The next day, after we returned our rental car, Christy gave us a ride to the train station. We were excited for the train ride and I was really happy that Vladi finally got a break from driving. The train ride was a lot of fun.
We left in the early afternoon on Monday, Nov. 2. We stayed in our little bedroom compartment most of the time, where we sat across from each other and looked out the big picture window. But we also spent time in the observation car, which had even bigger windows and two long rows of seats facing them on either side. There was also a dining car where there were tables for eating meals. But our porter told us that in non-Covid times, the dining car was much more enjoyable and the food was so much better. Covid had dictated that passengers could only eat with their travelling companions and the food was all prepackaged rather than cooked fresh. Normally, one could go to the dining car and eat with other travelers and meet and talk to all kinds of people but only so many people were called at a time to eat their meals at every other table. So, we missed out on that communal experience.
This was the sunset on our first night.
At night, the bench seat in our “bedroom” became a bed and another bed folded down from above it. The porter came in to prepare everything for us for sleeping. I was a little worried about being able to get out of the top bed to make my nightly bathroom trips, but it wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated. The clickety-clack sound of the train wheels and the gentle rocking movement made for a great night’s sleep.
The next day, the train passed through some fields in California, where the laborers were hard at work. We also caught a glimpse of the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, CA.
The sunset was beautiful over the ocean that night.
Vladi’s son, Sam picked us up from the train station that night. We were happy to get home to these guys.
As we were travelling home, the presidential election was taking place. We had submitted our votes by mail, long before we went on our trip, but anyone who went to the polls in person was doing it on the day that we were on the train.
In most other elections that I can remember, the results were known within a day of the election polls closing, although the 2000 election was dragged out because of the “hanging chads” in Florida but was eventually conceded by Al Gore to George W. Bush. In the 2020 election, because of the pandemic, there was an enormous number of mail-in ballots which had to be processed by election workers. For several days the country waited anxiously to hear who our president would be for the next four years. It was the biggest voter turnout in history and both candidates got a record number of votes, but on Nov. 7 Joe Biden reached the 270 electoral college votes that he needed to be declared the winner. In another historic occurrence, Donald Trump asserted that there had been widespread voter fraud and began filing lawsuits to get the results overturned. His lawyers filed over 50 lawsuits, none of which proved any of his allegations. All of them were thrown out of court because of lack of evidence. Trump fought for two months to retain his power, continually claiming that the election was stolen.
Personally, I could not wait until inauguration day arrived. I hoped that once Biden was sworn in, things would calm down and start normalizing. The country has grown more and more divided over the last four years and it seems like Republicans and Democrats live in two alternate realities. We get our news from different sources and the middle ground between our values seems to have become a chasm that can’t be bridged. I’m convinced that we have many more things in common than we realize but calm and rational discussion doesn’t seem to occur very often and compromise has become a dirty word. I enjoy hearing both sides of issues discussed in a thoughtful manner, because I want to understand why people think the way they do but trying to have that kind of discussion on social media is counterproductive. It inevitably seems to devolve into name-calling and accusations and suspended or terminated relationships.
I now understand with crystal clarity the advice my dad imparted to never discuss politics or religion in polite company. He was incredibly wise.
On the coronavirus front there were a lot of warnings about the danger of having gatherings over the holidays and indeed, the Covid cases were surging again in November. Just before Thanksgiving, I got news that my Aunt Louise had passed away from Covid. She was really the first person that I knew personally that had died from it. But around then my daughter heard that a couple of her former co-workers had died as well.
After all our adventures, Vladi and I were ready to stay home and have a quiet Thanksgiving. We bought a Rotisserie chicken from Costco and I made the traditional sides that we love: stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut squash and cranberry sauce.
We toasted with our Asti Spumante and watched TV. We were happy that our friends that we usually celebrate with got a chance to go visit their kids in Idaho for the holiday.
On Nov. 29 Vladi and I were watching an episode of All in the Family. Growing up in Russia there are many American TV shows that Vladi had never seen and because Netflix gives us the opportunity to revisit shows from the past, we frequently watch old series that I think will give him a more rounded American cultural picture. All in the Family debuted in the early 70s. I remember watching it as a young teenager and I’m sure that at the time, half of it went over my head, especially the way Archie misused and mangled words.
But the episode we watched in November was especially timely and touching. (In fact, I was amazed how the themes of the whole series seemed just as relevant in 2020 as they were when the show first came out-how, sadly, little has changed.) The episode was from season 6 and Gloria had just announced her pregnancy. At first, her husband, Mike, was ecstatic, but then he began to worry about bringing a child into the world when there were so many things wrong with it.
He found himself in the kitchen of their neighbor, Irene, who shared a little newspaper clipping she had tucked away in a drawer. He took the clipping back to Gloria and she read it out loud.
What it said was just as relevant to today’s world.
“Even the prospect of early annihilation should not keep us from making the most of our days on this unhappy planet. In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. And it would be a crime against Nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly that it put off enjoying those things for which we were presumably designed in the first place, and which the gravest statesmen and the hoarsest politicians hope to make available to all men in the end: I mean the opportunity to do good work, to fall in love, to enjoy friends, to sit under trees, to read, to hit a ball and bounce the baby.”-Alistaire Cooke
December
In December we were delighted to hear that 2 vaccines had been approved by the CDC. We were told that it would take some time before the vaccines would become available to everyone but Vladi and I started hoping that we might be able to get them in time to make our trip to meet my cousins in May.
As Christmas approached, I began to feel my usual anxiety about it. I’m not sure why I get anxious, other than feeling pressure to spend money (which I usually overdo). No one in my life puts this pressure on me. I do it to myself. With that in mind, I decided to take the year off from celebrating Christmas. I wanted to see what it would be like to not participate. I warned everyone that I wouldn’t be buying gifts or sending cards or baking cookies. I didn’t put up a stitch of décor other than the cards I received from a few people.
Vladi maintained his tradition of lighting his beautiful menorah with the pretty colored oil pots he always buys and I was happy with that. It really is beautiful.
On Christmas day Christy, Ben and I scheduled a zoom meeting and as we were talking, Jessica joined us. It was great to see their faces and we talked for 2 hours.
But my heart was sad that we couldn’t be together and I miss times gone by when we did a lot of fun things, especially with the Heaton family. One of my favorite traditions was our eggs benedict breakfast on Christmas morning. It was quite a feast! I have a few videos from Christmas when the kids were little and I indulged myself by watching them, but it makes me sad that their childhood is past.
For the last few years I have been saying that I need to start some new traditions and make Christmas meaningful to myself again, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.
Summation
The last couple of months of 2020 seem rather anticlimactic after the busy 10 months that preceded them but Vladi and I were very satisfied with where we had been, what we had done and who we had seen.
Vladi and I have felt an urgency to live life as fully as we are able while we can. If this year has taught us nothing else it has taught us that tomorrow is not guaranteed and things can change in an instant.
So I intend to continue getting the most I can out of each new day.
On to 2021. . .
Love you both so much. ❤️❤️❤️😻
ReplyDeleteLove you, too, Barb!
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