Random tidbits on a rainy Thursday evening

 This week is flying by. After the relief of the election being called for Biden last Saturday I've found myself feeling a good bit lighter in general. I know the toddler-in-chief is throwing temper tantrums and making threats, but all of my worries about what he might do to steal the election, which kept me awake at night for months, seemed to evaporate all at once when I got the news, like a pin popping a balloon. I burst into tears from sheer relief, and ever since I've just felt like no matter what Trump tries to do over the next two months, it just doesn't matter anymore. He's pathetic and I can't wait to see him gone! 

My buddy Little P. continues to be a joy. I got Gregg a new pair of binoculars for his birthday, and he suggested that P. might want his old ones. They're not very good, but I knew that a little kid wouldn't care about that, so I took them to the office with me the next day. I told his mom about them that morning before I saw him and she said, "Has he been talking to you about binoculars?!" with a funny tone of voice. I said, "No, why?" and she told me that he had been talking about wanting binoculars off and on for a while! She said it was almost eerie how in tune with him I seem to be! Of course, I told her it was Gregg's idea, and it was, but the coincidence was perfect. You should have seen his face when I gave them to him that afternoon! He was so happy. The day after that his beloved uncle, visiting from Atlanta, came to pick him up from our school, and despite being thrilled to see his "Uncle JJ" he came to my desk to give me a hug first thing. He said, "Mrs. Barlow, my uncle JJ has four motorcycles!" and I looked up at the uncle, laughed, and said, "P., everyone should have an uncle with four motorcycles!" They left together after that, with the uncle teasing his sister, "See ya later....I'm going to buy this boy a cheeseburger" because P. and his mom are vegetarians. Mom just rolled her eyes at her brother and laughed. They're such a nice family. Uncle works for the CDC in Atlanta and was quite handsome and all the office ladies had to come out and meet him and talk to him. You can tell P. worships him! A close relationship with a "cool uncle" is something to cherish.

The remnants of Hurricane Eta have been blowing over us for two days now, flooding the area with rain and making for the kind of afternoons that you just long to be at home curled up with a good book. Speaking of books, I had some drama with my Barnes and Noble Nook account. Apparently a bunch of servers went down and there was a mass erasure of libraries for a whole bunch of customers, me included. I nearly had a heart attack; I've had a Nook for years and years now and my digital library is up to about 200 books. That's a lot of money invested even though I shop the "$2.99 and under" deals a lot. I ended up calling Customer Service a couple of times, and now I'm glad to say that my whole library appears to be back after two or three weeks. Such a relief!

I'll wrap up this random post with some pictures I took over the last couple of weeks. As usual, I'll try to catch up on my blog reading and commenting over the weekend. 

Homemade empanadas the Spanish teacher at our school brought to me for lunch the other day! 

She's such a sweetheart. She's forever making or buying food for her classes to add to their Spanish learning experience, and she always surprises me with lunch when she does. These were absolutely delicious! 

The Marcoman.

I snapped a picture of my vote last week......

......and then this is my friend Marian and I raising a glass of champagne last Saturday after the Biden/Harris win was announced!

Last, the view from the front doors of our school on Monday morning right as the first class of the day was starting. It felt like a good omen, the beautiful rainbow with our flag in front! May it be so.

Have a great weekend!