(no subject)
Oct. 4th, 2020 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretIt was a mostly good first days of Sukkot. My new sukkah stood up, the weather was terrific, I cooked tasty food, and I had a good time. But I struggled with the loneliness of doing Sukkot all by myself.
Friday evening I ate my chicken dinner by myself and sang zemiros while reading from the newly translated R' Chaim Kanievsky commentary on zemiros, and I listened as my neighbors sang zemiros from their sukkahs, and then from the other side there were zemiros from a few houses down the block, and it was nice to feel like part of that community even though I was also distanced from it. And I felt a sense of peace of almost sinking into the familiar holiday feeling. But it also really made me miss going from sukkah to sukkah and sharing meals with people.
I think it also hurt a little that my new sukkah is noticeably bigger than my old one. I got tired of the crummy half-assed wood frame I put together a few years ago, which has gotten harder and harder to assemble, and more and more unreliable to stay up, as the wood warps in my warm, sometimes humid basement year to year. So last fall I bought a bunch of PVC pipe to replace the wood frame, and it has mostly been a success in terms of stability and ease of assembly, but having a bigger hut and less people to sit in it sort of intensified the loneliness. I"Y next year, it will still be bigger and easier to assemble and more welcoming.
I also bought some of those programmable color-changing LED strips to hang in the sukkah and that was a big success, plenty of light and I can do fun mood lighting effects when it's not chag. I'm looking forward to playing with that for the next week.
Over the rest of the chag I spent a bunch of time by myself in the sukkah, reading and eating and drinking and hanging out. My cholent came out really well! Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours drinking beer and reading Lavie Tidhar's lovely Central Station, finally, which is a fantastic way to while away a Sunday afternoon. I also finished Georgette Heyer's Cotillion.
It was a good holiday and I enjoyed myself, and yet COVID has just set the bar for what I accept as good noticeably lower than it was before and I couldn't escape also being aware of that.
Chag sukkot sameach, everyone.
Friday evening I ate my chicken dinner by myself and sang zemiros while reading from the newly translated R' Chaim Kanievsky commentary on zemiros, and I listened as my neighbors sang zemiros from their sukkahs, and then from the other side there were zemiros from a few houses down the block, and it was nice to feel like part of that community even though I was also distanced from it. And I felt a sense of peace of almost sinking into the familiar holiday feeling. But it also really made me miss going from sukkah to sukkah and sharing meals with people.
I think it also hurt a little that my new sukkah is noticeably bigger than my old one. I got tired of the crummy half-assed wood frame I put together a few years ago, which has gotten harder and harder to assemble, and more and more unreliable to stay up, as the wood warps in my warm, sometimes humid basement year to year. So last fall I bought a bunch of PVC pipe to replace the wood frame, and it has mostly been a success in terms of stability and ease of assembly, but having a bigger hut and less people to sit in it sort of intensified the loneliness. I"Y next year, it will still be bigger and easier to assemble and more welcoming.
I also bought some of those programmable color-changing LED strips to hang in the sukkah and that was a big success, plenty of light and I can do fun mood lighting effects when it's not chag. I'm looking forward to playing with that for the next week.
Over the rest of the chag I spent a bunch of time by myself in the sukkah, reading and eating and drinking and hanging out. My cholent came out really well! Sunday afternoon I spent a few hours drinking beer and reading Lavie Tidhar's lovely Central Station, finally, which is a fantastic way to while away a Sunday afternoon. I also finished Georgette Heyer's Cotillion.
It was a good holiday and I enjoyed myself, and yet COVID has just set the bar for what I accept as good noticeably lower than it was before and I couldn't escape also being aware of that.
Chag sukkot sameach, everyone.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-05 01:36 pm (UTC)And yeah, in this covid year the bar is set in a strange new place for sure.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-06 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-10-06 05:57 pm (UTC)I have been blessed with visits from a couple of other people in my kid's quarantine bubble (e.g. the other adults in my kid's life). My wee mirpesset sukkah really only holds a few people (it's a 4 x 6 kit) but it's been super-nice to have a couple of people here for a drink. Last night I studied with my hevruta over the computer from the sukkah, in a coat and scarf!
Moadim l'simcha.