The week started off wonderfully. Our neighborhood had three food trucks Sunday evening (BBQ, Mediterranean, and Gelato). The food was good. The weather was perfect. A few neighbors joined us in our driveway. It was an extremely pleasant evening. This is the last social activity for our neighborhood this year.

We had our first class Monday. We covered a brief biography of Fitzgerald and Hemmingway, followed by a discussion of the first half of “The Great Gatsby”. There are over 80 people registered for class. 72 showed up for the first class. The Zoom servers seemed to choke. Things got better after most students turned off their video. The instructor encouraged comments from the class, but of course with such a large class, only a small number could offer comments. The instructor has an interesting way of handling comments. He puts on a thoughtful face and lets the student have their full say. Then he generally says something like “I agree” or “That’s insightful”. Immediately after that, he extends the comment to include other points. Sometimes he says something like “That’s an interesting reading”, following that with a viewpoint that is more plausible. We learned quite a bit.

We found two presentations from the Walters Art Museum. One was about Islamic metal work. The other was about ancient glass. Both were quite interesting. Unfortunately, the ancient glass was immediately after lunch. We used our very comfortable setup in the TV room with our reclining chairs. I had a predictable reaction. I still managed to catch enough that I knew the answers to the questions the audience asked. The presenters faced quite a challenge because until a few days ago, the building was closed. They had to do their presentation from photos that were taken pre-COVID.

Danita started a virtual class for people who are care givers for parents.

I did my fall cleaning of the deck, porch, and garage. That’s a 3-day job for me these days.

Thursday Bluetooth stopped working on my Dell laptop. It was particularly irritating because I had just cleaned my desk and removed all nonessential wiring. I had to go back to a wired mouse. This happened precisely 17 days after my extended warranty expired. How do they time these things so precisely?

Mark asked us what our plans are for Thanksgiving this year. That triggered a discussion we had been putting off. We finally decided to celebrate at home without visitors. Usually Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It certainly won’t be a traditional Thanksgiving.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.