This morning’s email brought news from Delta that they were changing their schedules and our flight home from Boston (via Atlanta) was one of the victims. They booked us on the next available flight using the same itinerary, which would have gotten us home about 10pm Pacific – much later than we wanted.

I was steeling myself to call them and beg them to let us switch to an earlier flight even though it would cost more miles but decided to see what I could do with self-service. When I clicked on the “Change Flight” button, I was shocked – every flight from Boston to San Jose was available at no additional cost, even the ones with “Delta One” service (lie-flat beds!) which would normally have cost three times as many miles as we’d paid for our original flight. Sadly, the “Delta One” flights weren’t at convenient times, but we were able to book a nice flight through Seattle that will get us home around 8pm Pacific – and I didn’t have to wait on hold at all.

We decided to believe the CDC and went for neighborhood walks several times today without bringing masks with us! It was easy to distance ourselves from the few people we saw – but it did feel strange not to have a mask at hand. Tomorrow, we’ll definitely have a mask for the Farmers’ Market whether or not they are requiring one.

Shir Hadash’s Rabbi Emertia, Rabbi Aron, is leaving town for a couple of years; she and her husband are moving to Washington, DC, to be closer to their grandchild and two of their children. There was a “drive-by” goodbye this afternoon, which gave us a chance to talk with her for a while; she also led Shir Shabbat services this morning.

I wasn’t able to attend most of the service, though, because I was competing in the District 101 Toastmasters Table Topics contest – there were six contestants, all division champions. The question was “When is the time to stop calculating the risks and rewards and just do what you know is right?” I had given several speeches in the past about the danger of analysis paralysis and the need to make a decision and act on it, so it was right up my alley. I even quoted Yoda at the end! And I won. The speech was recorded; I am looking forward to watching the recording and finding out what I said.

We celebrated by going to Burrell School and picking up our latest shipment and doing a tasting – it was a cool day, so I was glad to be able to sit inside. We wore masks until we started tasting, of course.