or two kinds of trees have color, and even those are stingy. 

My solution to this problem--and we autumn-lovers know it's a real problem--is to find and display as many photos of the colorful autumn trees and scenes as I can find. They're from years past, when I couldn't possibly pass by a gorgeous tree just waiting for its photo op. 

I may not spend much time outside peeping at leaves, because there aren't many beauties to peep at. But I can immerse myself in autumn beauty with pics. Maybe that's why I spend so much time looking at calendars.

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Today is Wednesday. This is October. So far, so good!

from 2014