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 So we rang in the new Jewish Year family style. D1 and Joey and the baby and spoiled Spaniel arrived early, car packed with the catered food and a job for Leche Dave. There was an immediate problem -- Leche Dave's garage freezer was already packed. D1 called her friend Amanda, who has been gratefully accepting the frozen milk -- she could be over soon.

As Joey tried to get the Little Man to nap, D1 and I met Amanda by the gate, and Leche Dave made his delivery. We got to see Amanda's 2 beautiful boys -- the little of which is thriving from D1's milk -- his gastric reflux essentially cured by the magic milk. It was a lovely thing to see.

A bit later, D2 and Jonathan and their enormous puppy arrived, and the grandson made it clear he was NOT going to nap this Rosh Hashanah day. So we played with him, and eventually Wifey made her appearance -- she had slept late and took awhile to get ready. 

We retired to the dining room around noon, with the men having cocktails, and the Ds sharing Prosecco. We ate, and toasted, and talked of times past and times to come. It was exquisite.

Afterwards there was a lot of baby/dog cuteness, with enormous Betsy licking the Little Man's face. It seems virtually guaranteed this boy will have no fear of dogs. Joey watched golf on TV, and Jonathan and I talked about the Heat. Sadly, they would lose their playoff game later in the evening.

The young-uns left, taking leftovers, and especially the cakes, lest Wifey polish off the sweets during late night TV watching. And then I had a treat -- my Canes on TV.

Before the game, I noticed the Family room was a bit warm. Sure enough -- the A/C was broken -- I diagnosed a shot compressor motor. I called Danny the AC guy, who Norman had referred to me, and sure enough, though it was Saturday night, he called back in 20. Indeed, the unit needed a new motor -- the part covered by warranty, and the labor costing a few hundred dollars.

Danny is coming Monday morning, as soon as he picks up the part. He's the one who suggested I buy Rheem instead of Trane, as Trane parts take a week to get, while Rheem parts are ubiquitous. Danny thanked me for referring him to my friend Mike, who had a few units replaced, and my neighbor Will, who he also did work for. As Norman says, Danny is so good, you almost don't mind when the AC goes out.

And then another house thing -- the burglar alarm went off, saying something about "remote phone failure." I shut it off, but two hours later, it chirped again. I called Arresco, and after a long hold, they put on Leo -- the guy I've been dealing with for 25 years. Leo told me how to disable the unit so it wouldn't get us up at 3 am, and said the issue was with a "downed cell tower" and not our system. Sure enough, when I "woke it up" today, the code was no longer there -- and now I know how to "sleep the system" rather than awake to wee hours chiming, next time there's an issue.

The Canes ended up winning big. It was fun to watch. The Heat now have off several days, and hopefully can win 2 more and make the Finals. That would be something.

In the Anxiety Department, this am I chatted with my neighbor Allison, a retired US State Department worker. She told me she was on a Zoom yesterday with a bunch of retired Feds, and the discussion was led by Dr. Murray, who runs the IHME -- the Public Health research arm of U Washington in Seattle -- funded by Bill Gates.

The message was, unfortunately, that come December, the plague is coming on even stronger than we've seen -- a real shit show. The spike, per the IHME, will result from peoples' "fatigue" with quarantine living, and no national mask requirements. Also, the cold weather will push people back indoors, where spreading will be worse, and increased travel with Covid-weary people will add to the misery.

Long term, though, per Allison and her group, the thing should finally ease by late Spring/early Summer. Vaccines should be widely available by early Spring, and at least the normal people (pro-vaxxers) should be able to get shots by April or so. Hopefully a year from now, this whole awful period will be a nasty piece of history.

So I guess it's just more keepin' on keepin' on.

For now, though, I'm grateful to the Big Man for the RH celebration he gave to us. It was the first for my grandson. May he see many, many, many more...