2020 Latecomers: Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

 

Happy New Year, we said. 

2021 has got to be better than 2020, we laughed.

Then 2021 laughed back.

"Kids are going back to school," said Boris on Sunday.

"Kids are staying home," said Boris on Monday.

"Sam is going back to school," said Rol and Louise on Tuesday, evoking keyworker status I didn't even know applied to me last lockdown.

Do I feel guilty about sending him back to school in the middle of the 43rd wave? 

Yes.

But better he's there than stuck at home with two psychotic middle-aged job-hating lunatics on the verge of going postal every second. He's an only child, he needs company his own age. This family needs to cling onto the few last vestiges of our sanity 2020 hasn't yet stripped away. 

Judge us, if you will, but we tried the home-schooling while juggling two full time jobs last year and it nearly killed us all. There's the virus, and then there's mental health. Sometimes you have to weigh up the risks.

And I must be a keyworker: Morrisons gave me 10% off my shopping last week.

Here's a song from last year, about last year, that's more appropriate than ever today...

A party’s a cocktail we drink all alone

Our friends are a movie we watch on our phone

Our parents are teenagers sneaking around in the night

Our children are monkeys that are tied to our wrists

Our houses are wrecking balls tied to a list

A plan is a guess where the jester insists that he’s right

Oh 2020, you’re fading away

Your weeks into months and your months into days

As they all blur together like tears on the page

As if the angels were writing it down

At night I hear sirens and songs in the dark

And the roar of propellers like heaves of dry coughs

In the heart of the city, there’s a hole where John Prine still belongs