Entering The 8th Decade

When I was young I used to picture myself at 70 as a tweedy old scholar with leather patches on my elbows.

But nobody wears leather patches any more.

The inauguration was strange: no people on the Mall, only rows of little flags laid out in rows like they were marking graves, everyone wearing masks. The outstanding things were the poet and her poem.

Judy and I fell out over Trump- so I sent her a email now he's gone- and we caught up with one another's news. It'll never be glad confident morning again but the way I like to see it (as I said to her) is that we walked side by side for a while and then the road forked- and as Yeats says, "Friendship never ends".

I've spoken to the kids. There might be a Zoom later. I have cake and fizz. And the first snowdrops are out...