Gone to hell in a hand basket

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We have a natural tendency to remember the past – good or bad. The glass-half-emptiers hanker over the good old times, but now the world has gone to hell in a hand basket. The phrase was commonly used during the American Civil War, but it's currently popular, again, for some reason. The glass-half-fullers see opportunities amongst the obstacles. They probably advocate the gone to heaven in a hand basket idiom which, apparently, predated the hell version.

I’m known as a glass-half-empty kind of person, but that’s because I'm a realist and drink faster than most.

The COVID lockdown period is somewhere in the recess of my memory, but not something I often dwell on. Probably because I was one of the luckier ones. Prior to the epidemic, I'd already been working from home for several years. Virtually all my clients were accustomed to Skype sessions – something our company had insisted upon.

Yet, there were times during lock down, when not working, that proved frustrating. Confined to our homes, I walked circuits round the house for exercise (other than riding my bicycle that went nowhere). The dogs followed me for the first two circuits each day, then sat under a tree, watching me with bemused expressions.

I also entered into a photographic challenge with a good friend of mine, some 450 kilometres away. Each day, we had to submit an image relating to a theme decided by one of our wives, and the results were judged by another friend of ours. The loser to buy dinner for all parties after lock-down had ended.

The picture you see here is one of my entries, although I cannot remember whether it won on the day or not.

Amazingly, once lock-down was lifted and we ended the challenge after 21 days, there was only a single point difference between us. I must assume the judge was biased, because my friend won. As you can imagine, I was gracious in defeat, but my Christmas card list has reduced by a couple of names.

I can’t help thinking, even in the bad times, we managed to have good times. Or good things happened to us.

Now, I’m off to fill my half-empty beer glass.