QUARANTINE BLOG # 277

January 1, 2021

If you want to search for things that were in the Quarantine Blog last year, it is all indexed (except for the “today in history” feature).  Check out QB Index 2020.

**  Some “welcomes” for the New Year:

👉  I was awake at midnight, not to welcome in the New Year – the folks at 233 had wished each other a Happy 2021 and gone to sleep an hour earlier – but shocked awake by the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air.  It seems some of the people living around us had extra money after Christmas and bought fireworks to celebrate the annual calendar change-over.

Talking yesterday to The Bro we were reminiscing how as teenagers we would welcome in the new year with shotgun salutes – stand in the front yard of 117 Shenandoah Avenue and point out weapons skyward and squeeze the triggers.  We decided with the radical increase in the price of ammunition this year (a box of 22 LR cartridges has soared from $1.95 to $9.95 according to some news reports) we would not celebrate 2021 in that fashion.  Probably get arrested anyway.  And I remember a sign I saw while browsing an antique store: “With the increasing price of ammunition, thieves should not expect a warning shot!”

Anyway, I was going somewhere else with this, and as usual saw a rabbit and decided to chase the furry creature.  Well, as long as I was awake, I toodled over the porcelain throne and followed the frequent time-honored practice of men who are cashing social security checks.  On my way back to bed, I remembered a character in a British TV show we had watched who said he was, “Going to have a wee.”  And I went to sleep thinking of the many ways you could express that common bodily function.

This morning I asked my research assistant, Simon T. Google (named after Simon T. Cogley – attorney at law for Mattie Ross of Yell County, Arkansas) to do the calculations.  Powerthesaurus.org says there are 429 ways to say it: take a leak, tinkle, take a whiz, go number one, go to the loo, relieve myself, widdle, have a splash, pass water, spend a penny, answer the call of nature, break the seal, have a jimmy, hit the head, and the ever popular powder your nose.  If you want to discover the other 413, checkout Power Thesaurus.  And marvel not only at the ways we have devised to express ourselves, but at the wonder of a drowsy mind fresh from changing the water on the goldfish.

👉  In other news, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther Ireland has fully left the economic embrace of the 27-nation bloc of the European Union, the final stage of Brexit.  Britain left the European bloc’s vast single market for people, goods and services at 11 p.m. London time, midnight in Brussels, yesterday, in the biggest single economic change the country has experienced since World War II.  A new U.K.-EU trade deal will bring new restrictions and red tape, but for British Brexit supporters, it means reclaiming national independence from the EU and its web of rules.  It seems like a bad deal to me, but for folks who call a wrench a spanner, the trunk of a car the boot, a flashlight a torch, and have the collywobbles instead of getting nervous, it was just another night.

When the vote was taken, Ireland and Scotland stayed in the EU (This all started with a referendum on June 23, 2016 with a vote of 52%-48%).  Trade repercussions may only be beginning.  Many think Northern Ireland may move closer to Ireland and away from Britain.  And Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.”

👉  I know these are a year late, but here are some other New Year’s observances.

👉  Today’s close is by Debbie McDaniel and “Fresh Day Ahead.”  She offers a prayer for the new year.

Dear God, Thank you that you make all things new. Thank you for all that you’ve allowed into our lives this past year, the good along with the hard things, which have reminded us how much we need you and rely on your presence filling us every single day.

Thank you for helping us to make it through this difficult year. Thank you that you’ve carried us through the uncertainty of deep waters, through the flames of trials, and through the pain of hard losses. We are constantly aware of how much we need you, your grace, your strength, your power working through even the toughest days.

Thank you for your great love and blessing over our lives. Thank you that your favor has no end, but it lasts for our entire lifetime. Forgive us for sometimes forgetting that you are intimately acquainted with all of our ways, that you know what concerns us, and you cover us as with a shield. 

We ask that we would walk in your blessing and goodness today. That your face would shine on us. That you would open the right doors for our lives and for our loved ones, that you would close the wrong doors and protect us from those we need to walk away from. Establish the work of our hands and bring to fulfillment all that you have given us to do in these days. 

We pray that you would make our way purposeful and our footsteps firm out of your goodness and love. Give us a heart of wisdom to hear your voice, and make us strong by your huge favor and grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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